Hey I am new to the group and just bought a new to me 02 Camaro ls1 with 6 speed. I was driving the car home and was on the highway for about 80 or 90 miles and when I got off the car died at a stoplight and would not restart. I let it sit for about 15 minutes and it restarted but died again after a couple of minutes. I trailered the car home the next day and it fired up and pulled onto the trailer fine. Once home I let it run for 45 minutes or so but could not recreate the problem. I have been driving it around close to home but it won’t shut off again. No check engine lights and no codes were found when scanned. I don’t know what it could be the car only has 50k on it and isn’t modified other than headers. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

It may be a ground is loose or not making a good connection. I broke a ground cable when I was swapping heads on my '01 and had trouble getting the car to crank until I fixed the broken ground cable.

 

I would start by checking fuel pressure. It should be 58-60psi under all conditions (load, idle, etc.) A weak or weakening pump can easily behave exactly as you have described, and often won't give any codes unless it gets so weak that you start seeing a consistent lean/misfire condition.

 

Possibly the Crank Sensor.

 

I hear a weird feed back from the speakers when I shut the car off but it goes away when I open the door so I was wondering about a ground. I will check the fuel pressure tomorrow. How would I know if the crank sensor is faulty?

 

Its gonna be very hard to find until you can replicate the issue consistently, so be prepared for that battle.

 

That’s what bugs me. I was hoping it was something that could be figured out or an issue people have seen before.

 

It might be very easy to figure out. Check fuel pressure, especially under load (meaning you'll want a hose long enough to allow the gauge to be taped to the windshield) and especially when the pump is hot. If it looks fine (58-60psi), then drive it around more (not just idling) and keep watching. It will be quite telling if pressure drops off as the pump gets hotter. Even if the numbers aren't terrible, if pressure starts to drift away as run time & heat increase, it's likely a weakening pump.

 

are you using a generic OBDII scanner or something that digs deeper like techmate / Zeus / etc? that would help indicated if its something like a crank sensor going south.

check fuel pressure when its running so you have a baseline. when it dies, check for pressure. if its not the same, you have a fuel system issue.

check for spark when it dies

 

Could you recommend a pressure gauge that will allow me to run the tests you are talking about(long enough hose). The one from Autozone won’t cut it. As far as the scanner used it was just the cheap one that they have at Autozone so I doubt it did a thorough check. I looked on Amazon for a gauge but none of them say wether or not they have a schrader valve connection. Thanks again

 

I have the Kit from ORielly's, bought it years ago, works perfect.

 

I finally got around to testing my fuel pressure and on the first attempt with the key on but not running it showed 50 psi. When I started the car it went up to 59 psi and stayed there. On the second attempt it only went to 20 psi with the key on and then when started it went to 39 psi and stayed there while driving around. The car ran fine and I drove it all around with the fuel pressure staying at 39 psi no matter what. On the third attempt it went to 20 psi again with the key on and then when running stayed 38 psi. Do I have a clogged fuel filter or just a weak pump? Can the car even run with the pressure that low? It’s a brand new gauge but could it be bad? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

As long as the flow at those pressures allow the injectors to be filled for their proper cycling, yes.

 

I’d check grounds. Every old car/truck I’ve had tend to get ground issues in the hot humid months. I just had a gremlin like this last week on my 99 TA. Went to use high beams as I was driving and the motor died. Would start and run fine without lights on. Luckily I was able to isolate /duplicate the problem since it happened as soon as I put the high beams on. It wound up being the ground on the core support near passenger side headlight. I chased the threads with a scotch brite rolled up and all was good. There is a big ground on the passenger side shock tower too I went there first but nothing changed when I messed with it.

 

This is clearly a problem (unless the gauge is bad). It should remain at 58-60psi at all times. Yes, the engine can run with lower pressures for sure, but issues will begin to develop as pressure drops off and load increases, and heat (run time) will likely exacerbate this. The sort of problems you have been experiencing are exactly the sort of things that can happen as the pump begins to fail. The fact that pressure was fine at first but then drifted away with more run time would be more suggestive of a failing pump than a clogged filter.

Personally, I think you have found the problem. Only wild card would be if the gauge is somehow inaccurate; otherwise, anything lower than 58-60psi is too low and shows obvious weakness in fuel delivery.

 

I changed the fuel filter it was the original so it probably needed it and checked all the grounds I could find but the problem persists. So I guess it must be the fuel pump. Any suggestions on what kind I should put in?

 

It's not likely the grounds, IMO.

I'd do a Delphi pump for a stock car. Delphi was the OE manufacturer and supplied the original assembly line pumps.

 

So I changed the fuel pump and I still have really low fuel pressure. Like 20 psi with Keyon and 35 psi when running. I rented a gauge from the auto parts store and had the same reading so it’s not my gauge. I just don’t know what to do next. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

What pump did you buy? Was it a whole replacement module or just a new pump that retained the rest of the stock sending unit?

How did the wiring harness and connectors look when you changed the pump? How about condition of the lines? Did you drop the tank or do a "trap door" replacement method through the trunk? How did the sock look on the old pump?

 

I used the ACDelco fuel pump. All of the lines looked in great shape from what I could see. The wiring harness was in good shape and I replaced the connector per the new kit as I replaced the whole module (pump,regulator,sending unit). Someone had previously done the “trap door” so that’s how I replaced the pump. Everything looked pretty clean and the pump that came out looked like the original as it had the factory connector and was yellow stained like it had been in the tank for a while. I didn’t observe anything out of the ordinary. Could it possibly be connected to the fuel pressure damper?