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98 surburban

carolinafan4life63

carolinafan4life63

1/2 ton status
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Oct 13, 2008
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south carolina
ok guys , got one for ya!! a buddy of minine brought his 98 burb over last night....said in the mornings it will crank over good but will not start ....untill he hooks jumper cables to it ......then it will start and run......but after about 45 mins to an hour of driving it will start cutting out and eventually die on him!!!he can let it sit for about 10 mins and it will start and run for another 8-10 miles befoere doing the same thing!!! i just went out to try and start it this morning and it turns over great all the power acc. work light on the dash come on when the key is swithched on........although i seem to recall seeing all the icons on the dash except the service engine soon light!!! took the cap off of the fuel rail and got just a tiny little spurt when i depressed the valve............so , shoul i be looking at a fuel pump ignition module , clogged fuel filter or what direction should i go..it has 200,000 miles on it, thanks :confused: :confused:
 
My first guess would be battery cables. I want to kick the engineer in the balls that thought side post terminals were a good idea. They rot from the inside out. Hard to tell, really, if they are corroded until you cut into them. My suggestinos would be to jumper where the battery cables connect with jumper cables, and see if that changes anything. When my cables went out, it my blazer would not start, and would barely start when jumped....but ran perfect until i shut it down again. Then it wouldn't start.

At 200k, these things have got to be on their last legs anyways, even if thats not the primary problem.

Also, change fuel filter, if you don't know when it was done last. cheap and quick.
 
i kept crankink it over untill it finnally started.....drove it about 10 miles.parked it.....the it would not crank......had spark( checked the #1 plug wire with a spare plug) cranks over fast!!! pulled the number one plug itself and checked the gap...it was around .080!!! put the plug back in still would not start!! hooked the battery charger to it and it fired right up...could it be the extra juice from the battery charger is giving it the extra power to jump that enormous plug gap and run???? also when i was driving it ..when i hit passing gear it would surge real bad untill i let off the pedal a little.......so i know it needs new plugs .but would that much of a gap cause the starting problem??
 
carolinafan4life63 said:
i kept crankink it over untill it finnally started.....drove it about 10 miles.parked it.....the it would not crank......had spark( checked the #1 plug wire with a spare plug) cranks over fast!!! pulled the number one plug itself and checked the gap...it was around .080!!! put the plug back in still would not start!! hooked the battery charger to it and it fired right up...could it be the extra juice from the battery charger is giving it the extra power to jump that enormous plug gap and run???? also when i was driving it ..when i hit passing gear it would surge real bad untill i let off the pedal a little.......so i know it needs new plugs .but would that much of a gap cause the starting problem??
Click to expand...


That would be my first guess.
Second thing I would check if that doesn't cure it is the fuel pump, but I would definitely change the fuel filter because if the plugs are that bad, he never does maintenance. :rolleyes:
 
pulled the filter , it is fairly new and flows good when you blow through it , i,m hoping its the plugs!!! would that cause the hard start as i described , i have personally never let the plugs in anything i've owned get that bad!say it was the fuel pump though.......why would hooking a charger to it cause it to start right up??:confused:
 
Hooking a charger up makes me think you have weak cables. You may not be getting enough of a spark with the battery alone pushing through your wasted cables.

Go get some new cable ends, hack off the ends of hte cables, and see what the fibers look like inside. If they are corroded, cut off the bad section and put new ends on until you can get new cables.
 
Just for sh!ts and giggles, check the charge voltage. You would be looking for high voltage, not low. GM computers shut off at 14.9V to protect themselves. If the system is overcharging, it kills the engine. Then you pull over and wait a few minutes for everything to pull the voltage down, and it'll restart. Not sure about the starting prob except for possible damage to the batt from the overcharging or an issue with the cables, as was already suggested. It's worth a shot, when you get done changing those plugs. Good luck.:D
 
thanks , i will check the voltage!! all the cables are good , the battery is fairly new and i just replaced the spark plugs , couldnt get it to shut off with me while driving....going to let it sit for a while and see if it will crank..oh and it also showed 3 codes on the scanner
po452 - evap emission control pressure sensor low

po43 - catalyst efficiency below threshold (bank 2 )

po404 - egr flow ckt range/perf

i reset the codes earlier and they havent reapeared
 
carolinafan4life63 said:
thanks , i will check the voltage!! all the cables are good , the battery is fairly new and i just replaced the spark plugs , couldnt get it to shut off with me while driving....going to let it sit for a while and see if it will crank..oh and it also showed 3 codes on the scanner
po452 - evap emission control pressure sensor low

po43 - catalyst efficiency below threshold (bank 2 )

po404 - egr flow ckt range/perf

i reset the codes earlier and they havent reapeared
Click to expand...

I will tell you the second code cat eff on bank 2 was because of an incomplete burn from bad plugs. Probably the same for the evap and the EGR all will suffer from too much unburnt fuel.
 
isn't there a way to use a test light to check for a dead short?? iirc..by unhooking the positive battery cable and hooking the test light in between the cable and the positive battery terminal?? then pull fuses till the light goes out? and the voltage checks out at 13.79 volts
 
carolinafan4life63 said:
isn't there a way to use a test light to check for a dead short?? iirc..by unhooking the positive battery cable and hooking the test light in between the cable and the positive battery terminal?? then pull fuses till the light goes out? and the voltage checks out at 13.79 volts
Click to expand...

That is the method, I also have a short finder that actually will locate where the short is not just in which circuit, but if you want to know if you have a short, the test light method works.
If you corrected the spark plug situation and it's running good, is there anything else bothering you?
The fact that the gap was that big meant without a jump it wouldn't get enough juice to burn the fuel, which led to all the other problems, It wouldn't hurt to check a few hings now that you got the chance, but I say don't go chasing ghosts when there aren't any.
By the way 13.79 is that voltage when the truck is running or when the engine is off?
 
the voltage was with the truck running , i just got back from a 50 plus mile drive with no problems....so i guess i will let it sit overnight and see if it will start in the morning!! i was also thinking it may have some compression issues with the motor having 212,000 miles on it , wont know for sure till i run a comp.check!! thanks for all the help guys
 
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