02 Tahoe strange behavior

[bcward]

My wife's 02 Tahoe has been acting strange. She can park it and the next morninig it won't start, it acts like it is out of gas. Sometimes I can put a gallon or two of gas in it and it will start, but then other times I can put five gallons in it and it still won't start. When I finally get it started it may run all day without a problem, then at other times it will suddenly start to sputter and when I pull to the side of the road it will sit there and sputter around 500 rpms until it finally dies or I kill it. After it is off I can let it sit for a minute or two and finally it will start. Sometimes when I go to start it its slow to turn over. I have thought that maybe it was the fuel pump but then again sometimes I think it may be a relay because sometimes when it dies and I try to start it I can hear a relay clicking under the dash and it makes a faint squeling noise. Somenoe please help me.

 

[EliteTahoe]

This problem is fuel delivery related.
Some says it's the pump. Many change the pump. Still bad.
The fuel pump relays is not of the best either.
Under some circumstances it's the wirings.

My best advice, and I will do it myself, is to install a fuel pressure gauge.
This solution is to prevent the starter to drain the battery.
Why turn the starter when the pump cannot deliver the fuel?

 

[tybardy]

hopfully its not a wiring issue as those can be hard to weed out... but it definetly sounds like fuel delivery issues. Hopefully just a bad fuel pump...

 

[Rivieraracing]

My guess is it could be your fuel pump, they are known to go out on these rigs but usually they just die and don't work again. Could also be a relay (had that happen to my VW Golf, hard to diagnose without having a spare on hand for the next time it is DOA on the road), also might be a vapor lock problem. Just some thoughts.