Intermittent service engine light...

[Sloppydrippins]

My 98 Tahoe doesn't get driven much, it gives me trouble getting started nowadays. By that I mean I gotta crank it over for what seems like too long. Then you smell a little bit of gasoline. I just changed out the wires and got some new-fangled Bosch sparkplugs but it didn't seem to improve the situation.

The first error listed when checking it with a code reader yesterday said "cylinder misfire", I didn't get the whole code but I will today. At idle the engine sounds a little rough, vibrates the truck a good amount.

On top of that, the fuel gage needle seems to be vibrating like a humminbird. Never seen that before.. Anybody got any ideas?

- Sloppy D

 

[Sepiroth]

Most likely culprit is your fuel pump is on its way out. The extended crank and bouncing fuel gauge are both tell tale signs.

To be sure, have a fuel pressure and volume test performed on the truck, to rule out the possibility of the fuel injector being the culprit.

 

[treepete]

yeah exactly, fuel delivery.

and welcom to the forum SloppyDrippins.
I was actually banned from another forum for saying that once,.
harhar.

I got nuthin.

 

[Sloppydrippins]

Fuel stuff

Fuel pump, I see.. I've also noticed that I can hear the fuel pump pretty loudly. Normally I don't hear electric fuel pumps but mine sounds like one of those high volume racing pumps, and I'm not sure but I suspect it shouldn't be that loud..

Everybody seems really proud of their fuel pumps for this truck, I haven't found one for less than $183.00 so far.

And what about the smell of gas, is that also because of the fuel pump? I don't see any gas leaking anywhere under the hood..

Sloppy

 

[treepete]

naw you probably wont either. My fuel pump whined for months, telling me that it needed replacing. then the needle started to jiggle. then one day I goosed it at a light and she sputtered and that was it.
I understand that if you get back there, and give the tank a thump, you may be able to get it to function again, enough to get it to your house or service station.
For me, this didnt work, and it left me on the side of the road.
I got flat-bedded to my service station where jiminey works, and they had their way with me. 2.3 ( or 2.8 IIRC) hours of labor for 240 bones, and (get this) $420 for the pump itself. I asked if that was the gold plated version, and the dude said it was the motorcraft OE replacement. it had a 1 year warranty. sooooo, I got shafted right there.

If you suspect your pump, take care of it now before it costs you 800$ ( included the tow)
Pete

Fuel smell, huh. like its not combusting?
did you check the plugs already? any wet pluggage?

Pete

 

[Sloppydrippins]

Gold plated version, that's funny. I guess if I really wanted to get bent over, I could go to the GM house and get it. I just ask that they at least kiss me first.

I didn't pull the plugs out yet, I didn't think to check and see if they were wet with fuel but I will. Thanks for the insight n stuff.

 

[NYrr496]

How many miles are on your truck? I believe the fuel pump is one culprit. Also, I was changing the pan gasket on my truck and figured I'd also do the timing chain, cover and sleeve the balancer. My timing chain was sloppy. It had 203,000 miles on it. After swapping the chain, I stopped getting the random misfire code.
The distributor cap gets nasty in them also.

 

[Sloppydrippins]

mileage

The truck has 117,000 miles.