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Car Forum / Chevrolet / Chevrolet Corvette / March 20051992 Corvette starting problem
Hi, I'm new the group and hoping for some help with my 92 Vette problem. Has under 30k miles and was working well up to a week ago. The SYS light came on the display (flashed 3 times every 10 seconds or so) and "Check Engine Soon" and "Service Ride Control" came on the warning indicators. After I got it home, I tried it the next day and it would not start. A whirring sound would came on under the hood when the key was turned to standby. Thought it was the battery since the battery light also came on (?normal). Tried to jump start with my wife's car but didn't work. Called the towing company and the guy tried with his booster. One try and he said it wasn't the battery since is was cranking fine. Towed it to the Chevy dealer who said it was a bad computer. $430 later the ECM was replaced. Engine started fine at the garage and began driving it home. On the way, I noticied that the accelerator seemed to float. Earlier any pressure on the pedal and I had instant engine respone. Now there seems to be a little give, and then the familiar resistance and acceleration (don't know if this is related). The car started fine the next day. Drove to work. Started in the evening fine and on the way home the "SYS" light came back on and the "Check Engine Soon" and "Service ASR" lights came on. On the way home the power seemed to lag during acceleration once. Only 5 miles to home (don't know if it would have happened again). After getting home I turned off the car. Tried to start it again and it just cranked but wouldn't turn over. No whirring sound under the hood this time. Left it alone and tried the next day. Seemed like it was about to start on the first key turn, but after releasing the key from full turn back to standby, the engine died IMMEDIATELY, and then wouldn't start up again even though it cranked. Dealer told me he thinks the distributor is going bad and quoted $1100 to fix it. Am leary about trusting him since I might be selling it to him and he is using this reason as a way of dropping his trade-in value on it by $1100. Anyone have any suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated!! To add, the car is located in Missouri. Anyone interested in buying? Has leather bucket seats, dual power seats, tinted glass, chrome wheels, selectable suspension (Tour, Sport, Performance), glass top, single CD premium sound system, new computer, new battery (6 months old). I have always kept it in a garage and nearly always drove it in good weather conditions. KBB trade-in at ~$7600 and KBB dealer retail at ~$12,500. >From: "Tenali Kid" kbaddigam@hotmail.com >Dealer told me he thinks the distributor is >going bad and quoted $1100 to fix it If its the distributor, its the dreaded Opti problem. > >From: "Tenali Kid" kbaddigam@hotmail.com > >>Dealer told me he thinks the distributor is >>going bad and quoted $1100 to fix it > > If its the distributor, its the dreaded Opti problem. But still, $1100 is outta line. Take it somewhere else. I did mine with the help of a friend who is a mechanic. Could I have done it alone? No. But he ought to be able to find a good shop somewhere near him which would do this for hundreds less. AJM '93 Ruby Coupe, 6 sp If it is the distributor it is a pain to change. If you can do it yourself you will save a bundle. You have to take the waterpump and harmonic balancer off to get to the distributor. Also, in GMs excellent wisdom you have to get the engine on top dead center before you take the balancer and distributor off since neither is keyed on a 1992. The sluggish feeling of floating is probably due to the ASR. That is the goofy thing that the throttle cable goes to on the driver's side fenderwell. It is a Bosch unit and you have to make sure that it is properly adjusted to get the full opening of the throttle as well as shift points that are correct. Also, the 84 through 1996 Corvettes use a pathetic excuse for a throttle pedal pivot point. It is plastic and they break. Mid America sells one that has an aluminum pivot point if you want to spend a hundred bucks. A factory replacement goes for $37. That might be the problem wiht the soft pedal. Since the dealer had it the mechanic could have been out playing with your car. If you floor the pedal really hard the plastic bit breaks and your pedal just floats as you describe. It is a pain in the butt to replace as you have to go into the ASR bok on the fenderwell and remove the cable that goes to the pedal to get enough slack to remove the cable from the pedal. Also, you have to remove the under cover on teh driver's side to gain access and the two bolts to get the pedal assembly out. Just did mine last month... > Hi, I'm new the group and hoping for some help with my 92 Vette > problem. [quoted text clipped - 33 lines] > > Anyone have any suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated!! I beg to differ. Just did my 92 opti last summer. The distributor copling shaft is keyed. The balancer isn't, but since the hub has three bolts, it's a 1 in three chance, but careful marking when removing the balancer and that's not a problem. That being said, it ain't for the non-mechanically inclined. And The symptoms don't exactly seem like it. The ASR light doesn't seem to fit. What if the replacement ECM has a bad prom? Or is it the original prom...and that was bad??? Or maybe several unrelated problems?? Just my randon thoughts. -GeorgeC RED/RED 92 LT-1 > If it is the distributor it is a pain to change. If you can do it > yourself you will save a bundle. You have to take the waterpump and [quoted text clipped - 58 lines] > > > > Anyone have any suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated!! One half of the shaft is keyed and the other is not oon my 92 and I have done three OptiSuck distributorless distributors. Anything with a cap and a rotor is a distributor in my mind. I agree with you on the distributor in the other respect that it is a pain in the butt. I used a Blackhawk puller to get the balancer off and marked it like you described so that was easy. I did not even have to jack up the engine as described in teh maintenance manual. Wow, you did not pull the entire balancer. That is good to know since I have pulled the whole thing three times. Yes, the ASR would not fit the problem with a distributor anyway. Mine has had brake fluid problems for years and seems to have to be flushed out every two years or my ASR and brake light comes on. > I beg to differ. Just did my 92 opti last summer. The distributor copling > shaft is keyed. The balancer isn't, but since the hub has three bolts, it's [quoted text clipped - 78 lines] >>> >>>Anyone have any suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated!! An update, the car is starting fine when the engine is cold. Runs fine (still some lag in the throttle) after getting started. Once the engine is warm though, if you turn it off, then it won't start again. Cranks and cranks but won't start. After it started over the weekend I thought everything was fine, but can't get it to turn over when warm. I looked around the older topics and found some other people that had the same problem. One mentioned the fuel pump as a possible source. A coiling wire would get hot after running the engine, and the fuel pressure out of the pump would drop off. Car would run fine, like mine, but wouldn't start off of a hot engine. If it was an OptiSpark distributor problem, would the engine start at all...cold or hot? How much should I expect a qualified mechanic to charge for fixing a fuel pump problem (after checking it first)? Thanks for the help, I have a lot more faith in what I've heard here than just taking the word of my dealership's service guys. > An update, the car is starting fine when the engine is cold. Runs fine > (still some lag in the throttle) after getting started. Once the [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > Thanks for the help, I have a lot more faith in what I've heard here > than just taking the word of my dealership's service guys. My '93 had that problem about a year ago. Cold start - fine. Warm up the engine, turn it off, and if it did restart it would sputter, misfire, run like crap. It was the optispark. I hope you have better luck. Fixing it warn't cheap. AJM '93 Ruby coupe, 6 sp Try this.... When it doesn't start do you notice the "check ASR" light on? If it is lit, pull key out and insert again and turn key to on position. Keep doing this until the "Check ASR" light does not come on. Maybe 30 secs of doing this your car may start. If it does start you may have a bad re-manufactered ECM, a bad wire leading to your ECM, faulty PROM, or your battery is getting low. "check ASR" does come on, but re-inserting the key didn't help. I finally broke down and took it in. Tech said that 2 of the fuel injectors are bad and that this is what fried the ECM (the new one is fried also). Since they didn't look into why the old ECM died when they replaced it the first time, they agreed to put in a new one at no additional charge to me. However, they wanted $550 to replace the 2 injectors and "suggested" I go ahead a replace all 8 for a whopping $1400 - man I love dealers. Instead, I took it to a mechanic friend-of-a-friend who checked it over again. Said 2 injectors where indeed bad, and a third is marginal. Other 5 are okay. Wire leading to the ECM is okay also. Will charge me ~$470 for 3 injectors (AC Delco original parts). Dealer will replace the ECM (free of charge) after the injectors are taken care of. Although it wasn't the OptiSpark, the total (including towing fees) is going to set me back about a grand. the total (including towing fees) is going to set me back > about a grand. That is about the average for my "issues" as well. Sorry for your "loss". <g> Check the oil pressure sending unit as there was a problem with kelsey Hays units that were defective. The computer reads the oil pressure after so many seconds and if there is no reading the fuel pump will not run. Yesm your oil pressure gauge will work only the computer does not receive a signal and that would be a possible problem. On mine that went out but the oil pressure was going crazy too. > An update, the car is starting fine when the engine is cold. Runs fine > (still some lag in the throttle) after getting started. Once the [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > Thanks for the help, I have a lot more faith in what I've heard here > than just taking the word of my dealership's service guys. Got 3 fuel injectors replaced. The current and voltage drop on the old injectors and the new ones are nearly identical, so didn't have to replace the other 5 old ones. Dealer went over the car again since it was worked on by an outside mechanic and he didn't want to replace the ECM without "checking things over". I didn't mind, except they didn't mention this condition before I got the injectors replaced. Whatever. They did replace the ECM finally, and now the car works fine. No more engine lights, and the "float" in the accelerator is gone - tech thinks it was related to the broken ECM fiddling with the ASR mechanism. Test drove it several miles and no problems. After a grand in repairs...maybe I'll just keep it for the summer since it runs fine now. Thanks everyone for your help. >Got 3 fuel injectors replaced. The current and voltage drop on the old >injectors and the new ones are nearly identical, so didn't have to [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > >Thanks everyone for your help. Glad to hear it is acting better. $1000 seems to be the number anymore for my repairs at least. :( -- SkyhawkXP Seize the pleasures of the moment, without concern for the future All you needed to do was disconnect the ECM harnesses and BCM harnesses - recrimp and clean connectors - sorry you had to spend $1000.00 Does anyone know what they are talking about on this forum - Opti-spark distributor is keyed and the balancer only goes on in one spot because the bolt holes are eliptical - If you scan your BCM through your on-board computer using your fuel and gauge buttons you will have a code set for UART failure - This is a communtications failure between your BCM and ECM - it just so happens that the security system is interlooped with the ASR - so loss of communication disables your PASSLOCK system. If you manually clear the codes and key the car on, the ASR lamp should be off and it will start - Why do you think it doesn't shut down while the car is already started? |
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