Ok so I took my car on a trip from central PA to Myrtle Beach, SC and it drove perfectly fine. Then, when I was on my way back getting off the turn pike, randomly the car started to act really funny like it was going to stall and it was losing power. So I let it coast and then when I came to a stop I restarted it. Fired right up and ran long enough to make it 100 yard or so to the gas station, where it stalled, and then would not restart.

I got the car towed, and after about an hour on the roll back, I tried to start it and it fired right up. Hmm....so I tried to drive it away and it just died, cut dry no signs or anything wrong or nothing. Then in another 5 minutes I got the car to start again and it ran for 15 minutes, so I then again tried to drive it away and and it died again when I tried to leave the dealership.

Got the ignition control module replaced and the people at the dealership took it out for a test drive and it ran fine and drove fine. But when I went to go pick it up it would not start.

Then after a week of waiting for my car.....they called me and told me that it was running again, and the reason it didn't before is because of short circuiting wires and wires that were trying to ground to places that they weren't supposed to. I also got a new computer, because the original one got fried with all the short circuiting.

I paid them and took the car, and it drove! Then after about 10 miles, I tried to get on I-80 and right after i got on the highway and off the ramp, it lost power suddenly again. So I went to go pull over and when I hit the rumble strips it got all its power back and revved to life and drove the 30 miles home fine.

After I shut the car off when I got home, I came back about 15 minutes later to take it for a joy ride and it would not start.

The dealership told me that its spark plug wires were starting to arc, so I figured I'd at least try it so I took the Trailblazer to Autozone and got a new set and installed them, and nothing.

After about two hours of messing with it, I finally decided to just take the fuse out for the ECM and let the computer and the power to the electronics reset and then try it. And when I replaced the fuse, it started right up. But if I would shut it off and leave it for like 10 minutes and come back it wouldn't start.

So what could that be?! It doesn't make any sense to me, unless this computer is actually bad, or theres something wrong between the fuse box and the computer, I'm lost.

And the worst part is, they gave me a 2000 Cavalier sedan loaner car, AND IT HATE IT!!!

I just want my Camaro back

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

 

check fuel pressure. i went thru the same **** and it ended up being fuel pump. went thru 6 til i finally bought a walbro 255 and solved the problems

 

You know what, they said that it was only giving out 35-37 PSI, which I know is not enough to run the car reliably, but then they found some electrical problems and all of a sudden the fuel problems went away. And I don't know what they did to get it back up to a good 45 PSI or so.....

Its just weird that it works when I take out and replace the fuse for the computer...

 

Is this a fuel problem or an electrical problem? The garage opens back up tmrw and I want to be able to talk to them about it.

 

There seems to be a fault in the ignition circuit in the 90-92 cars. GM issued a TSB for this, but I have heard that some people still have problems. My old late model (91) harness did this exact same thing... Starts fine. Drive, engine gives a kick, and then engine dies. Sit for at least 1 minute, refire engine, drive for 2, dies again. Had to limp about 10 miles this way a couple times. Replaced both the ignition module and ECM, still had the problem. It's in the wiring. My 87 harness doesn't do this (I can drive 400 miles straight for weeks if I want to with no problem). I'll bet you'll find that the fuel pressure wasn't the problem. 35 PSI isn't too low for the system to operate as the ECM just increases the pulse width accordingly. Also, when it's acting up, if you can get it running in your driveway with the hood open, I'll bet you'll hear the injectors clicking somewhat unevenly as the engine stalls (you'll probably have to be quick about this if it's like mine was). This seems to be because the ECM is trying to get the engine running like it's supposed to again, but it's the ignition system that's failing.

:edit: Tell the dealer to look for a 1992 TSB on 90-91 V6 intermittent stalling and hesitation with ignition system problems.

 

Thank you so much Maverick H1L! I'm going to go up to the deal tomorrow to talk to them about it, and this is what I wanted to be able to present to them.

They cut my wiring harness open in so many places to look for chaffed wires and had about 3 computers in it, somehow it fried the original and the first replacement, then the second computer was just bad, but I'll tell them to look for the TSB and see what they can do with that.

 

Well, they got it running good yesterday and then before they left it started to run weird again. I was supposed to get it back today, but now theyre charging the system up a little higher than normal so they can find out where its shorting out at.

I just don't know how many places could have been bad and for it to have ran fine all this time and then ALL of the affected places to just start acting up.

And I told them about the TSB Maverick but they said they already looked at it and it wasn't the problem.

What could be doing this to my Camaro?!

 

If they didn't pick through the ignition wiring harness, which I seriously doubt they did, they didn't exactly check the TSB.

Where I got to with my harness was some sort of high resistance somewhere in the system when the harness got hot. Wherever it got hot... I still don't know, and never got to find out. If they don't check the harness when the harness is hot, they won't find the problem. This only occurs after the engine has been running for a while, right? If so, they need to do some hot testing on the system. However, this is a tricky one because whatever is f$$$ing up is only at the temp to create the problem for mere seconds (averaged about 15-30 seconds on mine... longer I let it sit, the longer it would last before it went screwy again).

If you find out what's causing this problem, I'm sure that a number of people on the V6 boards, myself included, would like to know the answer. Especially as I plan to mod out the 730 harness to accept a 9396 or 6401 ECS.

 

Well I thought that they didnt look into the TSB like they should have either, but I will let you guys know what they find if they find anything. Its kinda starting to **** me off a bit that its taken them this long to get me my car, for gods sake I didnt have it for 3 weeks in the summer last year, and so far I havent had it for three weeks this summer, and all of it was for electrical problems! I dont think that they fixed it if its been an issue for this long and its recurring....

 

Well they found what they problem was......

IT WAS A BURNT OUT WIRE IN THE WIRING HARNESS TO THE IGNITION CONTROL MODULE........JUST LIKE WE THOUGHT, JUST LIKE I TOLD THEM TO CHECK......LAST WEEK.....

So now they ordered me a WHOLE new wiring harness that's supposed to be in the shop on Monday and hopefully be done the same day.


UUUUGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!


Ok I feel better now. Haha

 

Did they tell you which of the wires it was?

Amazing... GM still has/had a factory 3.1 wire harness in a warehouse somewhere. Probably expensive as all get-out.

 

All they told me is that it was the wires from the harness to the ignition control module, but yeah I'm sure that it is going to be a pretty penny!