Corsica quit running all of a sudden

HI There,

I have a 92 Corsica. I started it the other morning, let it run for 3 minutes, got in it, backed it out of the garage and my cell phone rang, jumped out of the car to run in the house for something and came back and the car had quit. I was close to "E" on the gauge, I thought the very slight slope of the car on the driveway might of caused my problem with the small amount of fuel in the tank, but i have run it lower than that before and never had a problem. It cranks but does not want to fire. I added some gas, checked the dealy near the engine and it spewed gas. Also pulled spark plug and got some spark although it seemed week. We tried new computer and map sensor now we are thinking the ignition module. Any input is greatly appreciated, I was thinking it was the fuel pump but having it spray near the engine would tell me that it is getting fuel.

Any ideas??

Thank you kindly,

Fred

Would be best if you could get a fuel pressure check on it, although you might try a little starting fluid (very little) to see if it hits. These cars do not like to be run less than 1/4 tank as GM gauges do not show how much fuel you really have. A 1/4 mark is close to being out and can cause pump to burn up if run lower than that. The three main culprits you can check are fuel, ignition module, and crank sensor. You can get the ignition module tested for free at most any good parts stores such as NAPA or Advance. It removes as an assembly with your coil packs. Depending on what engine it is front or top of motor (3.1) or back of engine (2.2). the crank sensor should be replaced if neither of these show as bad. Be careful with starting fluid, can be a problem is overused. I saw a guy literally blow his engine apart years ago. Might want to get a manual such as Haynes and either buy or borrow a pressure tester. Be sure your fuel filter is replaced every year also.

Hey thanks JS......

I had someone with a little more experience come over today to check out the car. He works in a garage and was dumbfounded. Of course he did not have all his testing gear at his disposal. Plenty of fuel up to the top of the engine, spark plugs are dry, did compression test, ok, change out the crank sensor, no change. He wants to do a fuel test on it tomorrow when I get it towed to his shop. Thanks for the input on the gas gauge.....BTW he tried some quickstart and it tried to start, so that tells me its getting must be lacking fuel directly from the injectors. Is there something that triggers the fuels injectors to come on? Computer?

Thanks

fred

Might be the ECM, as they do go bad due to water getting to them, but I do not think this is what's wrong. Depending on what motor you have, and most importantly, what type of fuel injection you have, you might be in a situation where you have fuel pressure, but not enough for injectors to fire. If you have multi port fuel injection you need a fair amount of pressure, maybe as much as 40 lbs. If you have a TBI (throttle body design) it would be much less, maybe 1/3 of that. Your pump may have just gotten too weak, or maybe has an obstruction(filter). Could be fuel pressure regulator too, but the pressure test should tell you a lot. Our pump went out on our 91 some years back. Ditto on ECM, but it was a case where it was simply triggering codes that did not exist. We recently replaced the fuel pump relay, which is cheap, after it started to rendomly not start, but, it was easy to identify as the pump did not kick on when igniton switch was turned on every time. I assume you can hear yours, especially since you have some fuel pressure. But watch for this down the road.