Yes, as a matter of fact, I have seen an ECU fail in a GM car. Specifically a '96 Suburban. The truck would stall, and it would take about 25-60 minutes for it to ever start back up. But she never had to be towed home. My dad drove it like that for 2 years. Only about 6 months ago did he ever replace it, and last I heard, he was still having problems with it, like a 300rpm idle, and a 1500rpm WOT. I wonder how smooth a 300rpm idle would be.. my whole car shakes at 800rpm.. although it is the 6.5L diesel.. and diesels are much different than gas engines.

Either way, I do see what you are talking about with the ECU failure. My bad that I didn't realize it. I'm going to move my opinion to ECU failure.


-justin

Success! My girl runs again!

And all it took was a little gas in the tank!

I discovered the tough way that the gas gauge doesn't go below that section between 1/2 and 1/4, let alone set off the 3 ding warning light saying the tank is empty. We put 5 gallons of gas in, and she started right up. When I filled the tank up, it went to F, but when it wouldn't start, it wasn't near E. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

The fuel filter is old, and I didn't check the fuel pressure, but it wouldn't surprise me to find problems there down the road. I'll check the FPR vacuum lines for leaks too. I still think there'* a fuel problem beyond a faulty gauge.

A tune up with new plugs, wires (Delco, nothing fancy yet) and a good throttle body cleaning have her running better, and so far she'* kicked into fast idle every time. No sputters, stalls, and the engine is running smoother too.

I'll post again if anything new pops up.....

Don't settle for anything less than a factory servce manual by Helm. Check Ebay.

BTW,
Glad you got her running and it was cheap though a bit embarrassing. I've always told my daughters to consider 1/4 tank as empty. Kind of like aviation, you always want to have a reserve for the unexpected.