My Trucks Are Stalling

Hammertime540 · November 14, 2007

Well I have 2 trucks having problems at the same time, so I'll post specs and problems for both here.

2001 2500HD Chevy crew cab 8.1L - Every once in awhile the motor will die while I am getting up to speed for about a second or two and the battery light comes up and goes away when the motor comes back on. It seems to only happen every few hundred miles, I put about 150 miles on it a week. It hasn't really been too serious, just throws you back in the seat when you push the gas pedal in more after it dies then comes back alive. 150k miles.

2003 Chevy suburban 5.3L - The other night I accidentally ran the battery down by leaving the radio on while I was waiting for my daughter to get out of dance class. So I got a jump start, once It charged up enough I tried to start it. The motor spun for a good 6-7 seconds before it started, its never took that long before. Had 14 volts once it started so I put it in gear and started to drive away. When I came to a stop to turn, I gave it gas and the motor stalls with the front end of the truck hanging in the road. So i quick start it back up, starts normal, put it in reverse and parked it. Then it didn't want to idle anymore, it struggled and struggled to keep it running like there wasn't enough fuel. So I had to drive it home using both feet on the pedals to keep the motor alive at stops. This morning I pulled wires of battery make sure they were clean, left it unhooked for bout 20 minutes see if reseting the computer would help. Started up fine, drove it around the block. Ran fine, didn't stall at stop signs. Then I got to my driveway gave it enough gas to coast up it but it died after I left off the gas. Started it back up, idles fine, put it in gear still good. Put it back in park still idles, but if you give it just a little gas the motor will die. 53k miles.

Gosh that was a lot of typing.

willysts · November 14, 2007

Clean the throttle body on both of them, the 5.3 for sure...

Rocco715 · November 14, 2007

The burban deffinatley sounds like a bad battery to me I had a similar experience and had basically the same symptoms, I'd go and get a diagnostic on that one. As for your 2500 might want to get that battery checked out as well

Rosedog · November 14, 2007

2003 Chevy suburban 5.3L - The other night I accidentally ran the battery down by leaving the radio on while I was waiting for my daughter to get out of dance class. So I got a jump start, once It charged up enough I tried to start it. The motor spun for a good 6-7 seconds before it started, its never took that long before. Had 14 volts once it started so I put it in gear and started to drive away. When I came to a stop to turn, I gave it gas and the motor stalls with the front end of the truck hanging in the road. So i quick start it back up, starts normal, put it in reverse and parked it. Then it didn't want to idle anymore, it struggled and struggled to keep it running like there wasn't enough fuel. So I had to drive it home using both feet on the pedals to keep the motor alive at stops. This morning I pulled wires of battery make sure they were clean, left it unhooked for bout 20 minutes see if reseting the computer would help. Started up fine, drove it around the block. Ran fine, didn't stall at stop signs. Then I got to my driveway gave it enough gas to coast up it but it died after I left off the gas. Started it back up, idles fine, put it in gear still good. Put it back in park still idles, but if you give it just a little gas the motor will die. 53k miles.

WOW, that sound just like what happened to my 03 4.8L Silverado last week. While changing the speakers and testing them, I left the truck on and forgot to turn the headlights off. Long story short the truck wouldn't start, left it off for a 1/2hour and started it up. The next morning started driving to work, came to a stop, when the light turned green I started to accelerate while turning left and it died on me show me the battery light. I pulled off the road and it started right up again.

Having an extended warranty I took it in and had some service work done, including having the alt changed and the cluster replaced (for a burned out light). I notice my volt gauge still fluctuates a little so I'm gonna change the battery to a yellow top optima next.

boomer 33 · November 15, 2007

On the 5.3, the battery has to give the PCM enough energy to correctly operate. If it is not getting the minimum voltage it needs it can't monitor and adjust all the parameters that are being reset. If the battery has been to a really bad state it is possible that the computer will have to relearn the operational state of the vehicle. Normally that is not a problem but if you have another issue going on like a fuel problem. The PCM is going to be trying to correct chaos while it is underpowered.

On the 8.1, they had alot of issues with the crankshaft sensor on the back of the motor going out. What you just experienced may be the start of a lot of intermittent sudden shutdowns, where after fiftenn minutes it will start up again and run fine until it shorts again. GM found that the 8.1 was so big that when the people on the line at the plant were lowering it in the engine bay, if they were not careful it would lightly bump the top of the engine bay just enough to crack the casing on the crankshaft sensor. Over time as water and corrosion were able to go to work, the sensor would intermittently fail and then correct itself. The engine would be running fine and chewing up the road and then just die deader then Hell. About the time your buddy shows up to help , it fires right up and runs like a champ.They are about a hundred bucks as I remember and hard to get to so probably would want to have someone else do it unless you take Yoga.

I don't claim these to be exact fixes for either of your trucks but you won't hurt the diagnostic process for both your problems by keeping these in mind.

Boomer

Hammertime540 · November 15, 2007

So far the suburban is running fine again. I took battery out to take a good look at it and checked the volts with meter all was well. Put it back in, put some fresh gas in it and treatment. I must have got some water in the tank or some bad fuel. Also cleaned the throttle body as much as I could without taking it apart for the moment. I bought a fuel filter, I'll probably change them out when near empty.

Also cleaned the throttle body on the 2500HD, it was pretty dirty. Really need to pull it off and clean it better. As far as the problem, like I said It only seems to happen every few hundred miles so hasn't happened yet. I plan on rebuilding the motor next year, hopefully build it little bigger without causing too much problems or decreaseing fuel millage any lower. I just paid the truck off this summer