Long crank, no start. (funny story)

hounddog66 · February 7

My 21 Silverado RST 5.3L wouldn't start. The starter would crank for a few seconds, but the engine wouldn't start. I had the floor liners out for a good cleaning and left all 4 doors open for about 2 hours as I cleaned my interior. After all the cleaning, the truck wouldn't start. I thought maybe the battery was run down from leaving the doors open, but that didn't make sense to me as the starter motor was turning over. I tried to measure the fuel pressure, but never was able to find a pressure tap. I called the dealer to have the truck in for service and was preparing to have the truck towed in. In my area, the service appointments are 2-3 days out. The night before my appointment, I was searching the web and found a site where someone was listing the top 10 complaints about the GM trucks and one was the truck won't start if the accelerator pedal is depressed. I immediately started laughing my ass off and couldn't wait until the sun came up! Sure enough, the floor liner was touching the gas pedal. After correcting the floor mat placement, the truck fired right up.

I don't trust car repair places, and can only wonder if they would have taken advantage of me and soaked me for hundreds of dollars on bogus repairs.

The electronics in the truck are pretty sophisticated and delivers a message to the dash when a door is not closed properly and numerous other messages. It is obvious it knew the gas pedal was obstructed. It seems to me it would be easy to deliver a message similar to the "depress brake pedal to start" on the pedal being depressed or obstructed. Simple software feature.

Edited February 7 by hounddog66

SteveP45 · February 7

Thanks for taking the time to post. I will add it to the list of things to cross off if I have a similar no start with my 2019 crew cab Z71 LT.

I spent several months and 3 trips to the dealer trying to find a problem which would not allow a remote start via an oem key fob and would set off the anti theft alarm. No codes stored or generated. Turned out to be a defective hood latch switch which the system thought was open, but was not, yet a code reader showed as being closed, but the vehicle computer was not sensing the resistance it needed to get to allow the vehicle to start. It thought someone was trying to steal the vehicle.

thanks again for posting.