Yesterday with a full load of kids my 2001 GMC Savana stalled while driving. Fuel and water gage pegged full and hot when it died, it would crank but not start. Checked all fuses and relays, no luck, with a police escort and a tow strap it made it around the corner to where I work.
This morning when I tried to start it the water gage went back to normal, cranked but did not start. Two hours later I hooked up a scanner, with the key on now the fuel gage went back to half tank. Great it's fixed, sure enough it starts. One other tidbit there were no codes, even in the history, not even for the check engine light that is always on. That tells me that the ECM may have lost power for a while.
What do you all think, bad ground or connection the the brain. This doesn't appear to be a common problem cus the interweb didn't help me on page one.
Basically I'm glad it started but now I have a potential intermittent problem and nothing to go with.
WAG - fuel & water are on opposite ends of the vehicle, so I doubt it's an issue with the sensors or their grounds. A ground issue with the instrument panel could explain the flakey gauges, but I could it cause the van to die & not restart? Possibly???
How's the weather been? Had much rain? I have no idea where the ECU is located in your van, but if it got wet then dried out overnight that could possibly explain the problem/symptoms.
A quick google of "2001 GMC Savana ECU failure" returned this link that may or may not be relevant.
Quick question...
Was it actually HOT? If so, that would explain the not starting while cranking AND the cranking and starting at some time later.
I had a bad ground cable on my '99 C2500 that caused similar issues. Had to look really close at the cable before you could see the problem. Battery acid leaked into the insulation and corroded it from the inside.
Looks like I have a bad ECM ground. When I plug in the cord to the OBDII port it will start, when I unplug the cord it dies. Apparently in the plug there are two grounds one to the ECM and one to the chassis, when I plug in the reader cord it completes the ground and runs. This is with out the actual scanner connected, just the cord.
This explains the gage and non starting issue.
My lesson of the day is complete, and it didn't cost me anything.
