My Z is suddenly dying & the Chevy dealer is closed for the weekend, so I thought I'd post here...if anyone can offer some helpful knowledge I'd appreciate it.

I have a '97 30th anniversary 6 speed and I ran out of gas today, just barely making it to a station. Now my SES light is on and the engine has no power, missing, dying. I had to stop twice on the 5 mile trip home to avoid stalling in traffic. 30 minutes earlier it was running great, as it has been for 50,000 miles. My stupid mistake I think was using unleaded regular lately (due to the high gas prices in CA) and running out of gas (my gage indicates up to 1/4 tank when it's empty). Maybe some air got into the system. The basics appear to be okay (good battery, oil pressure, not overheating, etc.).

My question is, can it be just the low octane gas and running out, and if so will it 'heal itself' by running it a few days with good gas - or am I in for a visit to Chevy and a week's pay down the drain? Most of the posts I've read advise getting a scan to see what's up with the SES light - unfortunately Autozone is 15 miles away.

Thanks in advance to anyone who has seen this before and/or can offer some good advice.

 

Based on your symptoms, it could be one of 2 things...

Your car does not like 87 octane- I've never put 87 in mine, but a friend of mine put some in his 97 and he said it ran like crap...

Or your fuel pump may have burned itself up running on fumes. There have been a lot of complaints about people running out of gas in these cars and the fuel pump burns up, I guess the pump uses the fuel for lubrication and to keep it cool.

The best thing you could do right now is top off your gas tank with premium, reset your ecm by pulling the battery or yanking the fuse located in the driver's side dash fuse panel (there should be a sticker on the underside of the panel you remove to tell you which one it is), and taking it for a drive.

If none of that works, go out and grab a fuel pressure gauge and start testing. A scanner might also be helpful.

 

Getting that low you may have pick up some trash, hope its not your fuel pump, but if you can, i would limp the 15 miles to get the car scanned before you start taking things apart. Good luck

 

Thanks for your replies guys...I'll venture out this morning and see how it behaves. It occured to me that maybe I wasn't quite out of gas, since the missing/dying performance is similar to what I experienced just before pulling into the station - can't be sure.

I may try some Techron concentrate, in hopes that it'll clean out any deposits left by the 87 gas - there's a Chevron a few blocks away. Otherwise, I'll get a scan asap. Beyond that I'm afraid it's off to Chevy service - it's been too many years since I did my own work on cars. I once dropped a 312 V8 with three 2-barrels into my '54 Ford 6, but that was in '65. The Z is more like a jet plane compared to the good old days. To be cont...

Update: started up the Z this morning, the SES light went out, it ran great so I gave it some Techron, took a 15 mile drive on the freeway then some side streets, worked it out @ 3500rpm in 3rd gear for awhile and it still ran great.

Then I got into slow traffic, it heated up to 210 or so and it started missing again. The SES light went on and it was back to where it was yesterday, dying. Got to Autozone but they had rented out their scanner. So I let it cool down, the SES light went out and I drove back the 15 miles at freeway speed with no problem.

Anyone seen this before? The car runs great when it's cool, but dies when it gets hot. At least I know I can get to work and back till I have time to have it checked out.

 

You can still get it scanned. Even though the SES light went out, the code stays stored in the PCM for quite a while. Don't guess at the problem.... scan it.

 

Thanks Injuneer...I've arranged for a scan this week...it'll be interesting to see what's been going on under my hood....RD