87Vetter81

Hey Guys,

Ok, so I took the Vette for a long cruise. I want to be sure it going to be able to handle a 1000 mile trip later this year.

I get 125 miles out of Reno heading East on the 80 (3500ft elevation, 90 degrees) and the car completely dies. Shuts off. I coast to side of the road. Turn ignition off. My temp at the time was a cool 192. The car has a little more than a half tank left (I verified this not by the telemetry but by my calculations of mpg). I turn the car back on and it starts up perfectly and I go approximately 125 miles again and it SHUTS off again. I coast to the side of the road. Temp was around 195. Gas was semi filled up from a previous fill up. I turn the ignition off, wait a minute trying to think what's going on. Open the hood. Everything hooked up as it should be and sound as when I first left.

I then get into a small town (Elko NV) and park it. While driving around the town for a bit, the temps got up to 230. I found my destination and shut it off and parked it.

Does anyone know what could be causing this?

Replaced fuel filter, fuel pump, and fuel pump relay already. I'm using 91 Supreme gas.

I must include this though: Last night, the car was completely locked as I went outside to get something from the inside of the car. I unlocked the passenger door and the horn went off!!! Like an alarm. Beep beep beep. For 2 minutes until i could get into my garage and get a wrench to unhook the battery which then shut off the alarm. I didn't know a Vette came with a alarm of this kind. It sounded like the horn. Like I said, beep beep beep in continuous loud fashion (I tried turning the key on the ignition to get it to stop and it wouldn't stop it. That's why I disconnected battery.

Could this be my problem? Any help guys is appreciated.

96GS#007

Yes the Vettes have an alarm. On most years, you have to unlock the driver's side door with the key to shut it off.

As far as shutting off...could be anything that is affected by heat. When it dies, you need to be prepared to check and see if you have fuel pressure and spark. One is missing. Sounds like a distributor issue.

1986coupe

Check the Ignition Control Module inside the distributor. It can be affected by heat. The coil can also be affected by heat but on the L98 the ICM is closer to a heat source (by an inch or so) than the coil.

Check all of your connections at the alternator and at the battery. If something is loose then it can have a similar affect.

If the car is locked then you need to unlock it on the drivers side with the key otherwise the alarm will go off. That is the way the car was designed so no gremlins there.

joe paco

I agree that ICM or coil are suspects. I think that icm can shut down without warning -such as missing- but not sure about coil. if it were fuel, the symptoms would be stumbling, etc. the icm is a $20 part, my first choice.

as for the alarm, this is not normal for the 91. either door key will disarm the alarm. if you reach in and open thru a window, example, the door key will disarm it, AND THE CORRECT IGN KEY WILL ALWAYS DISARM IT. not sure about 87.
my guess is that it is the same. you can lock it with the manual lock, since vats uses the power lock. or simply unplug the horns.

nobody is going to try to steal an 87 vette!

Muffin

What 1986coupe said. If you have a sudden shut down odds are it is electrical. there my first guess would be the ICM. Not uncommon to have one "open" when hot but work just perfect when cool.

cgantner5150

I had a sudden shut down three weekends ago on the interstate. Coasted to the side and checked for fuel pressure (gauge permanently installed on the HSR) - zero. Checked fuse - good. Listened for prime - nothing. Removed fuel door and boot - plug was disconnected. No clue how it happened???? Maybe when I had the Vette apart for paint it must have gotten unclipped.
My wallet thanked me for finding the problem.
It's zip tied together now.

84VetteMan205hp

that happen to me once i was at 7/11 about 6 years ago i was on my way back to the house when all of a sudden the horn started beeping like an alarm and didn't stop until i disconnected the battery even though the car was running when this all happen.

84VetteMan205hp

my car(84) stops when the gas tank gets low around a quarter tank left

WGlen C4

I know it's not the same animal, but. I had the same exact shut down problem with my 87' Jeep Wrangler. I wire was grounding out in the steering column. I changed 3 Ignition modules before I found this.

rithsleeper

Had exactly the same prolem with my 87. Driving back from atlanta and after first 100 miles lost all throttle and it stalled. I pulled over, popped hood and started looking. When all looked good i tried to start, it did and off i went. About 25 miles later stall. Waited 15 min, started up and hauled ***. Then stalled again, this time no start, called tow the rest of the way. Got off the back of the truck, started right up. I drove around on it for the next week no long trips and no problems. Then i started looking for problems. I was very inexperienced at the time (5 yrs ago, first vette etc...) so took to a shop. Turned out the boot on my fuel pump had fallen off and sucked up trash. Some got past the filter and shreded the regulator diaphram.

Basically what was happening is clogged filter, when it starved, it died. Then as the car sat fuel seeped past the clog and would run for a while. If you slap a pressure gauge on the thing, tape to your window and drive around ill bet a lot of money you dont see correct pressure, and filter is where i would start, then check the boot in tank, then regulator. One of those will be it.

Cliff Harris

The ICM ***IS*** a heat source. It gets REALLY HOT!! That's why you need to have a solid connection to the distributor housing with a generous coating of THERMAL grease under it (NOT dielectric grease). It's better to have too much rather than too little.

tntwolt

i`m lost with some abrevs i see here. what is "ICM"?

coupeguy2001

ignition control module inside the distributor. it is a 4 pin model.

Cliff Harris

Actually it's a 7-pin module.

The 4-pin version was used before they had computers (1970s).