I have searched the net for clues as to what might be the issue with our '00 GMC Sierra 1500, but there are so many potential culprits that we cannot possibly just throw new parts at the thing and hope that something works, we really need a method to logically narrow it down to the most likely suspects.
The most dramatic symptom was SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION of something under the hood that happened AFTER the vehicle was parked and shut off. It just so happened to be a fortunate timing of someone going back outside to get something they had left in the truck that they caught the fire fairly early in the driver side headlamp area before the whole thing went up. Apparently, the fire was extinguished with a garden hose, and the damage wasn't bad enough to render it inoperable. However, there are issues which persist still in the aftermath, though I don't know if they started before or after the fire.
1) The first thing I noticed, apart from the fire, was a fuel gauge going wonkers - jumping all over the place like a compass trying to find true north and making it impossible to actually know how much fuel may be in the truck.
This went largely ignored by my gentleman friend who drives it, as it didn't seem to interfere with operation of the truck, which he needs for work.
2) At some point, the truck either didn't go all the way into neutral or park, or jumped back into drive by itself, or possibly the operator was just having a brain fart when he jumped out to grab our errant dog who had escaped from the yard, leaving the engine running in our neighbors driveway. This resulted in the unfortunate unmanned entry of the truck into their garage, right through their garage door. We are unsure if this was a failure of the machine or of the person, though, but it bears mentioning in case it could provide a clue to other issues.
3) Recently, the truck has either run out of gas (more than once) or possibly just appeared to do so, leaving the vehicle stalled near the top of a hill. Addition of fuel did not immediately rectify the issue, and there was difficulty starting it up and keeping it running once it did get going, which only happened after manually feeding some fuel into the engine directly, and also requiring a jump start of the battery in this process for some reason that I am not sure of. It did eventually get home, but that was only a few blocks from where it had stalled, and apparently had been wanting to die out along the way.
4) Codes were pulled - P0171 and P0174 , but have not recurred since clearing them despite having the same problem of starting and staying on after that. It seems to be wanting fuel and lacking it for some reason as before, running rough in idle if it does get started and stalling out.
Given that researching this issue has turned up an impossible number of problems to address, from sensors to pumps to timing to hoses to electrical problems, I am at a loss as to where to begin with this, however, my own logic is relating all of these issues to potentially being a problem with some old wiring getting crossed up and causing signals to be all garbled, as well as potentially being a catalyst for the fire, so I would be inclined to target the electrical system first. But I know absolutely nothing about cars, besides what instructions I can follow in a service manual, so I figured I would try and get some more informed folks to weigh in on this with some expertise in how to go about narrowing down what we might be looking at, or how to test certain components to know if they actually need replacing before spending the money to just throw parts at it until something works or not...
Can anyone offer some guidance that is more than anecdotal relation of their own particular issue? The threads I have been reading are nerve wracking just because of the random nature of solutions that have presented after everyone has tried any number of different things and nothing really stands out as a potentially more common culprit than others.
we simply cannot afford to proceed that way with that many different possible things to replace. Any guidance on how to zoom in our focus would be appreciated. What would really be helpful is a factory service manual with diagrams or flow charts to follow for procedural troubleshooting,
Thanks.
The most dramatic symptom was SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION of something under the hood that happened AFTER the vehicle was parked and shut off. It just so happened to be a fortunate timing of someone going back outside to get something they had left in the truck that they caught the fire fairly early in the driver side headlamp area before the whole thing went up. Apparently, the fire was extinguished with a garden hose, and the damage wasn't bad enough to render it inoperable. However, there are issues which persist still in the aftermath, though I don't know if they started before or after the fire.
1) The first thing I noticed, apart from the fire, was a fuel gauge going wonkers - jumping all over the place like a compass trying to find true north and making it impossible to actually know how much fuel may be in the truck.
This went largely ignored by my gentleman friend who drives it, as it didn't seem to interfere with operation of the truck, which he needs for work.
2) At some point, the truck either didn't go all the way into neutral or park, or jumped back into drive by itself, or possibly the operator was just having a brain fart when he jumped out to grab our errant dog who had escaped from the yard, leaving the engine running in our neighbors driveway. This resulted in the unfortunate unmanned entry of the truck into their garage, right through their garage door. We are unsure if this was a failure of the machine or of the person, though, but it bears mentioning in case it could provide a clue to other issues.
3) Recently, the truck has either run out of gas (more than once) or possibly just appeared to do so, leaving the vehicle stalled near the top of a hill. Addition of fuel did not immediately rectify the issue, and there was difficulty starting it up and keeping it running once it did get going, which only happened after manually feeding some fuel into the engine directly, and also requiring a jump start of the battery in this process for some reason that I am not sure of. It did eventually get home, but that was only a few blocks from where it had stalled, and apparently had been wanting to die out along the way.
4) Codes were pulled - P0171 and P0174 , but have not recurred since clearing them despite having the same problem of starting and staying on after that. It seems to be wanting fuel and lacking it for some reason as before, running rough in idle if it does get started and stalling out.
Given that researching this issue has turned up an impossible number of problems to address, from sensors to pumps to timing to hoses to electrical problems, I am at a loss as to where to begin with this, however, my own logic is relating all of these issues to potentially being a problem with some old wiring getting crossed up and causing signals to be all garbled, as well as potentially being a catalyst for the fire, so I would be inclined to target the electrical system first. But I know absolutely nothing about cars, besides what instructions I can follow in a service manual, so I figured I would try and get some more informed folks to weigh in on this with some expertise in how to go about narrowing down what we might be looking at, or how to test certain components to know if they actually need replacing before spending the money to just throw parts at it until something works or not...
Can anyone offer some guidance that is more than anecdotal relation of their own particular issue? The threads I have been reading are nerve wracking just because of the random nature of solutions that have presented after everyone has tried any number of different things and nothing really stands out as a potentially more common culprit than others.
we simply cannot afford to proceed that way with that many different possible things to replace. Any guidance on how to zoom in our focus would be appreciated. What would really be helpful is a factory service manual with diagrams or flow charts to follow for procedural troubleshooting,
Thanks.