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Hello everyone!
As the title suggests, ive been the owner of a 1999 Pontiac Bonneville SSEi for about 4 years now. I purchased the car cheap ($1000 cad) with a few minor issues (blower fan for heater, small fuel leak, air ride didnt work) but i was able to drive er home and work around most of that. Over the years ive had my fair share of minor things (throttle position sensor, bad icm, misfires from many coils, did the plugs and wires as well, im sure theres more). However, as a 25 year old car shes actually been very good to me, and ive absolutelt come to love the car! Many thanks to all you out there already - being able to research these issues and find write-ups and threads to solve them has been exponentially useful. Thanks to all of you, I have a pretty decent knowledge of how these cars work, and as mentioned, the old boat of a car has really grown on me. Its never truly let me down, until about a month ago...
I was just driving when it died. The fuel was probably at about 1/3 tank before when it died. Not crazy low. I thought it couldve been the icm or maybe a fuel pump. Couldnt get it goin again. Towed er home for further inspection. Noticed that the gas guage was reading "full" when i knew *dang* well she wasnt. Cranked it, had spark (when my icm went i had no spark, wiggled it and it did, so was checkin that out). So she has spark. No pressure at the rail. Blocked filter? Checked er out, pulled the line off after the filter and turned the key to on. Dont hear the pump. No gas comin out. I guess the pump aint pumpin.
Time to roll her into thr garage i guess. So i roll the stupid thing in to put er on the old mans hoist and get er in the air, and charge up the battey from all the crankin. Sure enough, after all that bumpin around, i get er in the air and put the key to "on". And the fuel just starts shootin out of the hose i took off (thankfully we had a bucket under it). So it seems like a classic fuel pump. I snap the line back on quick, and we check the pressure at the rail. Its there now, the pump is back. So it should start right? WRONG. I crank er again, theres spark, theres pressure at the rail, shes got air, shes got a full battery on charge. Almost starts, then dies. So i leave it alone cause i figured maybe i flooded it.
Try again in 30 mins or so. Now the fuel guage is reading full again. Forgot to mention above, when i had pressure at rail and pump worked for a hot sec, the guage read about 1/3 full. But now its reading full. And now theres no pressure at the rail. So, thinking "oh well the pump is done again now", we change the pump. A real miserable job as most of you already know. So i get the pump changed after a couple weeks of on-and-off working at it and waiting for parts. Dropped tank, cleaned tank new pump and sending unit, new lockrkng and *shoot*, make sure my connections are solid. Strap er back up with new straps. Do up the lines and connectors. Make sure everything is good, fuel filter and lines are tight, connectors are all tight. Make sure battery is charged up.
Moment of truth. I turn the key to "on". Guage reads full. I dont hear the pump. Somethin aint right. Ruh roh, Raggy.
So i check again, got spark but no pressure at rail. There is power at the fuel pump relay, hell it just worked not too long ago. But the relay aint lettin power though it. Jump the relay, hear the pump. Im like alright, lets go. Spark and fuel again. But she doesnt go. Now im confused again. Even if the sending unit is bad, that should only be the guage right? Anyways, so i had a flashing security light as well. And the injectors werent getting the pulse from ground, they had the power on the one side like usual, but no ground pulse from the ecu. So i start thinkin "antitheft". I read up on the whole VATS ordeal, ohm out my key, its the 4700 ohm one or whatever. I cut the orange wire and replace the key with the equivalent resistor. No dice. Still full fuel giage with a crank no start. For fun, i ohm out the ignition with my key in it. 4700 ohms roughly as well, so the wires to the ignition werent the problem. So i undo the hood plunger and the trunk plunger for the anti theft light, and the flashing security light goes away. I realize now that they were probably the reason id get a random car alarm once in a blue moon.
For fun, i try the key relearn. No dice again. I pull the carpet and cover panels up, lookkng for the ground bus that has failed so many others, only to figure out that the ground bus isnt located by the door sills on the SSEI.
Im beginning to think this is some kimd of bad ground at the pcm or possibly a vats module failure itself. Something isnt allowing the injectors to fire or the pump to pump. I suspect that same thing is screwin up my fuel level guage. I did check the pcm for loose connections, I checked all the fuses in the maxifuse center, under the footwells on each side, they were all fine.
However, im running out of ideas on solving this. Id hate to scrap the car over something like this, but its beginning to consume my spare time and $ and im not getting anywhere. Im about ready to burn it and cut my losses lol. If anyone has any ideas or input, by all means. Where would the main grounds/ground bus be on the ssei if not at the footwells? Could a failing Vats or Theft Deterrent module or something like that cause this? Ive eliminated the key but the module itself could be bad. Can this be replaced or would i have to have a matching PCM and key and the whole 9 yards? I dont really wanna start thowing PCM and VATS module stuff at it until i can confirm what the actual h3ll is happening.
Anyone got any ideas?
Thanks for reading...
And For anyone wondering, she's dark green with the gold mesh wheels. Both front fenders were banged up decently when i got it, but i kind of like the beater look, and it doesnt affect functionality. It makes it that much more embarassing when you get the jump on a "sports" car from light to light. Shes offended quite a few people. I miss her.
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