I already made a thread about this a long time ago and was unsure if I should reanimate the old thread so I just made a new one.
2004 Chevy Classic
Recap: The alternator died and I ended up diagnosing it as bad. The car has been sitting probably at least a year now.
Today: Just yesterday I removed it myself and ordered another one. It should be coming next week. The plan is to throw another battery in as well. My concern is the gas that’s been sitting in the tank. I’m not sure but I think it’s about a quarter tank. I don’t want to clog up the fuel system (injectors) and I was looking for ways to empty the tank or at least get it to a level I can dilute it with fresh gas. Dropping it is out of the question. Syphoning may be an option if there’s no check valve at the bottom that prevents me from getting a hose down there, although there likely is.
If I was to take out the schrader valve in the fuel rail, attach a hose to it and jump the fuel pump relay which pins would I have to connect together in the box to do this? I want to jump the power (red 87) to the load (orange 30) correct?
You probably have a 15-20 gallon tank so simply siphon out as much gas as you can, add a bottle of Dri Gas, fill it up.and give it a try.
It will probably require several tries so have a battery charger handy.
Assuming it starts and runs you’ll want to have a couple of the “fine” gas filters handy to prevent the accumulated “schmutz” from clogging your injectors, which incidentally will probably need replacement anyway.
Bottom line, unless you’re willing to remove the tank, fuel lines, compeletly flush them, flush all the fuel lines and injectors, you’re going to have crud moving through the system but after a couple tanks of gas, some Techron and fuel filter replacements it shouldn’t more than an annual maintanence issue.
And yeah, the Chevy Caprice Classic was quite a car, ranked only after the Seville in horsepower, a smooth ride and built like a tank and surprisingly some of them are going for more more money than the Caprice SS models…
Well anti siphon or not and we don’t know how much fuel is left, simply filling up the tank and additing some basic $5 additives is a lot cheaper than the alternatives.
The Chevrolet Classic was offered in 2004 and 2005. Primarily sold for use as a rental car, taxicab or light fleet use for two years, production of the Chevrolet Classic ended after the 2005 model year.
I do remember something about the Malibu and Classic looking almost the same, if didn’t know the difference you might not know… But I remember the Classic only having a 2.2L and the Malibu having a 2.2L & 3.5L… The 04/05 Malibu had 2 different air filters for the old body style and the new body style for the 2.2L and the old body style was the same as the Classic, I think the same with the brake pads and rotors and maybe a few other parts but mostly the parts interchanged…
A lot of wrong parts ordered for the Classic thinking it was a Malibu… The Classic was on the right side of the deck lid only I believe…
GM used to (sorry don’t remember what years) have a Purple (violet?) wire that was in the battery area that you could connect straight to the battery and bypass the fuel pump relay, ignition etc and power the fuel pump directly… It was either easy to find or it’s not there, so don’t look to hard for it as I mainly remember using it back in the 90’s… lol
Quite possibly it’s a 1994 Malibu Classic, which is worth about $5,000 more than the Chevy Caprise Classic.
So if you’re correct, and with the right auction, it may help help pay the kids/grandchildren’s, college tuition, which is what we we call a “High class problem”
Do you reject the idea that this is a 2004 Chevrolet Classic (midsize sedan)? 1996 was the last year for the Caprice Classic.
I have seen many cars drive just fine on gasoline that is 1 to 2 years old, it doesn’t turn to “crud”. Many fuel tanks are plastic so there won’t be any rust to be concerned about.
I don’t know that I would bother doing anything with gas that’s a year old. I have a pickup with a 30 gallon gas tank that may sit for months at a time without being used. I’m sure at some point I have run it on year-old gas.
A year or so I wouldn’t give it another thought. I have done this numerous times with fuel injected engines. Never once had any issues with the components; injectors, pumps, filters, nothing. Sometimes, the exhaust even smells pretty bad while the old gas is being burned when it’s a few years old. Drive it to the gas station and fill it up with fresh gas…
No I don’t because the OP didn’t provide enough info to distinguish.
And I also agree that a car may or may not run on “old gas”, largely depending on what accumulated in the tank while it was running and how the car was stored. I’ve encountered steel tanks with much older gas that were kept full to the brim and sealed, that with a little encouragement started right up so you don’t know until you try.
Which is my point, “Pray for the best but plan for the worst”.
So before going to the effort and expense of dropping the tank and cleaning/replacing the fuel system, remove as much old gas as you can, add the fresh gas and give it a try.
If it runs, great your prayers are answered! Now plan for the worst (migration of accumulated crud to your injectors) by insuring that your fuel filters are still good.
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Is there a way I can tap into the fuel system immediately upstream the rail with a filter so there’s no possibility of bad fuel touching the injectors or does it not matter at this point?
