bodymassage3

Sometimes I get a little time to think out my route ahead of time. By this, I mean that about once every few months, my car won't start. There was a period about a year ago where it would do it about every other day, and I was going on a pretty long stretch until today.

I have a '99 Chevy Tahoe. The car will try to start just fine. Half of the time, you could just hold the ignition to on and it will attempt to start as long as you're holding it. The other half of the time, it will actually run for up to about 2 seconds. Giving it gas in this short period of running *almost* seems to make it die faster. A trend I notice is that the longer that I let it sit after noticing its having one of its little fits, it has more of a chance to actually run for the second or two that it will. All of this will go on for between 5 and 15 minutes. Whenever it decides to work, it starts up perfectly just like it didn't take 15 minutes of my busy day. It had been going on pretty constantly about a year ago. I just assumed it fixed itself.

I know fairly little about cars and how to diagnose problems, but I was told by someone that the remote start on it could be causing the problem. It will attempt to start just like any car that works perfectly, but it won't enter the "running" phase, and if/when it does, its only for a few seconds at most.

If anyone recognizes this problem, or even has an educated guess as to what to check in to - preferably a cheap one - I would be most appreciative. Thanks in advance.

Like I said, i'm no mechanic, but tell me what/when/where/how/and why and i'll get it checked out.

Edit: It acts like its flooding, but I don't smell gas, and this is in the morning. Its not like I had a brick laying on the gas throughout the night. I just sit in it, try to start, and no-dice. Is it possible that a car could flood itself, even with the gas pedal depressed?

MSD

If it was an older car, I'd be tempted to say it's vapor lock, but anything that new is going to have an in-tank pump.

Run down to your local Auto Zone or Pep Boys, and have them read the error codes, if nothing shows up, it's probably time to have the remote starter checked out.

bodymassage3

So do you think somewhere along the lines of the remote-start setup, its making it malfunction? Logic tells me that its very possible to screw with something in the system. I see it as if you have a rope tied to another rope via-one knot, it can break or become lose. If you untie those two, and tie a third rope in between them, you would have two knots, doubling your chances of something screwing up along the way; The remote-start being that "third rope." The guy I bought the car from had the remote-start put on it...and from what I remember, not to long before I bought it from him.

I don't even use the damn remote-start. Its basically a novelty when I show/had shown somebody my new car.

MSD

Judging by the number of wires coming out of the typical remote starter box, it's a complicated decive that can screw up your car in a lot of complicated ways. Additionally, the connections themselves are things that can screw up. That's why I hate having aftermarket things on my car that I didn't install. I would reccommend taking the thing off and seeing if the problem stops.