Intermittent Check Engine Light After Engine Cools in Chevy 1500

Asked by Mario_Valley Jan 08, 2019 at 12:59 AM about the 1995 Chevrolet C/K 1500

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

I have a 95 Chevy 1500.  If I start it cold and drive from
point A to point B, it runs fine and the engine light never
comes on.  If I stop for maybe ten minutes, it's fine.  If I
park it for long enough to get groceries, when I re-start (if
the engine is still a little warm) the check engine light will
come on and it will idle pretty rough.  If I attempt to drive it
in this condition, it doesn't want to shift out of first.  Now, if
I let it run for a few minutes, warm the engine back up, cut
it off and re-start it, everything is normal again.  No light.  
Seems like this problem is temperature based as it only
happens when the engine is somewhere between cold and
normal driving temp.  It's also not something that happens
all the time.  I've tried to replicate it for a mechanic but of
course, it wouldn't do it, and the mechanic didn't get
anything weird from diagnostics. Transmission was
replaced a year ago, has a new alternator and belts, no
fouled plugs and is up to date on preventative
maintenance.  Doesn't leak any fluids or burn oil.  Anyone
have a clue what this might be????  

2 Answers

Trans fluid is fine. Still pretty clean. As I said, all fluids are are good and preventative is up to date. Again this ONLY happens in the above mentioned circumstances. It shifts normally unless the engine is allowed to cool off a little before it is restarted. And it isn't every time. The best way I can describe it's behavior is similar to a faulty fuel positioning sensor, which also causes problems shifting and rough idle in this vehicle because it's a pressure thing. But in my experience, when this sensor goes, it goes and is not something it does only occasionally. Which leads me to believe it isn't transmission related (and the transmission is only a year old and was done by a specialist with a solid rep) but maybe something in the fuel system. I'll take it to the transmission guy just to be sure, but I'm not confident that's the problem.

Just an update to this problem-turned out to be very simple! Posting because all the advice and input I got from various sources said "transmission" and it turned out to be a damaged air intake hose. It allowed moisture to get into the air filter, which caused an air filter that was about a month old to rust, which in turn caused it to behave like there was an issue with the transmission or the throttle position sensor.

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