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car dies at bad times

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87GNcospg

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Joined
Jun 23, 2003
Messages
670
i dont have any diagnostic tools on my GN.
last saturday night on our local cruise night my car died on me 4 different times. i a couple times i was just cruising down the road at maybe 40 mph and then the volt light would come on and the car would be dead. i would throw it into Neutral and it starts right up. other times it would die when i was stopped at a light. the idle was noticeably a little bit rougher right before the volt light came on and died when i was at a stop. never had this problem until a couple days ago.
i havent really checked anything because it became freezing cold and i put the car cover back on. just wondering if anyone had any ideas about this.
 
An intermittent heat - related problem with the ignition module (new Wells aftermarket) caused my "silent engine" problem. Always restarted but once warmed up, would die at inopportune times. I, too, got very good at throwing it into neutral and restarting.

Good luck,
Buzz White in Houston, TX (sumnerw@flash.net)
 
i just recently replaced my ignition module. would an ignition module cause a little of a rough idle?
 
been driving the car around today after the car got completely warmed up from driving around, which was about 30 minutes, it started to die on me again. please help. i love driving my GN but dont want to worry about losing my power steeringa nd brakes at horrible times
 
I had a MAF sensor go bad and it started like that. Did it for about 2 or 3 weeks and then just dead. This was an LT1 MAF though.

Kev :)
 
im not positive but i think that almost every time my car dies it happens as i am letting off the gas. again this isnt every time but most of the time. does that give any more clues to what it could be that is causing me my porblems?
is there a way to tell my MAF is for sure going bad? ive heard that running the car in park and tapping on the MAF with a screwdriver or something will let you know if it is bad. while tapping on the MAF you'll know if it is bad if the cars idle becomes erratic as you are tapping on the MAF. is this a true method to discover a bad MAF?
 
another thing i just rememberd. i accidentally had my MAF (was putting a new radiator hose on) unplugged and the car had an error code that related to an error in the MAT sensor. but now i remembered my car running fin at idle as if the damn thing was plugged in. this means i have a bad MAF right?
 
My car idles badly until I disconnect the MAF and then while unplugged it idles smoothly. I too would like to know if this means the MAF is bad.
 
Yep mine died like that. Letting out on the gas and then sometimes it would start...sometimes it wouldn't. I tried the "tap" test and it never worked for me. I just found a known good one and put it on and it fixed the problem. Never had it since.

HTH,
Kev :)
 
Probably isn't the problem, but when there is condensation or water in the gas, it causes stalling. Maybe some "dry gas" or gas treatment would be a worthwhile purchase.
 
Originally posted by Six Banger
My car idles badly until I disconnect the MAF and then while unplugged it idles smoothly. I too would like to know if this means the MAF is bad.

This condition is not necessarily an indication of a bad MAF. When you unplug the sensor, the ECM defaults to a table that approximates the MAF signal at the current RPM. If the engine runs better it could be a vacuum leak or another sensor (Oxygen) out of range. Also, the "tap test" is not always a valid test as the sensor is electronic, and tapping (or pounding) the sensor can actually damage a good sensor. Always - ALWAYS - use a scan tool to troubleshoot the engine. Otherwise it's guess work. I can't imagine the heap of good sensors that have accumulated within the Buick community over the years by "guessing" the cause of the problem. In order of most likely: 1) O2 sensor, 2) Battery cables, 3) Grounds, 4) MAF sensor, 5) Fuse links. These are the most common problems we encounter based on polling hundreds of tech calls. And the list goes on....

-John Spina
http://www.casperselectronics.com
 
I had this problem also and when I replaced all the vacuum hoses and sensors then reset the ecm it was fine.
 
Happened to me too...

The cutting off at bad times was a habit with me too. At first it was going to 40lbs. injectors without a good chip for them...then it became apparent that the wire coupling itself from the main harness to the DIS was MELTING between 2 pins on the center row. when u take off your DIS harness to look at or replace your coil packs, look at the connector itself and look for scorching or Melting lol. HTH
 
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