Back in Dec. I posted about the rig dying on my way to work while cruising about 35 to 40 MPH. Evevrything was good and just out of the blue it just stopped. I had it towed to Repair Shop. They could find nothing wrong. No codes, battery checked good. It had just had new plugs, wires rotor etc . Bottom line they could not get it to repeat the problem. They suggested doing a Fuel Induction flush as it had never been done before. Flush was done. It still seemed to idle a bit ruff so we went ahead and replaced the battery and the air filter, oil had just been changed. It seemed to do the trick and ran fine until today. I was coming home from work and just as I came over the railroad tracks by my house, it died again, no noise no warning I was going 30 MPH and all of a sudden I was coasting and trying to get to the side of the street to avoid being rear ended. My hubby thinks that it may be bad fuel or water in the fuel. Could this cause it to just die?I had been driving for about 20 minutes in city traffic. I tried to restart it 4 to 5 times before it finally started and I was able to drive it the rest of the way home with no problems. We kept starting it up letting it run and shutting it down. It ran just fine, as if it had never had an issue. The only thing we did notice was that there was a puddle of water under the tail pipe where it comes out of the rear of the car. It looked just clear like water with no smell or anything. There was no smoke coming from the tailpipe. It only has 65000 miles on it and its serviced every 3000 miles. Any ideas on the problem would be greatly appreciated. I have to drive it to work tomorrow morning at 6 AM, I am afraid it may do it again and I will be stranded.

Suzanne

 

does it make a hissing noise from the exhaust? like it might have a plugged cat and then when the pressure releases after sitting for a few min you can start it?

 

for a sudden shutoff like that i'd guess its either loosing spark or fuel.
if loosing spark, it might be the coil. if loosing fuel it might be fuel pump.

a quick shadetree test for each -
carry a spare spark plug. when it won't run, remove a plug wire, plug in the spare plug, touch it to the manifold, and spin the starter. check for spark. do this test first.

look on the fuel rail, drivers side, for the test port. remove the cover and you'll see what looks like a valve stem. press that and see if gas sprays out. put your hand over it so it doesn't spray up in your face.


edit - do you think there's any chance that the vibration/shock from crossing the railroad tracks caused the problem? if so, wiggle/push all electrical connectors up tight.

 

this is definitely a possibility

and the water at the end of the exhaust pipe is normal, its just condensation from the hot exhaust hitting the cool (ok at this time of year COLD) air and the water condensing bc of it

another thing to look at is electrical connections, especially at the PCM, TPS crank and camshaft position sensors and the ground points,

 

well it stalled out again today after about 25 min of running time. again would crank but not start. tried three or four times with one min intervals then let set for about ten min then tried again started up. got me home. does not affect electical meaning radio air ect and the air bag check engine brake ect lights do not come on when it stalls. after turning off ing switch then back on the lights come on like normal. drove it to shop they drove me back home no stall. if it would be water in fuel how would one determine it. reason i say that changed stations because of price then back to other station after no cause found in dec. running fine last two gas stops back to station with lower price. isn't cut rate major brand. haven't heard anything from shop yet just looking for things i might be able to tell them that would help

 

could be the connections on the coil, or even the coil itself or a lack of fuel pressure, you can also get monroe or another muffler shop to do a back pressure test to see if you have a clogged cat

 

yeah that sounds more like a fuel pump issue. i have a pontiac that is doing that it will start and drive just fine and then bam it quits running we narrowed it down to the fuel pump relay.

 

If' it's just the relay, you can replce it with any one of the others located in the PDC under the hood.

 

Bad coil. $45, 15 minutes.

IndyD

 

Thanks all for your help. I just spoke with the shop and they said it purrs like a kitten. They have had it all day and so far they can't find anything wrong. They can't get it to stall out on them. They will be keeping it over the weekend and try again on Monday to try to figure out what's wrong. Any other ideas on the issue would be greatly appreciated.

Suzanne