<DIV class=postcolor>After about 20 minutes of highway driving my 96 Cirrus V6 with 116,000 miles starts to hesitate, buck, misfire and stalls. After it dies I can not start it. After about 45 minutes it starts but runs too rough to drive. After about an 1 1/2 it runs and drives fine. The kicker is it could happen every day going and coming from work or it can be ok for 2 days? I've had some work done to it, but I would like to hear what people have to say before I tell you what I have had done. And yes I'm still having issues.

Any help will be appreciated.

Peter S. </DIV>

 

Catalytic converter perhaps.

 

71ROADRUNNER, sounds right... sounds like a catalytic converter problem! Does it smell like rotten eggs at all?</P>


redriderbob</P>

 

No, no smell at all. But then why would it go away?</P>

 

It also sounds like it could be a dirty fuel filter as well. The fuel pump will push the sediments/dirt into the filter blocking the fuel flow. Because the pump pulses the fuel like blood in your veins/arteries it will usually start bucking before it dies. When you shut the car off or it dies out on you, the pressure will slowly back off allowing the dirt to fall back and away from the filter. The longer you let it set, the better it will run when you start it up again.

The reason I am mentioning the cat and the fuel filter is that it seems to be recurrent and random, but when it does happen it will not run right and after a long period of time it's ok again.

When they start getting plugged up a catalytic converter will usually only cause problems when it is under a load, like being at freeway speed. After it cools down it will have lost the exhaust build up/backpressure that causes it to quit running, just like a banana in the tail pipe. When a cat goes bad it usually smells like rotten eggs.<edited><editID>71ROADRUNNER</editID><editDate>38014.073599537</editDate></edited>