Thread: car quit, restarts quits - HELP

99 Grand Prix GTP, My daughter was on teh way to school this morning and the car just quietly quit running. She restarted it and it quit again.

She was only about 7 miles from the house from a cold start up when it quit.

I had my son go over and check the oil and collant. Everything there is fine. The car will start right up but quit right away. They say that when it quits the oil light comes on. But my daughter said it was not on while she was driving.

The car is on the side of the road right now and I am at work. Can anyone think of anything that I can have my son check to see whats going on?

No bad noises or anything starts fine then quits right away. Fuel level is a little over quarter tank.

Unplug the maff and see if it runs. Could also be the pump resistor

I'd say either the maf or the fuel pump resistor. The symptoms point straight to the resistor.




If you take the fuel pump speed relay out of the underhood fuse block and then bend either pin 85 or 86 (the one that won't get in the way when you put the relay back in) that'll put you in high speed pump mode and the car will likely run fine. If so..it's the resistor and you can motor on w/o worries for quite some time.

I've had my pin bent for ......5 months now..lol

Okay great. Now I have to "relay" this to my son and get him to understand it. How can I get him to understand it if I don't understand it? LOL

Where are the great pictures Bill of the relay and the bent pin that you always provide?

Seriously, I am not quite understanding the pin bending thing. I know to go to the junction box and find the fule pump speed relay and pull it out. But are the pins numbered?

It's not you, it's me. I just have never done this one before so explaining it to my son my be difficult. Is it much more self explanatory once you pull the relay?

bottom left, when looking at it from the top

Man, Thank you guys for the great info! Even if this isn't it you have all done a fine job, going above and beyond the call!

spray a little starting fluid in the intake and if it starts you have a fueling issue

The tow truck brought it home. once I got home from work I went out to see if my son had done the relay thing correctly amd it was perfect. So I tried starting it and it started right up. It idled for a 30 seconds or so then since the tow truck put it in the driveway backwards, I decided to turn it around to put it in the garage. I pulled it forward then backward then turned it sideways in the driveway and it quite. It started back up and I backed it up a little bit then it quit. It did not want to start then.

I went in the house for a second then came back out and tried it again. it started just for a second or so then quit.

When it was running it ran fine and smooth. When it quit it was just smooth like it ran out of fuel.

Thoughts?

out of gas

is the check engine light on?

could try unplugging the maf, see if it runs, if so you need a new maf.

could it be a weak fuel pump? maybe you should check the fuel pressure?

The first question I asked was - is there gas in the car? She put gas in last night and the gauge shows at least a quarter tank. But that is a good thought.

both my son and I unplugged the MAF at different times and it did not help. I have another MAF sensor on my other motor in the garage. I was thinking about swapping that in but then I figured if unplugging it didn't change it then swapping them shouldn't do anything. Am I wrong?

No CEL lights.

I have not checked fuel pressure yet or listened for the fuel pump.

has the tach been dropping to 0 while driving? if so looks like it should be the crank sensor. they are known for not always setting off the cel light.

Originally Posted by scottydoggs

has the tach been dropping to 0 while driving? if so looks like it should be the crank sensor. they are known for not always setting off the cel light.

Well my daughter drives it so I can't say for sure but she has not said anything about it. I did ask her about that the other day while tracking something else and she said the tach has not been acting up as fas as she has noticed.

I will change the fuel filter this weekend. I have not changed it yet and I don't know what the previous owner did. So it's a good maintenance part to change anyway.

information -

My daughter told me that you have to be really close to the car now for the key fob to work. I also noticed tonight that it really does not want to work. Then as I went to crank it tonight it acted like it had a low battery.

I put a little tester on the battery and it read "low".

I put my code tester on the car and there are no codes set or pending.

When I turn the key I don't hear the fuel pump prime.

Sounds like a bad connection somewhere. I had something similar (DIC flashing zero's at random times and the car dieing and not wanting to start back sometimes) happen to me a while back and it ended up being a loose ground connection at the main ground terminal on the transmission right above the starter. Before I fixed this, I also had a few failures to prime from time to time. You might check that while you're under the hood tinkering.

I'm unsure.. I supposed the ign switch could be at fault. I haven't had that much experience with them yet.