Thread: car quit, restarts quits - HELP

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.

Let's review what we know for sure.

1. She got a splash of gas the night before.
2. Weather has been goofy with warm/cold (think condensation)
3. It's not the fuel pump resistor
4. It doesn't appear to be the maf
5. Clogged cat is potential...but usually will act up as the car gets warm.
6. Stalling randomly is commonly a crank sensor. However..rule out the fueling first.

Bill, two questions

1. could it have anything to do with the ignition switch? I say that because I have the problem with the DIC reading zeros, TCS off, and ABS light on. I have a new ignition switch and was thinking of swapping that out.

2. Should I plug in my new PCM to see if possibly all the issues are being caused by the PCM?

I will change the fuel filter this weekend. Will it do anything to test the fuel pressure if I can't get the car started?

I didn't hear the fuel pump prime so that has me wondering. Also the possibly low battery with the key fob not working within that last two days seems like something is going on there also.

This may be a stretch but have you fully charged the battery and checked for corrosion underneath the terminal boots? My car last week started then immediately died because of bad grounds.

It may not be your issue but I would check to make sure the battery is fully charged, and that there is no corrosion on either terminals. Also check the grounds from the negative terminal on the battery to the body, and to the transmission.

If it doesn't help, at least you can rule out a weak battery/bad grounds.

MY GP GTP died on me when I stopped at the mailbox about 2 months ago, thing was just completely dead, had to have it towed to the dealer. I tested the battery for voltage but not amperage, dealer said it was completely dead, how I have no clue, they installed a new one for a hefty price and it has worked ever since.

I asked for battery they took out and some new girl at the dealership didnt know any better and gave it to me, I took it to pep boys under warrenty and they said the battery was fine, gave me my money back after a agrued a bite with them.

I don't know what happened, maybe the dealer just found a loose ground or bad terminal just reconnected it and charged me for a new battery that I really didnt need, who knows.

Well as far as the battery goes, I went out to try to start it this morning and the battery was weak. If I would have cranked for any amount of time it would have killed it. So I hooked the battery charger to it before I went to work.

When I get home I am going to see what happens. What baffles me a littel bit is if the battery was weak when the car was running she never got a battery light on the cluster.

Still don't hear the fuel pump prime when I turn the key and the key fob will not lock or unlock the vehicle. I figure that is from the low battery but yet the battery has enough joice to crank teh car over but not enough to lock and unlock the car?

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.

Originally Posted by mainjet

Still don't hear the fuel pump prime when I turn the key and the key fob will not lock or unlock the vehicle. I figure that is from the low battery but yet the battery has enough joice to crank teh car over but not enough to lock and unlock the car?

yeah, i would foucus on the fuel issue then. i had a bad connection, so i went in the trunk popped the cover off and wiggled the wires. been alright for about 4 months now. so id foucus on the pump if your not hearing it.

Yea the battery seems like it's dying. I am going to change the fuel filter tonight and have the battery tested while I am at teh parts store. If the battery is bad I will replace that. Then I know that the filter is resolved and the battery is at full power. At that point I will start my search for the problem if it still exists.

The car really sounds like it's not getting fuel. So with the battery being low, in my mind, there is an outside possibility that the low charge is causing havoc with the PCM which may be shutting down the fuel.

If the car does not have enough jiuce to open the door locks maybe it doesn't have enough juice to make the fuel pump prime.

Speculation at this point until I can get my hands dirty.

will the power locks work if you hit the button on the car door?

the fob battery could be dead.

and when the battery's stone dead, the key wont turn back all the way. you need to push the button from under the column to turn it back.

The battery is not completely dead. It will crank the car but goes down quickly. So I believe it's faily weak. I had the battery charger on it for several hours today and when my son put the tester on it the battery still showed low like it did before I put the charger on it.

The door button in the car is kind of hit and miss if it will work right now. It will work but not really necessarily the first time or two you hit it. If I remember right, I had to lock it with the key last night.

My buddies alternator just went bad on his 01 gt and it would run if you kept on the gas but it wouldn't idle and it ran kinda bad. But it did start up everytime which is wierd.

got home and shot some starter fluid in it and it didn't even try to start.

So are you suggesting that I do not do any testing, simply put the part on and see if that is the problem? Then if it isn't, I should then go ahead and put some other parts on?

Let me guess - You work for the dealership service department?

Thanks. I will wait until tomorrow when I can check a few things and then if those things check out I will replace the crank sensor.

I am wondering why my fuel pump is not priming when I turn the key.So I will pressure test that tomorrow and make sure it's not the pump.

Well it looks like it's the fuel pump. It won't prime so I checked fule pressure at the rail and of course got nothing. Checked the fuse and it's good. Put a DMM on the connector on chrging th efuel pump and got 12 volts at the gray wire when the key is turned so I am getting jiuce to the fuel pump.

As an extra check, I ran a jumper from the battery + to the pin for the gray wire directly on the pump and grounded the black. The pump would not kick on. So I guess it's the pump.

on a side note. I did discover that the corners of my lower intake are leaking just a bit. I guess I didn't do a very good job with the Black RTV when I did the gasket. So I am both a little bummed about that and happy that I found when that little bit of collant was going.

First things first - fix the pump and be sure the car runs. Then do another Lower intake gasket. Tis the season to be Jolly fa la la la la, la -la -la -la.

+1 for this guy!! lol. now get a pump and geter running

Originally Posted by mainjet

First things first - fix the pump and be sure the car runs. Then do another Lower intake gasket. Tis the season to be Jolly fa la la la la, la -la -la -la.

lol..could be worse..you could have to drop the tank to get to the pump lol