Hi all! I have actually read these forums before when having other Pontiac issues so now I am finally joining and hopefully someone will be able to tell me what my problem is.
Car Stats:
Year: 2000
Model: Grand Prix GT, 3800
Miles: 226,886
While driving home from work this evening i was at a stop sign, started to turn right and the car just died on me. No sputter, no whimper. just stopped. The oil light, temp light, battery light came on as you might expect as this happens also when turning the ignition but not starting the car itself. Tried to start it up multiple times. The air would come on and it would try to crank but wouldn't so no luck there. A nice girl came by and offered to help me jump the car and not really knowing what else to do I got out my car cables, hooked it all up and waited. After about 1 minute, the car didn't start back up. I waited another 30 seconds. Tried again and it started back up. I thought at that time that the battery might be going dead but as an afterthought never heard of a battery going bad shutting down a car while running before. In any event, I thought I would try to go to Autozone to check to see the condition of the battery. The metal pieces(nuts) themselves don't look too corroded on the outside.
About 1 mile or less as I get onto a busier highway I am at a light, make the left, straighten out and the car dies again. Just dies. no sputter, no whimper. nothing. Now I'm screwed because its 5 PM and who in the world is going to stop for me again in all this traffic? After about 30 seconds I was able to start it up again after the 3rd try. In the meantime my wife called her dad and he said he has had a car stop like that before when turning when the oil was low. So i decided to go to the nearest gas station to check the oil. The oil was low enough to where it says "Add 1 Quart" and I did so and drove home (another mile or so) without it dying.
At this point I dont know what to think but here are my thoughts.
It cant be the battery going dead, or I would not have gotten it to start the 2nd time without hooking up to another car.
Maybe using the car cables and it starting back up the 1st time was a sheer coincidence and doesnt have anything to do with the battery.
If the alternator had drained the batter between the 1st and 2nd incident I wouldnt have gotten it to start up again unassisted - so I do not think that this is the problem.
If the oil was so low that when turning the car doesnt detect much oil and shuts down, then the "Check Oil" light would have been lit and that never happened.
Every once in a while the "service engine soon" light comes on but that always comes back as the "catalytic converter" and while I have had plans to replace it I havent done so yet - but dont think this could be the problem. (i would think this would only stop you from getting the power you need to drive)
All the local non-chains here in town are not open tomorrow so I am kinda stuck at home until Monday morning but I thought I would come on here and check to see if anyone had any ideas before going into the shop on Monday.
As a final note, I would say about 2 or 3 months ago i was driving home from the store and as I was making a turn the car did the same thing. stopped dead cold. not stutter or whimper. Immediately on the first try to re-start it it cranked up successfully so I thought, "well that was really scary and weird" but it never happened again until just now.
Would like to see if anyone could point me to the right diagnosis if possible or at least ask more questions or comment to see if we can narrow down any possibilities. THANKS!
EDIT: The "Service Engine Soon" light was on this morning as well as the "trac off" light and the Service Engine Soon light was on again this afternoon as well immediately after starting the car but i cant recall 100% if the trac off light was on or off. Sorry i forgot to mention that in my post. thanks.
