[Damien]

Okay I responded to a post of another MyMonte.com user who is having the exact same problem as me. However, I wanted to create a new topic post because I have a lot of documented details that may help both of us solve this problem.

So the issue is that my car stalls on me.

I need serious Help!! The dealership cannot find anything wrong with the car. And as bad luck would have it, everytime I take it in there, they cannot get the car to die on them.

I have a 2003 Chevy Monte Carlo SS (Series II 3800 V6)

At first it was only happening at idle or very low speeds of 5MPH or less. The car would either restart in 1 try, or it would take me about 8 tries to get it to restart. But it always restarts.
Now the car can die at any time. Just recently it died on me when I was on the freeway going 55MPH. The car just shuts off, no power, nothing, I end up just coasting to the side of the road and restarting it. Also I get no check engine light. Lately I have got a Red Battery light after it dies on me. But that just may be a product of the car being dead in the water, and not what is actually causing the car to die.

Other things I have noticed: The car seems to run rough sometimes and seems to shift much harder. When it runs rough, I know it will die on me once I get it going. One time I was stopped at a stoplight and the engine started to Rev all by itself, and the would drop down to almost 0 RPM's then go all the way up to 2,000 RPM's and back down to 0 again. Most of the time when it dies I am at a stop sign or stoplight and as soon as I take my foot off the brake and hit the gas, the car dies. Recently when i have been on the freeway it seems to have problems when I try to accelerate above 50MPH and has died on me 2 times when trying to accelerate above that speed.

I have replaced my Fuel Regulator, I have had full electronic diagnostic done 3 times now, I have checked the MAF and had it cleaned. I have checked my Air Filter and cleaned that. The dealership is at a complete loss, they are getting no codes, and the car runs just fine when they hook it up to their diagnostic equipment, even when driving on the freeway. They have not been able to get the car to die on them. It dies on me everyday, I do not understand how it does not die on them. They have even had it for 2 days now and drove it 6 different times. Rotten Rotten luck.

There is all the information. DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEAS OF WHAT IT MIGHT BE???!!! I simply cannot drive this car on any long trips now, its just too damn dangerous. I need help here. Any thoughts on what might be wrong with the car would be useful.


-Damien

This post has been edited by Damien: 24 September 2009 - 11:29 AM

[chevyboy]

i'm not an expert, but a failing fuel pump or injectors might cause this..

odd for a 2003 though...

This post has been edited by chevyboy: 23 September 2009 - 01:08 PM

[Damien]

I thought of that too. The car runs perfectly fine some days, would a failing fuel pump work somedays and not other days? I would think the fuel pump would give me a check engine light. I had the fuel injectors cleaned, so its not those. But all good guess's.

[tunerlover3]

Check grounds for the battery and body grounds.

[me6894]

CARS DON'T KILL THEY DIE!!!!!

tunerlover3, on Sep 23 2009, 03:16 PM, said:

Check grounds for the battery and body grounds.

x2 on this. Start with simple things. When the car is about to DIE does it sputter first and then DIE, or does it just completely lose power? Have you or the dealership tried driving around with a fuel pressure gauge hooked up, or check fuel pressure after it DIES?

[Damien]

CARS DO KILL. MY CAR IS KILLING ME RIGHT NOW!!! IT KILLS ME EVERYTIME IT LOSES POWER. LOL

Okay, moving on. To answer your question. No the car does not sputter, it simply shuts down and losses all power. And the dealership did hook up something to monitor fuel pressure and maybe other things too as they were driving it around. Not really sure what they hooked up and what it monitored, but if I remember right it did monitor the fuel pressure.

ADDITIONALLY, I got the car back from the dealership this morning. I drove the car this morning and it drives perfectly fine now. However, they were in the engine bay unpluging things and checking on stuff before they drove it. So we both think that maybe its a loose wire or connection? Not sure, but I guess for now I'm just going to continue to drive this car, until it acts up again and DIES (aka kills me). When it does I'm going to bring it back in, and have them hook up their diagnostic equipment right away without messing around in the engine bay, and see if we cant determine where the problem is coming from.

But if anyone else has any other idea's please please let me know!

[tunerlover3]

Intermittent failures like this are some of the hardest to diagnose.

What you need to do is just keep driving it and keep going to the same dealership. The car is married to them now.

[alex]

As stated before intermitent issues can be hard to find. i'm new to these cars but when it dies do the gauges and lights still work?
i have seem a similar symptom on a another car turned out to be a crank sensor going drive great for a few days then start stalling for few days couldn't find as it would work fine after for awhile no codes.
When hooked it up i noticed that the timing was jumping around. to me it just looked funny so we replaced the crank sensor it has been fine since. (it was a guess but it worked)
don't know if yours has one. but it might be time to try another shop sometimes it just takes a different set of eyes.

[tim_haha2000]

alex, on Sep 25 2009, 02:19 PM, said:

As stated before intermitent issues can be hard to find. i'm new to these cars but when it dies do the gauges and lights still work?
i have seem a similar symptom on a another car turned out to be a crank sensor going drive great for a few days then start stalling for few days couldn't find as it would work fine after for awhile no codes.
When hooked it up i noticed that the timing was jumping around. to me it just looked funny so we replaced the crank sensor it has been fine since. (it was a guess but it worked)
don't know if yours has one. but it might be time to try another shop sometimes it just takes a different set of eyes.

my brothers 95 lumina ran great . then one morning ran like sh*t wouldnt shift rough idel crazy rpms lights dimming. it would start every time .we let it idle would run for a few min then bogg down and stall would take several times to start but would start. his was a bad alt we had his electrical checked to but then we had the alt tested 11.3 volts 30 amps apprently enough to start it. and i def agree on taking to another shop

[tim_haha2000]

alex, on Sep 25 2009, 02:19 PM, said:

As stated before intermitent issues can be hard to find. i'm new to these cars but when it dies do the gauges and lights still work?
i have seem a similar symptom on a another car turned out to be a crank sensor going drive great for a few days then start stalling for few days couldn't find as it would work fine after for awhile no codes.
When hooked it up i noticed that the timing was jumping around. to me it just looked funny so we replaced the crank sensor it has been fine since. (it was a guess but it worked)
don't know if yours has one. but it might be time to try another shop sometimes it just takes a different set of eyes.

my brothers 95 lumina ran great . then one morning ran like sh*t wouldnt shift rough idel crazy rpms lights dimming. it would start every time .we let it idle would run for a few min then bogg down and stall would take several times to start but would start. his was a bad alt we had his electrical checked to but then we had the alt tested 11.3 volts 30 amps apprently enough to start it. and i def agree on taking to another shop

[tim_haha2000]

just a thought

This post has been edited by tim_haha2000: 25 September 2009 - 08:00 PM

[99z34na]

thats actually 2 thoughts. i would check that the grounds and bat cable are secure. it sounds like an electrical issue. my car did almost this exactly when my battery cable got loose one time.

[Damien]

NEW DEVELOPMENT

Okay, so on Friday when I drove home the car died on me 3 times in 3 miles of city driving. I called my mechanic at the dealership right away, and we both were laughing at how abusurd the whole situation is. We might have a working theory. At work, I park in a large parking ramp, I have to park near the top of the ramp. So when I leave work every day, I am making a series of about 3 or 4 sharp 180 degree turns in order to get out of the ramp. It's just a theory, but what if this kind of sharp turn is knocking a cable/connection loose and causing my car to die shortly afterwards.

Also on Monday, my car died on me again coming home from work.

I do not know much about fixing car problems. If I am looking in my engine bay, where is a good place to start checking for loose cables/connections? Is there an online diagram somewhere? There are so many damn cables in there I just do not know where to begin.

Alternatively, could this problem be coming from my ignition key? I do not have one of those chips in my key, but yesterday when my car died on me, i tryed to start it 10 different times, and it would not start. Then I took my key all the way out, re-inserted it and it started on the first try. I do not understand how a key with no chip in it would cause a problem though, cause i do not think it is trying to read anything from my key at all?

[tunerlover3]

Just take it back to the shop. Theres no point to you looking at it.

And you do have a chip in your key, you just cant see it Its in the top circle part of the key.

[Damien]

Yeah, I have taken it in 3 times already, I am basically waiting for the problem to get worse, so they can get it to die on them. But I figured if I could find anything unusual or out of place it might help them when I do bring the car in.

But THANKS for letting me know about where the computer chip is in my key. I have a second set of keys at home, they are rarely if ever used. I will start using that set, and see if she dies on me. I doubt its the keys, but it sure does not hurt to start eliminating things.

[tunerlover3]

The security system will not make the car just die. It will cause the car not to start.

I think its the crankshaft sensor. Either its bad or maybe the connector is soaked in oil. Either one will cause the car to just die.

[alex]

Damien, on Sep 29 2009, 05:58 PM, said:

NEW DEVELOPMENT

Okay, so on Friday when I drove home the car died on me 3 times in 3 miles of city driving. I called my mechanic at the dealership right away, and we both were laughing at how abusurd the whole situation is. We might have a working theory. At work, I park in a large parking ramp, I have to park near the top of the ramp. So when I leave work every day, I am making a series of about 3 or 4 sharp 180 degree turns in order to get out of the ramp. It's just a theory, but what if this kind of sharp turn is knocking a cable/connection loose and causing my car to die shortly afterwards.

Also on Monday, my car died on me again coming home from work.

I do not know much about fixing car problems. If I am looking in my engine bay, where is a good place to start checking for loose cables/connections? Is there an online diagram somewhere? There are so many damn cables in there I just do not know where to begin.

Alternatively, could this problem be coming from my ignition key? I do not have one of those chips in my key, but yesterday when my car died on me, i tryed to start it 10 different times, and it would not start. Then I took my key all the way out, re-inserted it and it started on the first try. I do not understand how a key with no chip in it would cause a problem though, cause i do not think it is trying to read anything from my key at all?

I would suspect that if it was the turning it would die right away but this dosn't rule out loose connections as a possability.

What is the weather doing at the time wet weather can cause poor connections to become worse.

I'm still thinking a crank sensor as I have seen the same symptoms also in older models were they had a pickup in the distributor that would do this as well.
crank sensor works and performs the same function.

being intermitant is a problem but as i said before not wanting to take anything away from the dealer a fresh set eyes may be of help here unless you have a buddy with a autotap or similer tape device to log data for a day or two you may be able to catch it when it happens.
but checking the sensors with a multimeter should get you closer.
just a thought oil can also cause poor connections

I'm new to this platform so i can only give you from my experence with what i have seen.

[Damien]

I did some reading up on the Crankshaft sensor. That definitely could be the culprit. The part looks to be fairly inexpensive. So next time I bring it in, I will have them replace that sensor. Mainly, it just sounds like that sensor is very very critical in making sure your engine runs correctly, so it really can't hurt to replace a $40 sensor. Much better then trying to replace a fuel pump or something. Thanks for the info, keep it coming, lol.

[tunerlover3]

Yeah its a 40 dollar sensor........but labor will suck.......

[me6894]

tunerlover3, on Sep 29 2009, 07:41 PM, said:

Yeah its a 40 dollar sensor........but labor will suck.......

Ya i think most places charge a few hours for that...

[alex]

me6894, on Sep 29 2009, 08:42 PM, said:

tunerlover3, on Sep 29 2009, 07:41 PM, said:

Yeah its a 40 dollar sensor........but labor will suck.......

Ya i think most places charge a few hours for that...

should about 1.5 to two hrs @shoprate

[Damien]

Ouch, well I will mention the sensor to them next time I bring it in and see what they think.

Last night, I opened up the hood and took a look at all the wires I could see, moved some stuff around, etc. It does not appear that I have any loose connections, frayed, cut, or otherwise disconnected wires. All my ground wires are properly in place. My battery connections and the terminal looks very clean. This does not mean my problem is still not a loose wire / connection. It just means, its not very obvious. Probably this weekend, I will start my car up and jiggle some of the wires around inside my engine bay, see if I can't get the car to die when I do that.

[alex]

Damien, on Sep 30 2009, 03:30 PM, said:

Ouch, well I will mention the sensor to them next time I bring it in and see what they think.

Last night, I opened up the hood and took a look at all the wires I could see, moved some stuff around, etc. It does not appear that I have any loose connections, frayed, cut, or otherwise disconnected wires. All my ground wires are properly in place. My battery connections and the terminal looks very clean. This does not mean my problem is still not a loose wire / connection. It just means, its not very obvious. Probably this weekend, I will start my car up and jiggle some of the wires around inside my engine bay, see if I can't get the car to die when I do that.

speaking of ground wires I have found although still tight they sometimes need to be removed and cleaned this would apply to all connections.
also some time there will be small ground straps that break between the engine and body still waiting to get my lumina here so as to if they have them not sure.

I think that your issue will have something to do with that cps. The readings on the boards i have been doing on this body type this seems to be the resolve with this type of issue in most cases.

This post has been edited by alex: 30 September 2009 - 05:27 PM

[ghettoandy101]

TORQUE CONVERTOR...thaz what it sounds like to me... anyone willing to place a wager?? ...but uhh, yeah..this seems to me like the culprit of a failing torwue convertor..i'm willing to bet...

[me6894]

ghettoandy101, on Oct 1 2009, 11:15 AM, said:

TORQUE CONVERTOR...thaz what it sounds like to me... anyone willing to place a wager?? ...but uhh, yeah..this seems to me like the culprit of a failing torwue convertor..i'm willing to bet...

? seriously

[alex]

ghettoandy101, on Oct 1 2009, 11:15 AM, said:

TORQUE CONVERTOR...thaz what it sounds like to me... anyone willing to place a wager?? ...but uhh, yeah..this seems to me like the culprit of a failing torwue convertor..i'm willing to bet...

ok i'll byte what would make you say this?

This is what forums are for.
Issues and questions are asked, bunch of brains get together and discuss the possible solutions. and through this interaction we get the resolution.

[ghettoandy101]

because...it was said that it stalls at low speeds sometimes, and other times will just stall arbitrarilly. if its not an engine issue (loose cnnections, etc then that deff. leads me to believe that the tourque convertor is at fault)..idk which post it was, or I would've quoted it..but uh, those are pretty much the exact symptoms of a bad torque convertor/torque convertor clutch.

[ChibiBlackSheep]

Wrong type of stall?

[ghettoandy101]

we're talking about the engine stalling, right?? if that's the case, which i assumed, then i would say check out the tourque convertor/clutch for faults, as i said b4

[alex]

ghettoandy101, on Oct 1 2009, 05:18 PM, said:

we're talking about the engine stalling, right?? if that's the case, which i assumed, then i would say check out the tourque convertor/clutch for faults, as i said b4

it's a thought but in this case when talking about stalling it is saying the engine pretty much like turning it off with a key except the lights stay on.
the stalling that your think is something you want and need in your TC
what you are decribing is the tc issue of locking basicly locking the crankshaft to rear wheels. it could cause the engine to stall/die but the would also be other inductors that should have been mentioned. if this was a issue.
think how a standard transmission stalls when starting of from a start you can feel the car kick and buck I would suspect something like it to be mentioned.
JMLO