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have a 96 Buick Lesabre it periodically dies. Nothing comes up on diagnostics, and seems to be a mystery.
when the car stalls, you may want to check if you are getting spark at the spark plugs. most of the time I find that when these cars stall, if you let them sit and cool off for awile and they restart that the crank position sensor has gone bad. It will cause the car not to spark when cranking the engine. other concerns may be a fuel pump going bad, check the fuel pressure when it dies and see if you are getting atleast 40 psi.
the car is running on the highway and dies while driving. The mechanics have suggested trash in the fuel filter. it seems to be electrical, or sensor.
trash in the fuel filter will not cause this concern. if the filter is clooged of restricted, it should cause a lack of power. I have never heard of a fuel filter making a car stall intermittenly. It does sound to me like the crank position sensor (ckp). does the car start back up right away or does it have to sit awale? a bad crank sensor will not set a code but low fuel pressure might set a lean engine code(engine not getting enough fuel). other things I've seen are the engine computer going bad, dont see it often but can be a problem. the best thing to do is see if you get spark when it stalls, this will help in diagnosis of the problem. you can get a spark tester at the local parts store cheap.
Experience: GM world class, ASE master tech w/ L1 advanced driveablity, 15yrs experance bumper to bumper
told the current mechanic about the sensor he is going to check it, if that seems ok then, it probably is the computer-hope not. will get a spark tester. You have been very helpful. Thanks
Vicki,
Hello, I would first like to know if you engine is a 3.8liter, the 8th digit of the v.i.n. should be an "k", if it is let me say that the most likely culprit is the fuel pressure regulator. The crank sensor is a good suggestion, but if it causes a stall, it usually has to cool down before the engine will restart., The fuel pressure regulator will create the stall while cruising or on decell, as while your cruising you slow some the vacuum in the intake changes and fuel bypasses the regulator and engine stalls. This is usually evident by seeing fuel or wetness at the pressure regulator supply port, or a wet looking vacuum hose.
ok, we picked the car up from Buick mechanics, they said they checked everything and came up with old codes and cleared the history and they thought it was a loose battery cable. We started the car and the check engine light came back on and they ran diagnostics again. There were two codes and they are going to look them up,- one p1361. The diagnostics he thought indicated power train module(?). It is a 3.8 liter, 8th digit is L. By cruising do you mean cruise control. The last time it died twice while accelerating.
the dtc p1361 is a error code between the pcm(powertrain control module) also know as the engine computer and the ignition control module. it could be one of the two modules or the wiring between them causing the problem. I would replace the ignition control module before replacing the pcm, the cost is lower and seems more likely the problem part.