92 Royal runs great then Dies intermittently

[A Royal Pain]

1992 Oldsmobile eighty eight Royal w/3.8l engine approx 120k miles

Background: the car sat for 1 year. I decided to start using it again. I needed to smog it so I replaced plugs, oil, and the air filter. The car passed smog easily. I drove the car about 1000 miles (Round trip to LA) One day, the car died just after getting off the freeway. The car doesn't have the diagnostic pin in the ODB1 port so I had to buy an Anova OBD1/2 reader.(the nice one) I found that I was unable to read any codes. I tried starting and, it did, so I drove it home. I drove it to work the next day and met my wife at outback for dinner. When I left the restaurant to go home, the car wouldn't start. I sprayed some starter fluid in the intake and she started right up. I drove it halfway home and the car died on the freeway. I sprayed more starter fluid in the intake and again, it started right up. I drove it to a parking lot, threw a fuel pressure guage on it. The reading showed 35 psi at idle and 40 when reved. (no vacuum leak) I let it idle for about .5 hour then drove it home without problem. Thinking that maybe the fuel pump was seazing, I replaced it allong with the fuel filter. I test drove it for 15 miles with no problems and figured it was fixed. That was yesterday. Today I drove the car for less than a mile and it died again. (the started fluid worked like a charm). Other than the times when this car dies, she runs just fine. No hesitation, no roughness, no nothing. she purrs like a kitten then, with no warning, dead. Any ideas?

Bad Sensor Maybe?
Bad ECU?

[88oldstrouble]

did u ever figure out what it was?

[bluebowtie67]

same problem here.. any answer??

[MERC_DoD]

Any answer?..... Same problem here but with a 92 Pontiac Bonneville. Mine just dies and after I pull off road after 3-4 trys Im back on the road again. I am thinking maybe the module under the coil pack.

[maxwedge]

See if you have spark when this happens, just basic diagnostics.

[D Ryan]

Originally Posted by A Royal Pain

1992 Oldsmobile eighty eight Royal w/3.8l engine approx 120k miles

Background: the car sat for 1 year. I decided to start using it again. I needed to smog it so I replaced plugs, oil, and the air filter. The car passed smog easily. I drove the car about 1000 miles (Round trip to LA) One day, the car died just after getting off the freeway. The car doesn't have the diagnostic pin in the ODB1 port so I had to buy an Anova OBD1/2 reader.(the nice one) I found that I was unable to read any codes. I tried starting and, it did, so I drove it home. I drove it to work the next day and met my wife at outback for dinner. When I left the restaurant to go home, the car wouldn't start. I sprayed some starter fluid in the intake and she started right up. I drove it halfway home and the car died on the freeway. I sprayed more starter fluid in the intake and again, it started right up. I drove it to a parking lot, threw a fuel pressure guage on it. The reading showed 35 psi at idle and 40 when reved. (no vacuum leak) I let it idle for about .5 hour then drove it home without problem. Thinking that maybe the fuel pump was seazing, I replaced it allong with the fuel filter. I test drove it for 15 miles with no problems and figured it was fixed. That was yesterday. Today I drove the car for less than a mile and it died again. (the started fluid worked like a charm). Other than the times when this car dies, she runs just fine. No hesitation, no roughness, no nothing. she purrs like a kitten then, with no warning, dead. Any ideas?

Bad Sensor Maybe?
Bad ECU?

Some time ago I had a problem simular to this, coming home from a vacation. It seemed tobe that when the car got warmed up it would die. So what I did was pull into a filling station and got a bucket of water and poured it onto the cam position sensor with engine running, it instently began running and I was good until it got heated up again. I was still 100 miles from home and had the kids in the car, and it was on a Sunday. This was the first car I had with sensors.

The car was a 88 Buick park 3.8 ave and the hood opens from the rear and then comes up. When you first release it it comes up a bit in the front, It could be drivin like that. It was like a large air scoop , the extra air passing over the engine and sensor kept it cool enough to run right and get it home.

After I got it home I removed the sensor to replace it. I put a Ohm meter on it and it was working, then I heated it up and put the meter on it again, no contact. There were no codes set when this happened.
Just a though!