2002 Impala. Starts, then dies immediately

[LandDestroyer]

Ok, so here is some back ground:
Bought car used August, 2005.
Had lots of issues, including cat converter going out, pass lock issue where it wouldn't start, etc.

3 weeks ago, it would start squealing for about 10-30 seconds and temp gauge would rise, then go back down and stop squeling. I was going to bring it into the shop for that...but then...at the end of this past week:

I was leaving my apartment and the car died. I put it in park and restarted it and it made it to work.
After work it started and I went to grab food. When I came back out of the food place, I started it, backed out of the parking space, turned, and it died. For several minutes, I'd turn the key, it'd start, and then die in a second before I could even put it into drive. I left with my roommate who followed me to the food place. We came back about 30 minutes later. It started and we dropped it and the key over-night at the local Chevy place.

They tried all day to reproduce it, but it never died on them. I picked it up, drove down the street, and it died on me. It was after hours Friday night, so nobody has gotten to look at it yet. The past 2 days, i've driven over there to see if it would start. saturday, i drove it around the building it is parked at, and as I was parking it, it sputtered a little (shook) and died.

sunday, i tried to start it and it just kept dying in 1 second.

I'm really worried, b/c the dealership said they couldn't find anything wrong with it and it had no codes. one guy wondered if since i'd just filled it up the night before when it was very low on gas, maybe water got in the gas tank, but don't think so.

So, first, why is it dying a second after starting. That's the number 1 priority, then the squealing (though that won't matter if I can't drive it). It's got about 80,000 miles on it, and I still owe almost $4000 on it. I need my car working this week...I'm supposed to drive to Chicago.

Please help! The Chevy place didn't figure it out, but I hope you all can.

Thanks!

- Chris

[1mmueller]

The way to figure this out is with a spark checker a stethescope and a fuel pressure guage.

If when the problem happens with any one of these items you could rule out the ignition system, the injectors clicking, or the fuel pump not pumping.

[luvmy02impala]

Did anyone drop anything into the gas tank? When the car is running the fuel pump starts to draw gas into the line. When something comes down, it could block the pull of fuel and cause a stall. Then after the pressure releases, the item moves away from the inlet. Hence you will be able to start again.

My father in law suggests checking the fuel filter/fuel pump. Also check the wiring for the fuel pump. If they are cleared, then check the ignition module. If the ignition module is failing, you would lose power, since some, not all cylinders are firing (when the car is running).

[crazy Jim]

My '02 acted similar to this when the fuel pressure regulator crapped out. 60U$ and a few minutes work and it was fixed.

[LandDestroyer]

Thanks so much for the input and feel free to keep posting! I will contact the shop it's parked at in about 2 hours and see if they can look at it for me and I will bring them the key.

Sadly, I am very inexperienced with cars, only real work I did was being guided in helping replace the heads on my old 91 ranger about 6 years ago, so I don't have confidence in myself to work on my vehicle.

Thanks again and hope to hear thoughts from more people!

- Chris

[greg123]

Originally Posted by LandDestroyer

Thanks so much for the input and feel free to keep posting! I will contact the shop it's parked at in about 2 hours and see if they can look at it for me and I will bring them the key.

Sadly, I am very inexperienced with cars, only real work I did was being guided in helping replace the heads on my old 91 ranger about 6 years ago, so I don't have confidence in myself to work on my vehicle.

Thanks again and hope to hear thoughts from more people!

- Chris

turn the key to the on position and leave it there for 10 minutes. . then try starting it. my grand am did the same exact thing.

[LandDestroyer]

I just got a call from the auto place. They said:
The input gasket is bad and it's leaking oil on the cam sensor. The cam sensor gets soaked eventually and doesn't work right with the rest of the car.
This causes it to (something...basically makes it not work)...

Said it would cost approx. $640 to fix.

Does this sound right? I'm so tired of spending money on this car. He said I could spend $200 to fix the sensor, but the leak would eventually do the same thing. If it woulnd't be the wrong thing to do, would be tempted to spend that $200 and then try to get a mazda6 this week and use this as a trade in...but that wouldn't be right...still tired of repairing this damn car.

Help! I have two hours to let this guy know in time to order the part and get my car fixed in time for the weekend.

Thanks!

- Chris

[LandDestroyer]

Originally Posted by greg123

turn the key to the on position and leave it there for 10 minutes. . then try starting it. my grand am did the same exact thing.

Do you know what caused that problem? Sounds like you had the *I won't start b/c of the stupid pass lock system". I've already had to spend several hundred dollars to fix that a few months back. They say the above post is this problem. Although today when the shop guy at this new shop tried to start it (i watched) it tried to start but didn't at all, so the situation had gotten worse.

[LandDestroyer]

I went ahead and ok'd the work, but I'm beyond frustrated. After having the Cat converter go out (and since it took 3 different shops and hundreds of $ to figure out that's what it was, the extended warranty only covered the last work), I've had the passlock problem, I've had this problem, plus some early ones that were sort of tangled up with the cat converter problem.

I was looking up the values on the car. Trade in value is about 4800, but a private party sell is about $6300. I owe a little under $4000 on it currently (and about to spend at least $640 on it this week to get it running again). I would like to get a Mazda6, but I've never tried to sell a car and wonder if I should just try to see if I can trade it in or if it's worth it to try and sell it.

Thoughts about how I should get rid of it? Also, thoughts about if chevy will do a recall on the pass lock or the intake gasket?

I went here
http://www.mycarstats.com/safetystation.asp?mmmakes=CHEVROLET&mmmodels=IMPAL A&year=2002

and saw that the intake gasket goes wrong on everyone like the converter and the passlock.

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by LandDestroyer

Ok, so here is some back ground:
Bought car used August, 2005.
Had lots of issues, including cat converter going out, pass lock issue where it wouldn't start, etc.

3 weeks ago, it would start squealing for about 10-30 seconds and temp gauge would rise, then go back down and stop squeling. I was going to bring it into the shop for that...but then...at the end of this past week:

I was leaving my apartment and the car died. I put it in park and restarted it and it made it to work.
After work it started and I went to grab food. When I came back out of the food place, I started it, backed out of the parking space, turned, and it died. For several minutes, I'd turn the key, it'd start, and then die in a second before I could even put it into drive. I left with my roommate who followed me to the food place. We came back about 30 minutes later. It started and we dropped it and the key over-night at the local Chevy place.

They tried all day to reproduce it, but it never died on them. I picked it up, drove down the street, and it died on me. It was after hours Friday night, so nobody has gotten to look at it yet. The past 2 days, i've driven over there to see if it would start. saturday, i drove it around the building it is parked at, and as I was parking it, it sputtered a little (shook) and died.

sunday, i tried to start it and it just kept dying in 1 second.

I'm really worried, b/c the dealership said they couldn't find anything wrong with it and it had no codes. one guy wondered if since i'd just filled it up the night before when it was very low on gas, maybe water got in the gas tank, but don't think so.

So, first, why is it dying a second after starting. That's the number 1 priority, then the squealing (though that won't matter if I can't drive it). It's got about 80,000 miles on it, and I still owe almost $4000 on it. I need my car working this week...I'm supposed to drive to Chicago.

Please help! The Chevy place didn't figure it out, but I hope you all can. Please e-mail me at ChristopherLeeGregory AT msn.com

Thanks!

- Chris

Start and run for 30 seconds and then dye points to the anti theft/ security system.
A good quick test is to see if the anti theft/ security goes out or blinks after key is turned on
If not you need to check for body PCM codes.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[Gems]

As the regulars in this forum know, I have had a very similar problem with my 2001 LS for over a year now... For me, it is a very intermittant problem... The car will be perfect for several months and then out of the blue it happens again... I've changed the fuel filter, fuel pressure regulator with no luck... Next on my list are the cam and crankshaft position sensors and the fuel pump... By the way, your CAT replacement should have been covered by GM as it is a know defect and GM extended the warranty on it for 10 years, 120K miles... Good luck and keep us posted!

[Gems]

Read thru my LONG thread for some background on what I've gone thru with this problem!

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=603089

[crazy Jim]

* If you trade your car in on another one you will only pay tax on the difference. You will get less money from the dealer compared to selling the car out-right but the savings on the tax will make some of it back plus you will not have to pay to advertise and then wait to see if it sells.

* One other thing I always consider when purchasing a new vehicle is; do I want a monthly payment or do I keep the old car and deal with a repair bill every now and then. It sounds like you have gone through most of the usual issues with the Impala so you may wanna reconsider just keeping it.

* Another thing to consider when buying a car is to buy one that there are lots of them on the road. This way there are plenty of spare parts laying around in wrecking yards and the problems are widely known and can be diagnosed fairly easily. This is why I bought the Grand Am and Impala there are literally millions of these cars on the road. I also learned how to do most of my own repairs to help defray the repair costs.

[LandDestroyer]

$670 and a new intake gasket/cam sensor/labor later... I really feel hatred toward Chevy and Impalas. On an 02 Impala I financed in August of 05 for 8 thousand something I believe, I think I'm at about $3000 in repair bills since then. So, over a third of the value of the car I've had to spend again on repair bills b/c Chevy won't use good intake gaskets, passlock systems, and catalytic converters (yeah, the last time was covered under the extended warranty...but not all the work trying to figure out what was wrong...long story).

... so tired of this ...

thanks everyone for your input. - chris

[Gems]

Geeze, that sure sucks.... About $100 worth of parts and $500+ of labor.... I'm interested to know if the new cam sensor fixes your no-start problem... The sensor itself is only about a $40 item.... The best thing I ever did when I bought my '01 was to invest in the GM Major Guard plan with $0 deductible.... It's paid for itself more than once...