96 monte stalling now dead

I've searched this forum for hours and really didn't find any breakthrough solutions. My daughter has a 96 Monte 3.1L with about 160,000 miles. It's been giving her problems for months now with stalling. In every case she was always able to get it started usually by letting the car sit for a while. Tonight she called from a local shopping center, it would not start. She just drove home from work on the freeway for 25 miles and was going down the off ramp when it started to sputter. She made it to the shopping center where it died. I met her there and when trying to start it, it would sputter and sound like it wanted to start but never would stay running. When it did run it would sputter and pop and sounded like a cylinder or 2 were firing here and there then would die. After putzing with it for about 10 minutes I finally held the gas pedal down a bit and when it sounded like it wanted to start I kinda violently pushed down and up on the gas pedal and eventually it started to run smooth, idled real high for a short time, then kept running normal and smooth. I then drove it home (about 5 miles) and it ran fine. Popped the hood in the driveway with the engine still running then suddenly it started to chug kinda like in the old days when the choke was stuck then died. I tried restarting again and it did the same thing. Would sputter and chug but never restarted. I pulled the electronic idle speed control and cleaned it and the hole it goes into. No help. Pulled the throttle position sensor and found it to be faulty. Would not hold steady ohms while testing it, in fact when I just let it sit undisturbed while hooked to the meter the ohms would jump up and down. While I didn't think this was necessarily the main problem I did replace it. But that didn't help. I pulled the new sensor to see if it was faulty and it's fine. Now the thing won't start at all. Not even firing while cranking like there is no gas or no spark. I'm not getting a gassy smell under the hood like it's flooding by the way. And I'm not about to throw parts at it by just guessing so if anyone has any helpful suggestions I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

Have a helper crank, while you visually check for spark at the plugs. If you have spark everywhere, use a gage and check fuel pressure. Some of the national brand autostores used to loan out a fuel pressure gage, if you don't have one. You could try starter fluid, see if it will start. I usually take the airduct loose from the throttle-body, open the throttle just a little, spray some past the throttle blade, stand back from the vehicle, have helper crank it. I've heard of people getting burned, using starter fluid. Heard of people blowing the intake manifold off the vehicle, guess they used too much spray. The responsibility is yours.

Thanks for the reply. You and I are on the same page. Checked spark earlier today on all 3 front spark plugs and they all tested ok, the gaps were good, spark plugs were dry. I then had to drive my daughter to work 30 miles away and get breakfast. Upon returning I checked fuel pressure while cranking the engine (yes I have a gauge) and there is none, bone dry. I also replaced the fuel pump relay with an exact matching one (and one that I know works) from my Venture van, that didn't help. What's the best way to determine if the fuel pump is bad? My brother in law just replaced his and as it turned out it wasn't the fuel pump it was some wiring that was bad. Hours of work wasted removing and replacing the tank. What about the fuel pressure regulator? I removed the vacuum line running to it and no gas is squirting out of it while cranking the engine but there is a strong gassy smell coming out of the vacuum port. Is there a way to test them?

When the problem is ongoing, I'd check voltage and ground at the fuel pump connector, engine cranking. Gray wire is voltage, black is ground. If you have good voltage and ground with no pump action, suspect the pump. The fuel filter is ok? Don't take any fuel lines loose unless your sure, no pressure on the system. How long since tune-up? Can you check for applicable trouble codes? At the least you need an obd2 code reader.

No it's not pulling any codes. I was hoping I didn't have to drop the gas tank. It's nearly 3/4 full. Guess it's time to start siphoning.

How about voltage and ground at the pump connector, usually you can react the connector without dropping the tank.

Yeah I wasn't sure what I was going to find until I got the car lifted a bit so I could crawl under. The voltage is fine at the connector. Gave 12 volts for a couple of seconds with the ignition on then steady while cranking. I could usually hear the fuel pump running on other cars by putting my ear to the filler tube with the gas cap off. Would I hear it on this car? Cuz I'm not hearing anything when a helper turns on the ignition.

My hearing is no good, I can't hear the pump, engine cranking. Is the ground ok?

When you say test the ground do you mean testing with an ohm meter the ground wire on the fuel pump side of the connector to the frame of the car?

With the pump connector loose, you can use a testlite between gray wire and black wire, engine cranking, if the testlite comes on, the ground should be ok.

Let's try this again. I posted a reply but it never appeared.

If the fuel pressure regulator at the end of the fuel rail were bad would it completely stop the fuel flow and report a zero with the pressure test?

As it turns out this stalling problem has been going on for at least 6 months now. Is this something typical of a fuel pump, randomly stop pumping for a few minutes that start up again? And it never stalled when driving down the road. She does a lot of freeway driving and it never stalled then. It always happened when stopped or coming to a stop. Or when parking it for an hour or so, do some shopping then try to restart it. Because the pressure regulator is vacuum controlled it leads me to believe it could be the problem because of the vacuum changes when slowing down or then the engine is idling. But then it would have to be completely stopping fuel flow and I don't know if it is capable of that.

I'm going to do some more testing today including putting the pressure test gauge before the regulator maybe even before the fuel filter.

If there is no flow, it isn't the regulator. Remove the fuel filter, aim supply line into container, crank the engine, is there any flow? If the answer is no and you have good voltage and ground at the pump, suspect the pump.

I have heard it said the pressure regulator doesn't make pressure, the fuel pump does. Don't ask me to explain, gives me headache thinking about it.lol

Update: New fuel pump, strainer, fuel filter and gas tank straps and it's running great again. Thanks for your help jdl. :)

Glad you got it going your way.

I am reviving this thread from a year ago.

My symptoms are almost exactly the same as the OP's.
97 3.1 with 170K on the clock.
It has been going really strong and I had no issues at all, well except occasional catalytic converter code (efficiency below threshold, does not seem to be related).

I got back home yesterday after a 2 hr drive (in heavy rain), and as I was making a final turn (note that I made it a very sharp turn at high speed) the car stalled on me, with tank 3/4 full.

The symptoms were same as when 2 weeks ago I run out of fuel (first time ever, my fuel gauge has never been working).
So I immediately realized it must not be getting fuel.

I had no tools at that point, but I manually checked if there is a pressure in the rails (by pressing on the release valve).
Fuel came out under high pressure, but after that, it was gone.
Now when I turn ignition on (prior to cranking) I hear no fuel pump pressurizing the system, and there is no fuel coming out of the fuel rail.

Questions:
1. The car is worth what, $1k? with fuel pumps costing $300-$400, how many hours of labor would a mechanic need to replace it (see where I am going? does it make financial sense to fix it?)
2. How can I test pressure regulator
3. Where do the wires to fuel pump run? I need to locate them to check if they didn't get disconnected.
4. Other simple things to check (I always want to go with the simple stuff).

Thanks guys!
Sobek

Just for kicks- beat on the bottom of the tank while a helper is cranking the starter-- If car starts, then you know for sure your FP is bad and needs replaced.

My daughter's Monte stalled at least a dozen times before the fuel pump finally gave up. This went on for about a half a year. Finding the wires that led to the tank was pretty easy. There's was a connector near the tank where you can test voltages and such. I'm doing this out of memory as the car blew a head gasket just before Christmas so she donated it to one of those naughty boys camps.

As far as your question about whether it's worth repairing. A wise man once told me that the least expensive car to own is to keep the one you have. How true that actually is. But it all depends on how long you plan to keep it. To spend $400. on repairing a $1000. car may not seem to be a good investment. But if you can drive it for a few more years vs spending $10,000 to $20,000 on a replacement... Well you do the math. I owned a 1985 Celebrity for 13 years and put money into it up until the end. Over all that car (including the initial $3500. and excluding things like oil and tires) only cost me about $5200. That's a great 13 year investment.

Fair enough!
Thanks for your replies brcidd and dj.

I did bang on the tank with a rubber mallet and the car started running for 4 seconds.
Then it died and now won't start no matter how much more I try.

This definitely points to the fuel pump, which seems to have died completely now.
I did more reading on the subject and the whole procedure doesn't seem to be that complicated.
Only issue I see is my small garage and removal of the tank, but if there was enough space to change oil, that should be enough to do the fuel pump.

So there I go, parts are ordered! (I was able to find a pump for $92, which seemed too good to be true, but it seems to be a discounted OE part).

I read in Haynes manual that on some models you need a special tool to remove lines going into the tank.
How do I know if I need it?

Link to fuel pump i bought:
http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/sku/Chevrolet/Monte_Carlo/Replacement/Fuel_Pump/1997/LS/6_Cyl_3-dot-1L/REPC314524.html?tlc=Engine+%26+Drivetrain&intcmpid=Product+Listings+Best+Seller

Update.
I replaced fuel pump and the has been running great for the past 1.5 months!
$100 cost total.

Thanks for the support guys, I don't think I would take a stab at it otherwise.