HELP! Electrical problem. car just quits!

I just bought a 97 grand prix on Wednesday, I was driving the car and it just quit! total shut down. I had it towed to a dealer and they checked out the electrical system and said it was only the battery cables, they cleaned them off and charged the battery. I drive it 3 blocks and the car quit again. The checked it over again and said that I all of a sudden now have a bad battery. The put a new battery in and I drove away. 20 miles later the car quit...no power whatsoever. waited a hour and started up again and drove it home at which it died in my driveway. I can now turn the car over but it won't start........any help anyone could give me would be very much appreciated! Thanks Jay

Alternator.......alternator....alternator.......di d I mention it's probably the alternator? Have it checked at a place like Autozone. They can put it on a machine and check it for you.

Had the car checked out at 2 pontiac dealers, they checked everyting including the alternator.......anymore ideas would be great...
thanks

Jay

have any of the dealerships checked the ignition module.They will do the same thing as what you have discribed and then when the module cools down it will work again. You also might have a bad diode in your alternator that is only acting up under vibration of the engine.If the battery is being drained when this happens, I would try replacing the alternator first.

The Dealer has replaced the Coolant Temperature sensor....hope thats it...so far so good. Thanks for all your reply's

Jay

I have my doubts regarding the coolant sensor. That device may create somne driveability complaints, but will not kill the vehicle. Neither will the alternator. I have seen two devices that will, however. The crankshaft position sensor, which allows the computer and the module to control the ignition, can do that. The other is the previously mentioned ignition module. It will control the ignition coils, when it works. If the logic in this device dies, so will the vehicle. I have repalced both on numerous occasions, fixing the vehicle. Two caveats, though. The technician will need to be willing to troubleshoot when the problem occurs, not just guess. Guessing is expensive, both in time and parts. The other is that you must give the tech all of the info he needs to duplicate the problem and you must give him the time and patience to find it. The devices I mentioned are the likely culprits, not the only ones. I have found loose connections, bad grounds, defective computers, etc. Intermittents are the worst to find. They require time and patience. When the problem occurs, does the entire vehicle die, or just the engine? Do the headlights work? How about the radio. If you give me a list of what does and does not work, I can help the tech find the problem. Ray

I just bought a 97 grand prix on Wednesday, I was driving the car and it just quit! total shut down. I had it towed to a dealer and they checked out the electrical system and said it was only the battery cables, they cleaned them off and charged the battery. I drive it 3 blocks and the car quit again. The checked it over again and said that I all of a sudden now have a bad battery. The put a new battery in and I drove away. 20 miles later the car quit...no power whatsoever. waited a hour and started up again and drove it home at which it died in my driveway. I can now turn the car over but it won't start........any help anyone could give me would be very much appreciated! Thanks Jay
Jay, Have a fuel pump pressure gauge put on the line just prior to the injector pump...my bet is your fuel pump has gone south. What you describe is exactly what my 98 did. Sadly, it was a 546$ fix.

Great ideas guys. The car only quits. all the electrical works. The Dealer Did put on a fuel pump pressure gauge. It took 2 weeks before the car quit again. I looked under the hood at the pressure gauge and it showed 45psi. Told the dealer and they said that since the fuel pump is working then it must be the ignition module. They have ordered it and will be replacing it sooooon. I will let you guys know if that works....the bummer is that it is so intermittent that it could take a month the die again..... :mad: hoping for the best. Thanks all!

Jay

I am having the exact same problem with my '93. I have been monitoring this thread for suggestions. I wish us both luck on correcting this headache!

listen check the cranksensor and ignition moduale i had the same problem and it was the igniton moduale. good luck

It's the fuse panel resistor. I'd put money on it. Don't jump the car! You'll blow through the resistor and blow out your fuse panel. My car died like that and we couldn't figure out what it was for 5 weeks. Went to the dealer and $600 later it was running.

Hey, I had a similar problem recently - several months of stalling on my 2000 Grand Prix. Pontiac dealer checked 2 times - couldn't find anything. It stalled at various speeds, temperatures, etc. - no consistency whatsoever - but gradually got more frequent up to 3 or 4 times a day. Usually it would restart after about 5 minutes, but occasionally had to wait 30+ minutes to restart. Finally, thanks to these various sites with other people's car problems, I found some ideas to give to the mechanics. They ended up fixing the crankshaft indicator switch - it had a hairline crack they couldn't see initially - and all is good now. Just wanted to post so others could try this if they're having similar problems.

Thank you all!! I bought an ignition module but just need advice on anything special to pay attention to when installing it. Thanks again!!

Well the 2 most likely causes of your problem are:

Crank Position sensor

Fuel Pump resistor

What ignition module did you buy?? 97 GPs don't have ignition modules unless you are referring to a coil pack, which rarely go bad.

Well the 2 most likely causes of your problem are:

Crank Position sensor

Fuel Pump resistor

What ignition module did you buy?? 97 GPs don't have ignition modules unless you are referring to a coil pack, which rarely go bad.


I agree I had the same problems with my 99 GTP and the dealer would never do anything until I brought the car in for another service and it died in front of them....they still could not get the computer to scan to see whats wrong with it...

They eventually replaced the CPS (Crank Postion Sensor) and the car never had any problems....well until I wreaked it a year later