2003 grand am shuts down

Updated 4/28/05
My car is a 2003 Grand Am 5-speed manual transmission. About a week ago, the car suddenly stalled out as I was slowing down for a light. I was able to restart it immediately (while still rolling) and continue driving. As soon as I pushed in the clutch and touched my brake for the next light, the car stalled out again. It did this four times before I was able to pull into a safe place off the road. Of course, when the car stalled out I had no steering, but I did have such things as horn and radio. After stopping and parking the car and shutting it off for a little bit, I was then able to restart it car and drive without it stalling.

I had the car towed to the dealership, and they could find nothing wrong. The car did not even show any codes that it had stalled at all. They could not duplicate the problem, so I was told to take it home.

It drove fine for the next eight days when the same thing happened again. I was going down a road, pushed in the clutch and touched the brake to begin my right turn, and it stalled out immediately. I restarted it again while still rolling and continued driving. The car stalled out three times before I could pull it into a school parking lot where I shut it off for a couple of minutes. I started it up again and it has driven fine (that was day before yesterday on Monday.) I again took the car to the dealership, and again, they could find nothing wrong. They can’t get it to duplicate.

So, I expect this will happen again within the next week or so.

The car has absolutely no problem starting – it fires immediately. Upon stalling the gages bury themselves – everything goes to the left, and the battery light comes on (sometimes the oil light does too.)

Thanks, johnraf

Welcome to the forum...

Does this happen with the A/C on/off or does that even matter? Is it an immediate shut down, or does it take a second after the clutch is depressed?

From your quick description it sounds like it may be a vacuum problem especially since you say that you loose every thing. Do the brakes get hard right away or do you still have power braske as you pull over to the side of the road?

do you have cruise control? was it on at the time your problem happened? If so, there is a cruise-disconnect switch at the clutch pedal that deactivates the cruise when the clutch is depressed, it may be shorting out your runn-condition.

Welcome to the forum...

Does this happen with the A/C on/off or does that even matter? Is it an immediate shut down, or does it take a second after the clutch is depressed?

From your quick description it sounds like it may be a vacuum problem especially since you say that you loose every thing. Do the brakes get hard right away or do you still have power braske as you pull over to the side of the road?



The A/C was off, and I don’t think this matters. The shut down is immediate. As soon as I push in the clutch – I don’t even have time to downshift. I’m not sure about the brakes – I’m pretty sure that I’ve still got them when it stalls out.

do you have cruise control? was it on at the time your problem happened? If so, there is a cruise-disconnect switch at the clutch pedal that deactivates the cruise when the clutch is depressed, it may be shorting out your runn-condition.

Yes, I have cruise control, but it was not on either time that this happened.

Well thats a good thing...having brakes I mean. The reason for the ? about the A/C is the Vacuum advance that kicks in with the A/C being used, just trying to eliminate possibilities. I know that with my 96 2.4 Quad when I depress the clutch the tach drops fast down to about 1000 RPM but does not go any further.

When you say that the guages bury themselves do they bounce around first or just dive down? when this happened in my car it turned out to be a bad alternator, I had the same thing with the clutch... depress it and the thing died,I didn't even get a chance to apply the brake. Sorry to be jumping around like this but I just reread your thread and realized I did have a similar problem, Mine started with the battery light coming on, I drove the car about 49 miles from the school I was attending to home running directly from the battery. I did make it home. the next morning I tried to make it to the garage, I was able to start the car but only made it about a block when I came to the stop sign I depressed the ckutch and she died. I jumped the car because the bat was dead, It started right up went about 100feet and had to depress the clutch and she died again,finally had it towed. Replaced the alt and bat and things were fine.

I think my described happening sounds similar to your's but there are differences.

You may want to stop at Autozone or a generator shop and have them check the electrical system, but I would first check all of the connections, Maybe there is a loose terminal or connection that is causing the problem.

Sorry for so much BS but I want to lay everything out and see if something pops out at me.

Hope this helps.

I have this same exact intermittent problem. Has done it since new and have had in shop 3 times for it and everytime they cant find or duplicate trouble. The way I explain it is when coming to a stop it just idles to low ( like the idle is set to idle at "0" rpm's ) and just dies due to lack of idle speed. It starts right up and if I keep the gas pedal partially pushed stays running. I think it has something to do with what ever device controls the idle speed. It really has a pattern in that after I stop driving the car to go in somewhere or sits over night it quits until next time. Which next time may be a month apart. Don't know what triggers it but is either there or not. It also has problem where like if im on the highway driving and get off the idle stays up to about 3,000 rpms and cant get it to kick down right away. Now out of warranty and I'm sure will get worse. Also now have this squaking coming from the front left suspension constantly when riding down road and just hitting normal defects in the road. Not sure what this is yet..