'02 Grand Prix Unknown problem/random dying in traffic.

I have had my '02 Grand Prix GTP for about 4 years, its at 125k miles and recently ran into my first bit of trouble with it.

About a month ago, it started acting up and dying randomly while driving. Just shut off, battery light came on, power steering and brakes went. I would pull over and it would start back up immediately. This only tended to happen when the car was cold, and had been running for less than 15 minutes. I took it to my mechanic, who thought new plugs and wires might fix(the old ones were in rough shape.... poor maintenance on my part).

No codes were put out at all for any of these problems.

Car ran fine for a few days, then it happened once more. Another issue came out as well, while idling in my driveway it started running rough, and put out black smoke before shaking and dying. This happened once more while driving it around the block a few times (after it was warmed up to around ~190)

Still no codes being put out, and mechanic is clueless. I stopped driving it for a few weeks, and just this past weekend I have driven it around 4 or 5 times for 20-40 miles each time, without the slightest incident.

Any ideas? Should I trade this sucker in while it still runs enough to get to a dealership? Such sporadic failings make me concerned and an unreliable car is troublesome to say the least. I am fond of it, but seems like troubleshooting the issue could get quite costly.

Welcome to AF.

Based on your symptoms either a crank position sensor or MAF sensor. Any other symptoms like TRAC OFF coming on at stall?

nope, trac doesn't come off at stall. Is it not weird that its not putting out any codes?

also let me clarify, it did not die instantly, I mean rapidly yes ,but I could feel the rpm's start drop and it died over 2-3 seconds.

I was driving it the other night, cold, and was going about 40, after about 3 miles. I felt it start to give out, and lights dimmed just a tad... I gassed it up and it seemed to level out.... it did this twice and then was fine for the rest of my drive home(although not a FAR distance... only 10 more miles afterwards)

Really think it could just be a sensor gone bad?

Thank you for your input, I'm glad to have found this forum, very informative and seems to be a pretty friendly community - so many forums out there just loaded with trolls and other unpleasantness.

Sounds like what mine was doing when it had a bad MAF senson.

Try unplugging it. then start the car, if it runs good with the MAF unplugeed you found your problem.

The MAF sensor is on the throttle body. It is a square looking sensor with 3 wires going to it.

had a similar problem with my 98 grand prix, i dealer told me it was the vacuum lie but one i replaced it the problem was still there, my father suggested i clean the MAF sensor with electric cleaning spray, since then i've had no problems.
just a sugestion....