1996 Buick LeSabre stalling.

Hi guys, new member here. Just to start off, i am by no means a ''car expert'' so forgive me if i don't understand some of the things you tell me if i ask you what it is. I have a 1996 Buick LeSabre, only have 85 thousand miles on it. Never had a problem with it until about this past august.

The day i got discharged from the navy, i went to my car, started it up, and it immediatly started idling rough, with the rpms dipping well below 1000. It eventually would revv itself up to about 3000 rpm and would smooth out.This in turn caused the check engine light to come on, got an ob2 scanner, got code P0102. It drove absolutely fine from Norfolk, VA to Richmond, Va (about 110 miles).

So I took it to the mechanic, he changed my MAF sensor out (it had went bad) and the car was running back to normal. Its ran perfectly fine for about a month and a half until about 2 weeks ago. I was at a stop light and i felt my car starting to rumble, noticed my rpms started dipping back below 1,000 , battery voltage started to weaken etc. Light turned green i pressed on the gas and it started to miss like CRAZY. I didn't drive it for about 2 days because i didn't want to get broken down out in rush hour traffic. So i finally took it for a spin around 9 at night, it ran fine, no problems at all.

Well I just tried to brush it off like nothing was wrong (stupid i know) deep down i knew something was a miss. It ran fine for about 3-4 days and then when i was out driving it started to miss badly yet again. Immediatly drove it home and didn't drive it for about 3-4 days.Finally went back out, started it, decided to let it warm up for 5-10 minutes. When i did this it worked absolutely perfect, no problems at all. i took it out to the interstate, put it on cruise control going about 70 MPH (2k rpms constant) for about 20 miles, no missing, nothing wrong.

Well yesterday, I went to start my car up, and soon as i started it it started to rumble and idle very roughly and after about 5-10 seconds it stalled completely(shut off). Waited about an hour, and tried to start it again, and got the same exact response, started it, idles roughly with the rpms dipping below 1000 before completely stalling. The thing that baffles me right now is that there is no CEL light on at all. As much as i hated seeing the CEL , i wish it would turn on lol. I just want to figure out if theres anything i can look for to possibly clean/change out before i call a tow truck and have it towed to the mechanic. I heard even though the check engine light isn't on, that the ob2 can still detect the code, is this true?

Ty for any advice you give me, sorry for the long story!

Happy thanksgiving all. Just wanted to stop in and say i found the problem. Even though i wasn't getting a check engine light, i hooked the obd2 scanner up and got a P0300 (random misfire). Went around and fiddled with some sensors. Basically just unplugging a sensor, then starting to car to see if that was the problem. Well finally i got to my MAF sensor (which is what i just replaced a month and a half ago) and what do you know, the car starts up and doesn't stall.

Took it for a test run and it ran great. Not quite sure why the new MAF sensor worked perfectly fine for a month and a half then started to fail. Any ideas why that may be? I'm just disappointed that i got it replaced and now i have it failing again. Ty all, happy holidays!:cool:

Many reman sensors are experiencing this issue. Cardone has had problems in the past with their MAF's. Keep in mind that still could be masking another problem by disconnecting the maf and causing the pcm to use default settings.

At the risk of being accused of piling on I'll second what the Wedge Driver suggested. I've had at least two Series II engines with supposedly recurring MAF failures come in and go away for a few weeks at a time and the eventual solution was to replace the MAF electrical connector in the wire harness and not the MAF itself. There is a reason these connectors are available in the aftermarket.

Make sure the rest of the system connected to that suspect device is intact.

At the risk of being accused of piling on I'll second what the Wedge Driver suggested. I've had at least two Series II engines with supposedly recurring MAF failures come in and go away for a few weeks at a time and the eventual solution was to replace the MAF electrical connector in the wire harness and not the MAF itself. There is a reason these connectors are available in the aftermarket.

Make sure the rest of the system connected to that suspect device is intact.

Not piling on at all. I forget about the problematic connector.