90 3.1 Lumina Stalling out.

[caw333]

My old work car needs a little help. It started stalling out driving down the road and will not crank again for a couple hours and then fires up like nothings wrong. I changed out the fuel pump, strainer and filter and still stalling out. Yesterday I changed out the engine computer and I thought that was it cause it started running like a brand new motor again. and then on my way home from work this evening it stalled again. Just driving down the road at about 60 or so its like someone turns the key off, engine goes dead just like that. You can crank and crank on it all you want and nothing but the engine turning over. also this evening after I had it pulled home it wouldn't even turn over, The battery is new and wasn't dead. I don't know if this had anything to do with anything but I put a battery charger on it and put the charger in crank mode and the car started right up. It dosn't sling any codes at all when it dies. There were no codes stored in the computer . Its a 3.1 90 model euro.

[Blue Bowtie]

It might help to meter the voltage at the ICM while cranking. It would also help to verify that there is voltage at the injectors with the ignition on.

Does the engine restart if you manually add fuel (starting fluid or gasoline)?

Is there fuel pressure when it fails to start? There should be at least 31 PSIG at the fuel rails.

[cavalier9777]

Originally Posted by caw333

My old work car needs a little help. It started stalling out driving down the road and will not crank again for a couple hours and then fires up like nothings wrong. I changed out the fuel pump, strainer and filter and still stalling out. Yesterday I changed out the engine computer and I thought that was it cause it started running like a brand new motor again. and then on my way home from work this evening it stalled again. Just driving down the road at about 60 or so its like someone turns the key off, engine goes dead just like that. You can crank and crank on it all you want and nothing but the engine turning over. also this evening after I had it pulled home it wouldn't even turn over, The battery is new and wasn't dead. I don't know if this had anything to do with anything but I put a battery charger on it and put the charger in crank mode and the car started right up. It dosn't sling any codes at all when it dies. There were no codes stored in the computer . Its a 3.1 90 model euro.

You could also verify if you have a spark when the motor turns over and dont fire up, if you donthave spark: check your crank sensor, and also make sure that the ignition module(plate under coils) and coils are ok. The crank no crank situation sounds like a loose cable to starter, or starter relay. that's what I would begin with.

[caw333]

This problem has been tough due to my 12hr work days. Have very little time in the evenings to do anything. But here is a little bit of what I found out. I was changing out the crankshaft sensor and noticed the 2 wires leading to it had bare wire showing and touching. Started digging a little deeper and found that all the wires behind the power steering pump that lead to the injectors and well alot of electrical stuff where all stuck together and some were showing bare wire. So my project for my next days off are going to be repair and replace some wires. I will repost with the outcome. Thanks for all the help.

[caw333]

Ok... I have it. After changing the ign mod and all coils and crank sensor and computer and fixing wiring... well that wasn't the problem but man did it make the engine run like new except for the stalling out problem after it warmed up. The fix was the fuel injectors. Bought some off ebay just to give it a try and no more stalling out. Problem solved. Thanks everyone and hope this will help someone else.

[jeffcoslacker]

Never seen injectors spontaneously fail at the same time. I think you still have a problem....maybe a bad harness to them, and now that you moved it installing the injectors, you temporarily solved it?

Is this a TBI?

[caw333]

Its a 3.1 multi-port F.I. As far as the wiring I pulled it completly out and checked every wire very thourghly since its easy to get to and not a very long run of wire. What I have read on theses engines are and scene when I pulled the wire is that the fuel injectors are tied into one another and if you have one shorting out it will cause the others to fail when one gets hot and shorts. The way I understood this when I was reseaching it on the net was its like them old Xmas lights that would all go out when one bulb would go bad. The car use to sound like an old log truck when it was running and Idleing, it would die every time you would get close to an idle. It would always start back up though. The engine would also miss from time to time when driving. The car now runs so smooth and quit now that I've got to look down at the tach when stopped to see if its still running. The only code that the car would throw was a code 51 (mem-cal or prom), but after changing the computer it went away but the dieing didn't. Next I changed the fuel pump, stainer and filter, then checked wiring and grounds on engine, replaced the ign mod and all three coils and crankshaft position sensor and pig tail with still no luck. The car ran alot better after all this but it would still die out once it got warmed up and would not crank until completly cool. Had Good spark and fuel pressure at schader valve. And then I stumbled across a guys post who was having the exact same problems and did everything I did and finally changed out the fuel injectors and he said his has been running for over 2 years now. Its only been a week and a half for mine but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the inj was the problem. I truly hope this solved my problem and its not somthing more and I thank you and everyone else for their time to reply. I will also repost if my problem arises again, but I hope I don't have to.

[kevinb70]

Instead of buying new injectors you should have sent them off to get rebuilt... can restore 6 injectors for about $100. (I used Mr Injector in the past).

If you haven't thrown the old ones away, I'd keep them bagged up in case you need to restore your injectors again.