Car dies while I am driving it!

[Tinkerin_wit_tools]

Today, had to get our 1999 Chevy Blazer towed home. It literally stalled out in the middle of a busy street while being driven and wouldn't start. Once I got it home, I removed the easy stuff, the battery and alternator and took it to the parts shop for testing. The alternator passed and the battery lost 15% juice. Now, since this is only three months old, I found that funny. Fully charged and put back in the vehicle, drove it back there and the starter read ok as well. Now, many years ago, my ex'es car died while I was driving it and the alternator was the culprit. Every place I know of is closed on Sunday, but the guy at the parts store recommended that I may have a short somewhere and should get the car tested for that. Since I will be sitting at home with no car just waiting for Monday to roll around so I can get it towed somewhere, is there something I can do tomorrow that may put my mind at ease? I have never done anything electrically with the car, so I am a complete novice in this area. Can someone out there help explain this system to me and any possible causes? Anything would help at this point.

[Moppie]

G'day,

There are lots of reasons a car can just stop.

Why do you think it's related to the battery and alternator?

If you have a multimeter you can test the batteries charge level and the out put from the alternator.

[Tony Silva]

I would suspect that if the truck died instantly, you should first check the fuses in the fuse panel. Check to be sure that the fuses for the EMISSIONS system are all good and that the fuses for the pcm are still good, be sure to check the fuse to the fuel pump also.. If all fuses check out ok...then I would think the next thing to have checked is the crank shaft position sensor (CPS). The cps tells the pcm when to send spark to the spark plugs. If the cps is bad the engine will shut off immediately. Sometimes the engine will start right back up again though...and stall out at random times. I would use an "inductive" timing light on each spark plug wire to see if they are getting spark. If no spark, I would change the CPS. Also: Check for fuel flow. I would buy some starting fluid in an aerosol spray can and spray it in the throttle body with the flaps open and try to start the truck. If no start I would remove the electrical connector closest to the fuel pump and I would use a test light on the harness side of the connector to check it for power WITH the ignition key turned to the the run position. If there is power I would then remove the fuel pump and manually connect it to a battery to see if the pump turns on. But PLEASE NOTE...If you chose to wire the pump manually, be sure to wear eye protection...and connect the wire's to the pump FIRST and then the positive and negative on the battery AFTER. And keep in mind, this is a fuel pump and should be treated as a flammable item.

[Scrapper]

Originally Posted by Tinkerin_wit_tools

Today, had to get our 1999 Chevy Blazer towed home. It literally stalled out in the middle of a busy street while being driven and wouldn't start. Once I got it home, I removed the easy stuff, the battery and alternator and took it to the parts shop for testing. The alternator passed and the battery lost 15% juice. Now, since this is only three months old, I found that funny. Fully charged and put back in the vehicle, drove it back there and the starter read ok as well. Now, many years ago, my ex'es car died while I was driving it and the alternator was the culprit. Every place I know of is closed on Sunday, but the guy at the parts store recommended that I may have a short somewhere and should get the car tested for that. Since I will be sitting at home with no car just waiting for Monday to roll around so I can get it towed somewhere, is there something I can do tomorrow that may put my mind at ease? I have never done anything electrically with the car, so I am a complete novice in this area. Can someone out there help explain this system to me and any possible causes? Anything would help at this point.

do you have charge guage or idiot lite? the diodes may be going out in alt.

[Tinkerin_wit_tools]

Originally Posted by Tony Silva

I would suspect that if the truck died instantly, you should first check the fuses in the fuse panel. Check to be sure that the fuses for the EMISSIONS system are all good and that the fuses for the pcm are still good, be sure to check the fuse to the fuel pump also.. If all fuses check out ok...then I would think the next thing to have checked is the crank shaft position sensor (CPS). The cps tells the pcm when to send spark to the spark plugs. If the cps is bad the engine will shut off immediately. Sometimes the engine will start right back up again though...and stall out at random times. I would use an "inductive" timing light on each spark plug wire to see if they are getting spark. If no spark, I would change the CPS. Also: Check for fuel flow. I would buy some starting fluid in an aerosol spray can and spray it in the throttle body with the flaps open and try to start the truck. If no start I would remove the electrical connector closest to the fuel pump and I would use a test light on the harness side of the connector to check it for power WITH the ignition key turned to the the run position. If there is power I would then remove the fuel pump and manually connect it to a battery to see if the pump turns on. But PLEASE NOTE...If you chose to wire the pump manually, be sure to wear eye protection...and connect the wire's to the pump FIRST and then the positive and negative on the battery AFTER. And keep in mind, this is a fuel pump and should be treated as a flammable item.

Wow! Thanks for all the input! Well, last night I checked all the fuses and they all were good. Will go out later this morning to check out the CPS. I don't know if this is anything helpful, but last week after oil change, I put some Seafoam in the intake and days later the check engine light came on. When my wife got the truck home, checked with the code reader and came up as P0300, a random or multiple misfire. I did check the spark plug wires with my little tester/pen and there were two that looked "odd" and not firing correctly. Also, yesterday, there was a whining type of noise coming from the rear of the vehicle, I am supposing the tank area. The fuel pump is back there, and it never made this noise before. With the battery light and not check engine light coming up, I feel that it may be an electrical issue with the fuel pump. No codes present on the reader, either. If anything else is new, I will let you know. Thanks again for advice.

[Scrapper]

Originally Posted by Tinkerin_wit_tools

Wow! Thanks for all the input! Well, last night I checked all the fuses and they all were good. Will go out later this morning to check out the CPS. I don't know if this is anything helpful, but last week after oil change, I put some Seafoam in the intake and days later the check engine light came on. When my wife got the truck home, checked with the code reader and came up as P0300, a random or multiple misfire. I did check the spark plug wires with my little tester/pen and there were two that looked "odd" and not firing correctly. Also, yesterday, there was a whining type of noise coming from the rear of the vehicle, I am supposing the tank area. The fuel pump is back there, and it never made this noise before. With the battery light and not check engine light coming up, I feel that it may be an electrical issue with the fuel pump. No codes present on the reader, either. If anything else is new, I will let you know. Thanks again for advice.

do you have spark at the 2 your coils and if so is it blue spark or yellow if any spark at all? because blue spark is good yellow spark not good.

[Tinkerin_wit_tools]

Originally Posted by Tinkerin_wit_tools

Wow! Thanks for all the input! Well, last night I checked all the fuses and they all were good. Will go out later this morning to check out the CPS. I don't know if this is anything helpful, but last week after oil change, I put some Seafoam in the intake and days later the check engine light came on. When my wife got the truck home, checked with the code reader and came up as P0300, a random or multiple misfire. I did check the spark plug wires with my little tester/pen and there were two that looked "odd" and not firing correctly. Also, yesterday, there was a whining type of noise coming from the rear of the vehicle, I am supposing the tank area. The fuel pump is back there, and it never made this noise before. With the battery light and not check engine light coming up, I feel that it may be an electrical issue with the fuel pump. No codes present on the reader, either. If anything else is new, I will let you know. Thanks again for advice.

Wow! Here I am, finally at the end of the road. I had to take it to one shop the beginning of last week and they told me that it was my Vortec Spider injection system. I know how much of a pain that this is to replace and would have taken me more time than money to order it myself and put it in all said and done. So, I told them to do it and got hit for nearly 900 dollars! Yes, I didn't stutter! As long as it fixed the issue, I was ok with it. As soon as I drove it off the premises and went shopping, it died in the shopping center parking lot. Phoned them back and had them tow it back on their dime and they tested it all the next day and found nothing wrong. Over and over again, I asked them about the fuel pump and the high pitched whine that came from the gas tank, and they said it had nothing to do with it. Next day I took it to my mechanic(that I trust, yet he lives about 30 miles away and has his garage in BFE) and he drove it all that next day and said that he can't find anything but strongly feels that it is the fuel pump going out or is already bad due to the noise. I agreed and he changed it out. He also recommended that when I get it back to replace spark plugs and wires due to a random misfire in cylinder 4, and guess what? It drives awesome now! It is great that I got the car back, fixed the issue and is doing great. What chaps my rear is the fact that the first jerk I took it to cost me undue heartache and lots of money. Next time, I am just going to listen to my common sense and if I can't do it myself, I will spend the extra money on the tow out to my mechanic. Thank you for your advice and hopefully there is someone that reads this and can not only help them, but have them listen to their gut rather than a mechanic they don't know.

[Moppie]

Glad you got it going!

Shame you lost the 900 though, but at least you also have good fuel injection too

It just shows the true value of knowing a really good, and honest mechanic.

[Tony Silva]

It sucks that you lost out on the $900. But you may be able to reclaim it with a civil lawsuit and all legal expences to file the complaint, based on the fact that you authorized the repairs based on the shops diagnosis.

As a side note, if you are still having that "whine" sound coming from the rear of the vehicle, you may want to change out all the factory hose "spring Clamps" with some good quality "screw type" hose clamps..

My sister has an Expedition that had a whine sound coming from the rear of the vehicle and it turned out to be the whine was coming from a small vacuum leak in the fuel tank hose's. The hoses were good, but the factory "spring clamps" weren't sealing the hoses to the metal tubes of the fuel tank. And the vacuum created by the emissions system was causing the sound. It also set off her trucks "Check Engine Light" with the code that showed "small EVAP leak".