95 Regal quit today - ADVICE??? SUGGESTIONS????

[bobbyg1970]

Howdy folks,

I've got a '95 Regal that just quit running during a turn today on my way home from work. No sputtering, no weird behavior or noises, just like someone turned off the key. Now it will not turn over, doesn't even try. Just a "click". The battery has 12.57 VDC and all fuses are good. Any ideas what this could be? ANY advice would be GREATLY appreciated folks.

Post here or email bobbyg @ backeastgraphics.com

Thanks in advance.

Bob Guere

***EDIT****
SORRY! Didn't include it's a Custom with a 3.8L engine. Power everything.

[bobbyg1970]

Just went by the car (dead on the side of the road) to pull it to a garage for the night. Well, I got in and tried to start it, but nothing. Put it in neutral to pull it, then decided to leave it there till the morning. Put it back in park and tried one more time and VAROOOOOOM! HOWEVER!.....one more symptom. While driving it from the dead spot to the garage's parking lot, I noticed the tachometer fluctuating, but the motor RPM wasn't really changing.... like quick spikes from 1K up to 3 or 4K.... obviously an erroneous electrical readout. Does this lend to any one problem?

What the heck? Could it be something in the gear shift? An interlock or something?

I also read about a "crank position sensor" on this site, could this be my problem also? Could that cause the tachometer problem?

I'm afraid I'm going to pay for a diagnostic tomorrow and they're going to find nothing wrong and then it'll die on me again.

[raybuick]

yo bobby, I had a similiar problem with my 94 regal. At first it stalled once in a while, then it wouldn't re-start after a short drive. My rpm's also fluctuated sometimes to a stall. I attributed this to the crankshaft sensor intermittently failing causing a no spark condition. I have a post in here about it and after getting a new sensor, i've been problem free stalling- starting for 2 years plus. I went thru the headache and i'm surprised i didn'y burn my starter out. best of luck

[bobbyg1970]

Originally Posted by raybuick

yo bobby, I had a similiar problem with my 94 regal. At first it stalled once in a while, then it wouldn't re-start after a short drive. My rpm's also fluctuated sometimes to a stall. I attributed this to the crankshaft sensor intermittently failing causing a no spark condition. I have a post in here about it and after getting a new sensor, i've been problem free stalling- starting for 2 years plus. I went thru the headache and i'm surprised i didn'y burn my starter out. best of luck

I thought that was the problem as well, and had the garage change it even though they couldn't find anything wrong with the car... which proves to be unbelievable when I tell you what I found.

After they changed that part, I picked it up and drove it home and it still was showing the same symptoms; tach fluctuating and the car almost stalled on me once. Well, since this was my first chance to check the alternator after the initial stall, I checked it and found that the voltage was bouncing all over from 11.9 to as much as 13.5. I started tracing cables and couldn't find anything obvious. I assumed it was the voltage regulator in my alternator so I took it out to have it tested. It tested fine at 14.5 volts with no fluctuations. So I reinstalled it and continued following the lines around the car. I couldn't find anything open, or obviously damaged or otherwise intermittent. So, I was sitting in the car, turning the key during one of the periods of non-starting and realized I wasn't hearing the fuel pump come on. And though interesting, it isn't in the starting sequence and shouldn't prevent the car from turning over..... but it made me start to think about the circuits and what was hooked up to what. I decided to follow my battery cables again and make sure all fuseblocks were getting good connection and all cables, etc. were where they should be... nothing. Until I was looking under the area where the air filter was... (I had it out to get to the negative battery cable easier)... and low and behold what do I see? My negative battery cable where it grounds to the block was busted, but sitting where it was busted, making partial contact. Plus, the cable has two terminals, one to ground to the chassis and the other to the block. So I was getting good ground to some components and intermittent ground to others. $1 later, I had a new lug on the cable and I'm back to 100%.

Whew... that was a lot of typing. Hope this helps someone else trouble shooting.