Lesabre stalls and wont start

[Andrewhuffman]

I have a 1995 buick lesabre with 110k. It rans great untill a month ago. it started stalling and not starting for 10 - 20 minuts. once it cranks it runs perfect. the check enjine light was on untill i replaced the throttle positioning sensor. i had it dynotested. after that iit dosnt shut off a frequent while in motion but more usual at the inital start up. any suggestions?

[LeSabre97mint]

Andrew

Do you notice any dimming of lights say like when you use the power windows or power locks? On my 97 I had this and more. One day I held the power window switch a little too long when it was up and my engine died... It cranked right back up. After that it died and woudn't even turnover. After checking a lot of places I cleaned a ground stud and the bunch of wires going to it which is located on the passenger side by the battery. After cleaning this, my starter sounded and acted hotter, no more dimming of lights, better battery charging, and no more stalling.

Give it a try.

Regards

Dan

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by Andrewhuffman

I have a 1995 buick lesabre with 110k. It rans great untill a month ago. it started stalling and not starting for 10 - 20 minuts. once it cranks it runs perfect. the check enjine light was on untill i replaced the throttle positioning sensor. i had it dynotested. after that iit dosnt shut off a frequent while in motion but more usual at the inital start up. any suggestions?

Welcome to AF on your first post.
First thing you need to check for is lose of spark or fuel when it does it.
Get a fuel pressuere gauge on it and watch the fuel pressure going down the road.
Post back fuel pressure readings.
MT

[Andrewhuffman]

I know there is fuel pressure, but not how much. There is fuel line above my enjine with a thing that shoots out gas when pressed. also only one of my windows is slower than the others but i think its just old. it starting to stick like last week and i have the stall problem for over a month. other than that all lights work great and does not die.

[MT-2500]

Originally Posted by Andrewhuffman

I know there is fuel pressure, but not how much. There is fuel line above my enjine with a thing that shoots out gas when pressed. also only one of my windows is slower than the others but i think its just old. it starting to stick like last week and i have the stall problem for over a month. other than that all lights work great and does not die.

Well how much is the key word.
Does it lose spark or just fuel pressure?
If the windows are losing power to.
You need to check the grounding bar under/by left foot door sill.
The ground bar grounds fuel pump and window motors and some other stuff.
Not sure that is the problem but you had better have a look at it and get a fuel pressure gauge on that thing where it squirts outs and see how many lbs of pressure you have going down the road when it starts acting up.
And check for pressure up to specs.
MT

[Andrewhuffman]

i see no loose spark and i cleaned all the grounds yesterday, still stall as usual. i dont know what to do.

[Andrewhuffman]

now it has exelcent spark and exelent fuel pressure. I changed the pump. It will start and die in a sec, if i spray starter fluid in the intake (sometimes) i about to change the ECM to see what effect it has.

[Andrewhuffman]

new personal tests show, that when my car stalls, it has no spark. i have changed the ignition module twice now and the coils on it. also shows that with another (not new)obd1 ecm, ther is no change in its behavior. is there any other possiblities other than the crank shaft position sensor?

[HotZ28]

The first thing to remember is, with the DIS ignition system, the car will start and run for 8-10 seconds without the PCM, if you have good voltage, crank sensor and ICM. After the 10 second run time, the control is then handed over to the PCM. Since you have narrowed down the guessing somewhat, by replacing the ICM & coils, the only other logical solution to the problem would be to replace the CPS. When they begin to fail, it is usually random and after the engine gets hotter. You might try the “water test” to cool the sensor down the nest time it does it. (Just spray cool water on the sensor too cool it down). If it starts immediately after cooling it down, replace it!

[Andrewhuffman]

ok. this is really starting to bug me when it stalls it wont start for about 20 minutes... It will shut off when im driving it. usually happens more when i try to leave. even if the enjine is completely cool, sometimes it wont start. i've noticed that when driving at high speeds, it will skip. like one skip every 15 minuts, not very often or much. sometimes it will start for a second if i spray gas or starter fluid through the intake. sometimes it will have no spark. i have changed the ECM, TPS, Fuel pump, ICM, and coils. the guy i take it to (dumbass) just keeps giving me outragous quotes, and it dosnt even help. i do the work myself, but im sure he gets pissed about that. i'm going to try to take it to a diffrent guy soon. but untill then..... what can i do?

[raybuick]

I had intemittent stalling on a 94 regal3.8. It also would not restart right away at times. I read a post once about a water bottle trick. Next time it doesn't restart try squirting water behind where the harmonic balancer spins the crankshaft. The first time i tried this after i couldn't get it restarted, it fired right up. This is where the crankshaft sensor sits and it may be failing at times causing it to kill the spark, thus stalling and not restarting. After I had mine replaced, it hasn't stalled for years and fires right up. Give it a try and good luck.

[Whoaru99]

Originally Posted by Andrewhuffman

ok. this is really starting to bug me when it stalls it wont start for about 20 minutes... It will shut off when im driving it. usually happens more when i try to leave. even if the enjine is completely cool, sometimes it wont start. i've noticed that when driving at high speeds, it will skip. like one skip every 15 minuts, not very often or much. sometimes it will start for a second if i spray gas or starter fluid through the intake. sometimes it will have no spark. i have changed the ECM, TPS, Fuel pump, ICM, and coils. the guy i take it to (dumbass) just keeps giving me outragous quotes, and it dosnt even help. i do the work myself, but im sure he gets pissed about that. i'm going to try to take it to a diffrent guy soon. but untill then..... what can i do?

Well, you need to stop throwing parts at it and jumping around. You must follow a logical and methodical path of troubleshooting.

When the car dies, check for spark right away. If no spark is found, it's a good possibility the crank position sensor is bad. This is a fairly common problem from what I understand. Further confirmation of this would be to have a scan tool hooked up when it won't start and see if you get crank RPM showing on the scan tool when cranking it with the starter.

Pretty soon it gets cheaper to let someone who has the proper tools fix it than wasting more of your time and changing more parts that are not defective.

Have you ever had a scan tool hooked up? What codes are present?

And about that "dumbass" that won't help you, if he runs a business, his time is money. Why should he help you for free when others are willing to pay for his services?

[Bassasasin]

With your 20 min wait till the engine will start It should throw a code if its the Crankshaft/Camshaft circuit.
READ THE CODES..Free at Attozone and such.
EXPECT 41 Crahkshaft/Camshaft

If it is 41
My Crankshaft sensor was about a 7 min wait unless I hosed it down with water hose or a bottle of water with a squirt cap on it.

Like you have experienced intermittent Crankshaft sensor is difficult to troubleshoot, but you do have the symptoms and is a popular weakpoint of your engine type, but there have been connectors to the ICM fail.

If it is a Crankshaft sensor problem, replacement repair at a shop is around $200 without a diagnostic charge done on the car. It is a moderate $150 labor plus $50 part. Often this is a repair done without great confidence in it being the actual problem.

Doing it yourself without proper advice or assistance, such as proper allignment of the sensor, and using a puller and good impact wrench to spin off the main nut, may be challenging.

Good Luck

[rhandwor]

When it is hot and won't start unplug the crankshaft and camshaft position sensor. With an ohm meter they should go from zero to one when cranking.
It is easier to see the sweep with on old ohm meter with a dial readout.

[Bassasasin]

Yes, intermittent while driving.. maybe the pins can be probed at the Ignition Module.