Engine dies while driving and no-restart

[Gems]

Well here I go again with this damn car... After running a bunch of short errands my wife was driving home and while pulling away from a light the engine sputtered and died... She coasted to the side of the road and it would not re-start... It would crank, sputter and die... So I called AAA and had it towed to my house (everything is closed this holiday weekend)... Tried to start it again, but first I held the key in the "ON" position and heard what I think is the fuel pump sounding a little weird, but I'm not sure... Again it cranked, sputtered and died... About 1 hour later the car started normally... I'm guessing maybe the fuel pump is crapping out??... I have a code reader and it shows no codes... This is not the first time I've had this crank, sputter and die problem... Any ideas???

[blazes9395]

this could be ignition problems, or fuel related problems. It could easily be the fuel pump, intermitent. It also could be a crankshaft sensor, of ignition module, so watch it, when it does it again, get a fuel pressure gauge on it and see what pressure your getting, if that checks out, I'd be looking very closely at the ignition system.

Good Luck

[PeteA216]

My buddy had an '01 Impala. The exact same thing happened to us when in a parking lot about to leave. Turned out it was the MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor. Personally, this is why I drive nothing but old cars. They require a little more maintanace, but even when something goes wrong, they will always get you home.

[Gems]

Thanks for your inputs... I have been having this intermittant problem for over a year now, although this was the first time it died while we were actually driving... All the other times it was a "no-restart" after using the car and it was parked a few minutes... My wife has a heart condition and it's down-right dangerous for her to be stuck on the road like this... I really need this problem fixed... I'm going to drop the car off at the dealer tonight, with a note explaining what happened... I have extended warranty coverage on the car, so things like a bad fuel pump, bad sensor, etc., are covered... But my worry is how can the dealer reproduce the problem while they have my car???

[Gems]

I'm happy to report that the dealer was able to reproduce the problem and determined an intermittantly bad fuel pump was the problem... So they replaced the fuel pump and fuel filter and also the upper intake manifold gasket that had a small coolant leak... Got the car back last Tuesday and so far so good... Hopefully this resolves my long standing hot re-start problem!!... My hats off to my local dealer who did some extra testing and paid extra attention to troubleshoot this problem... I normally don't have alot of good things to say about a dealer, but this time they get a gold star from me...

[NocturnalCreations]

Originally Posted by PeteA216

Personally, this is why I drive nothing but old cars. They require a little more maintanace, but even when something goes wrong, they will always get you home.

couldnt have said it better my self

[crazy Jim]

I have yet to have a new car leave me stranded. There are very few things on the new car that will actually leave you stuck and some/most of those are on the old cars as well.