1994 Buick Overheating, stalling

[sthayer]

ok 1994 buick century has been dying on me when driving down the road, andwhere from 10-70 MPH - randomly, it just dies - start right back up - sometime will die right away again, sometime keeps going, with no problems for the rest of the trip.

Today, it started overheating on me - the coolent fan did not come on, unless I turned on the AC, then fan ran - so looking at maybe a relay?

In a couple of posts, it was mentioned that the coolent temp sensor could cause the dying issue, and possible the fan not starting thing? 0 or possible the crank position sensor - how do I go about figure out which one is the problem (if it is either) without spedning a bunch of money we don't have?

Other than that - car runs perfectly - unless it is dying

BTW - the check engine light has not come at any time with these problems

[richtazz]

you didn't mention what engine your car has in it.

[sthayer]

That might help a bit - it is a 6 cyl. 3.1 liter

[GM Line Rat]

Looks like this car has 2 electric fans in it.......Correct? (1 primary cooling fan and 1 pusher cooling fan)..... Looking at Figure 77 In this link (Click to enlarge).

GM Celebrity/Century/Ciera/6000 1982-1996 Repair Guide

I'd say the engine coolant temp sensor would set off a "Check Engine Code" if it were bad and out of range. So with your response stating that BTW - the check engine light has not come at any time with these problems.... I'd say that the "Primary" coolant Fan relay is the problem with the fan. The random engine stalling sounds like a Crank position sensor that's near dead....Their notorious for these same type of symptoms.

[sthayer]

Thanks for the info - I actually looked at that site earlier - at this point, looks like I am going to wait for the car to cool off, then going to pull the harmonic balancer, and replace the crank position seensor - and also going to replace the coolent temp sensor to start, if that does not fix the fan, then will go for the relay.

Wen to autozone for the parts, so got a loaner puller from them, so that should not be to bad to get that off of thier - and hopefully it will fix the problem.

Will post an update once I get things replaced.

[GM Line Rat]

I'm not sure about the 3.1's, I've only did numerous Intake gasket R&R's on them But, The 3.3 and 3.8 GM V6 Motors needed a special alignment tool for the crank postion sensor.....Seriously, I hope in your case that GM changed that with the 3.1 because I had to borrow the tool from a friend because Autozone (Or any other auto parts store) did not rent them! And taking a car to a GM Dealer is a Big NO where i'm concerned.... Good luck with the fix and post back what you find out?

[sthayer]

ok - we got the fan going - was the temp sensor - that is fixed, but they gave us the wrong part for the crank position sensor, and or course, they have to special order it - so that is going to slow things down a bit - should be here in a couple of days, and we get it all put together - hopefully!!

[GM Line Rat]

Originally Posted by sthayer

ok - we got the fan going - was the temp sensor !

No check engine light and error code(s) 14 or 15 was displayed with a bad temp sensor?...... Does the check engine light come on in this car when you turn the key forward (Run position) but not start the car?

[richtazz]

your car has two crank position sensors, one behind the balancer (18x-24x signal), and one in the back of the block (3x-7x signal).

[sthayer]

ok - so now with two crank position sensors, which one most likely to be the bad one, the one in front, or the one in back - apparently, I got the one that goes in the back of the block - but I hate spending the money buying new parts, and replacing them if they are not bad - is thier any way to check them at this point?

And, yes, the check engine light does come in when the key is turned, but it never came on through this whole dying and overheating process.

Thanks,

Scott

[richtazz]

In a no-start situation, it's normally the one in the back of the block, or the wiring between it and the ICM.

[sthayer]

I would not call it ia no-start situation, it will start - sometimes, right off, and run with no problems, sometimes it will start, and die right away, and sometime it just will not start - it is getting more and more of the just will not start, or will die right away though - they are supposed to have the 24x crank sensor in toorrow - so hopeully that will solve the problem!!

[sthayer]

got the part - got it all put in, not a problem teir, just two bolts - got it all back together, started the car, started right up, showed check ingine light and died on me!!

First time it has shown the check engine light - restarted it, no problems on the drive, but the check engine light did not shut off - going to unhook the battery tomorow, reset the computer, and see what that does, I know the battery is going bad on it - so that might be causing some issues.

But, I think it just might be fixed!! - at least the dying problem

[richtazz]

pull the codes before you unhook that battery. It may give you some insight as to what is wrong.

[sthayer]

okj - I have been searching - is thier any way to pull the codes off the computer with a code reader? - if the wou8ld start and run, we would take it down to Knechts, and they would read the coide, but it wijust not stay running long enough.

So what do we have left as suspects here - the other crank position snesor, the coils?, and the ignitional mudule - anything that I have missed?

We are going to take the coils down to autozone today and have them checked, dont know if they can check the module or not.

What is puzzling is the check engine light - it was not thier before we replaced that crank position sensor, now it is showing - once we figure out the code, we will go from thier in tracking down the next thing.