I'm car illiterate please help...

[dleavell]

I have a 95 buick regal occasionally the engine will shut off while I'm driving without warning. When I try to restart it, the car sounds like it wants to start but wont. When I go into stores and return to my car I try to start it and it wont turn over. It does happen more often when my car is 1/4 of a tank or below. It has 171,000 miles on it. Just replaced the starter and auto zone says my battery and alternator are working fine. I can't afford to lose my car...

[stripe]

Originally Posted by dleavell

I have a 95 buick regal occasionally the engine will shut off while I'm driving without warning. When I try to restart it, the car sounds like it wants to start but wont. When I go into stores and return to my car I try to start it and it wont turn over. It does happen more often when my car is 1/4 of a tank or below. It has 171,000 miles on it. Just replaced the starter and auto zone says my battery and alternator are working fine. I can't afford to lose my car...

most likly your fuel pump.

You have to drop the tank to fix it.

Cheers
Stripe

[greg8732]

it sounds to me something is heating up electrically. gas actually serves another purpose besides stealing ur money... it cools the fuel pump that sits in the tank. U said that it happens more on a quarter of a tank,, does it do it at all on a full tank?
it also could be electrical.. on those motors the coil packs heat up and wont work until there cool.. any easy way to check this is, keep a gallon of water with you.. the next time it happens, douse the coil packs with the water to cool them down.. if it proves no result. there a good chance that its the fuel pump.. good luck

[Airjer_]

Both of the above are good places to start. You need to find out what you are missing fuel or spark. Once you have that figured out the fix will be a lot easier to figure out!

[richtazz]

Welcome to AF dleavell

Take a can of wd-40 with you, and the next time the car stalls/ won't start, spray some wd-40 in the throttle body and see if the car starts then stalls. If it does, you have a fuel pump issue (the car is running on the wd-40 and isn't getting fuel). If it doesn't start on the wd-40, then it's a spark issue and is computer or ignition related. How long has it been since this car was tuned up? I ask because GM distributorless ignition systems will suddenly start to fail with little or no warning once components (mainly plugs and wires) get worn past a certain point.

[dleavell]

Yesterday it drove fine on my way to work i had a little over half tank, on the way home it died on the interstate and wouldn't restart. I waited about an hour and a half when it finally restarted. While i was driving the rest of the way home it kicked once and i thought it was gonna die so i hit gas and it continued to work but i couldn't go above 55mph or it would feel like it wanted to die. I recently had the plugs changed and new plug wires put on.

[irbf]

I wonder if you got a load of water in your fuel at some point.

It is important to deterimine if you have spark when it dies. Find a friend that will show you how to check this. I used my brother when the boat motor would not start and when he yelled I knew we had spark. :-)

[dleavell]

my car stopped today again while i was driving and the tank was full. we poured water on the coils and it started right up.