Thread: Driving on express way at 65 mph, engine dies! What the???

My wife was driving home yesterday on the express way headed home. Speed limit is 65mph. She says that it just died on her while driving. I took it out last night. Drove it for about 30 minutes no problem. Then I was headed home and it died on me doing 45mph. I pulled off the side and restarted it, no problem. Drove about 2 miles down the road again at 45mph, it died. Stopped at gas station and put in 3/4 tank according to the gas guage. It says it had a 1/4 tank in it.

Anyone had this kind of problem?

Wasn't overheating, plenty of coolant and oil.
Gas guage said 1/4 tank and the engine just died not sputtered like it couldn't get fuel.
Wasn't racing or hard braking, died during acceleration to 45 mph.

Forgot to add, car has 67,000 miles on it and it's a 2000 GT.

i had a very similar problem when the coil packs went bad on my cavalier

sounds like a crank postiion sensor, or a ignition control module......unlike a I4 cavalier, a V6 GP will run w/o one coil, very poorly, but it'll run......

If the Low traction, or ABS light are going on when the car stalls, that is a sign of the Crank pos. sensor....there are testers for the ign. module at autozone and such, but none of them get it hot enough fo it to fail, borrow one from a friend with a known working GP, or an extra to test the ign. module

Originally Posted by 02BlueGT

sounds like a crank postiion sensor, or a ignition control module......unlike a I4 cavalier, a V6 GP will run w/o one coil, very poorly, but it'll run......

good to know, thank you

I'm going to take the ICM off my 2003 GT and put it on her 2000 GT this weekend and see if I still have problems with it. If not it's probably the crankshaft position sensor or the camshaft sensor.

Figure I'd go with the most expensive part to replace ($182.00) first and then if I'm still having problems with it on Monday a friend of mine has a HP tuner that were going to do a realtime scan on the crankshaft and camshaft sensors to see what they are sending back. I think they are about 20 and 30 each so for about 60 with tax I could just replace both of them without huring the budget.

The camshaft should be pretty easy to swap out but I heard the crankshaft is kind of a pain. Anyone got pictures of these areas and any tips on replacing?

Switched out the ICM. My car isn't dying but my wife's still is. Will try the Crankshaft Sensor first since it's the biggest pain to replace. Always my luck that it's the hardest part to work with.

Buddy hooked up tuner. As we were driving you could see the RPMs Go from 1900 to 0 in less than a second then the fuel pump would shut off. Don't know how GM calculates the RPMs but its bound to be the Crankshaft or Camshaft sensor, just depends on if GM used one or both for the calculation. Reason why I say it is because the car was still rolling down the road at 65mph in gear when the RPMs said 0. Physically impossible!

It was the crank position sensor. Also put on a new transmission filter and gasket on the wife's car. It was leaking anyway and since I already had it up on the lift it seemed stupid to not replace it at the time.
Also did the permanent water leak fix for the passenger side floorboard water leak on both cars. Wife's car got wet last week and since the part price wasn't high bought one for both. Definitely easy to do and well worth it in the long run because now I don't have to worry about my car!

Car is still running and it hasn't died since I put the new sensor in. Only cost me $25 for the part, $15 for the transmission filter and gasket, $15 for new transmission fluid and $18 for the bay rental.