Hello new to the forums and I have a issue I was hoping to get some expeienced advice.

I have a 96 3.8II that has been dieing recently. It happens imtermitantly when driving doesn't matter gear or speed. I sometime can pop it in nuetral and it will start right back up again and sometimes I need to let it sit for a couple min, it will crank but not fire. This happened about 5 times on a 25 mile trip when we got there it sat for about an hour and drove home with out a glitch.

Took it to Autozone and has it scanned it threw two codes
1. #3 misfire, I just replaced plugs and wires so doing some research on here it may be the coils or ICM (plate uder coils)
2. Crank position sensor (CPS), I bought a new one and will replace it today.

My question is is the misfire or the CPS the cause of the stalling. I would think a misfire would cause rough driving not stalling or dieing. So can the CPS cause the engine to die?

Thanks in advance.

 

I have the same year. A misfire is not likely to cause stalling. Have you considered a bad alternator? Next time you start it, check the volt meter and keep in mind where it was at. Then if the issue happens, look at the volt meter again. If it's considerably less volts, might be an electrical issue (batter, alternator, etc.). Have autozone test both when you get a chance. Do you get any indications from the engine itself? Strange RPM readings? Sputtering? Or does it just shut off?

Let me know how you make out.

 

The volt meter in the dash (which seems to work fine since it moves) show 12-14 volt all the time so I don't think it is that.
Or are teh dash gauges notoriously faulty?

 

The gauges aren't normally faulty to my knowledge. 12-14 seems a little low if you ask me. How many miles on the car? Has the alternator ever been replaced? Do the volts stay constant when it stalls? To me that's what I would approach first. The misfire and CPS definitely need to be addressed, but I don't think it's likely that either of those are causing this problem. Take it to autozone and have them check the battery and alternator, unless you have a meter yourself. Other than that, I'm out of ideas, haha. Let's see what others think.

 

well 12-14 is normal, it usualy is very steady at 14. 14.4v is what is should be at but it is hard to tell .4v by the gauges.

Yea the volt meter stays constant 12-14 when it dies



so faulty CPS won't cause it to stall, some resaerch on the web showed that it can but those were from other cars?

 

I don't think it is the alternator becuse when it dies it cranks over fine whether it starts right back up is a diff story. but if the alt was bad then the car would run off the battery at least for a little while. It would not just shut dwon. Plus the volt meter is driven off the batttery I belive. SO if the alternator dies it would read the battery voltage.

I have had cars where the alt went bad and the car drove till it drained the battery.

 

FWIW...

www.60degreev6.com

There are some folks there that diagnose unusual misses and "things that go "Bump" in the Night" under the hood of GM V6 Cars that might help with the diagnosis...

 

mine used to do the same thing mine was my crank position sensor.