Ok, here's the whole deal. My girl has a 1996 Firebird 3.8 v6. For about 8 months now her car has been doing some crazy crap. It all started when her car wouldn't start one day. All the electronics worked, the fuel pump kicked in, the guages turned on, the battery was fine. If you've ever experienced a fuel pump going out, you know what it does. Just turns turns turns....no start. But just tonight there was an extra little spice thrown into the whole deal. Her car died while driving!! She was just driving along, nothing seemed wrong, then BAM......car shuts off. Middle of the street and everything. So we pushed it uphill and onto an on ramp and down into a parking lot of a walmart. We get down there and I check all the fuses, nothing wrong. She turns the key and it starts right up...... CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP! What is the freakin problem?!? There is another girl in our club who has the exact same problems in her 99 Camaro 3.8 v6. This happen to anyone else? Know what the problem is? HELP!

 

Oh, btw, the car has been doing other weird things. Not sure if it's related.

1.) Rough Idle / Miss while at idle
2.) Thrown two codes, one for bad spark and one for bad 02 sesor.

Just thought ya'll might need that little bit of info.......

 

try cleaning the battery posts.

 

Yeah, that was one of the first things I tried! They were shiney and silver even before I took it off to clean them. I really hate not knowing whats wrong......

 

!alternator

 

I've heard that a bad vehicle ground could cause these problems. A good friend of mine, in fact she's on the board, said her battery to vehicle ground was bad and she replaced it with a braided cable...no problems since. I have no idea how to check it, but you may want to drop her a PM to ask. Ask "mydroptopZ" about this topic. She might be able to help you.

 

I've had this exact problem with my car, including the 02 sensor and spark codes. There are a number of things that could be causing it, but here's a few you should check as a starting point...

First of all, the fact that your car died while driving would suggest that your charging system is having a problem somewhere. I would test the alternator before I did anything else. If that checks out ok, there are a number of wires that could be either shorting out, grounding out, or just not getting quite enough voltage through them. Check for loose connections around your starter, alternator, and battery... All of these run indirectly off of the alternator, and it's not going to be an easy problem to locate... Plan on spending at least a full day with a variety of testing equipment, a case of beer and a lot of patience. In my case, there was a bad ground wire somewhere, although I never figured out which wire it was. I was losing power on acceleration, throwing an 02 sensor code, and my voltage meter was dropping any time I hit the gas while my headlights were on... So, since I couldn't find the problem, I created a new ground wire running directly from the alternator to the battery and off to the same ground that the wonderful makers of Chevy already created. So far, I still have the 02 sensor code (which I still can't figure out) but everything else seems to be fine. I don't know if this will help you out, since electrical problems are so difficult to locate and fix, but I hope it'll at least give you an idea of where to start looking. If you need any more help, let me know... I have a lot of friends in the service department of my local Chevy dealership, and I work at a performance parts store with a lot of smart people... I'm definitely willing to do some research for you... Good luck with finding the problem!

 

One more thing coming from a completely different angle... When's the last time you changed your fuel filter??? If a filter gets too clogged, it can cause a rough idle, and actually cause your car to shut down while driving... Right now, the info you've given seems pretty vague... If you notice anything else, let everyone know, and maybe we can narrow it down a little

 

mydroptopz - Hey, thanks for the info! I was dreading having to get into the wiring.....but I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet. Oh, btw, I know it's not the fuel or air that's the problem, I've already replaced her air filter and cleaned out the intake. For the fuel, I've replaced the fuel filter and tested the lines once when the car was acting up. The fuel pump kicks on and when it was trying to start I pressed on the schrader valve and gas squirted out. So I know two out of three things are gettin there. Oh, the girl here in town who also had this problem had to have part of her ignition replaced. Some wires in there were loose and messed up and that's what was causing her problems. I dunno....my girl's pretty pissed at her car, lol. She's about to buy a V8 for it and just throw it in and be done with the V6 bs. But thanks again for the info, I'll def. check all that out. Late,

 

Don't worry about your charging system if your car cranked right over after it stalled. If your charging sysem failed you would have needed a jump. What was your spark code? Did you lose cam or crank signal? Any other codes? Possible ignition module, this will allow the fuel pump to run but could cause no spark or fuel injector pulse. Check your wiring to the ign. module, verify pin tension and grounds near the module. You will probably have to check spark or fuel pulse when the problem is happening to be sure. Good Luck.