1992 grand am My car DIES for no reason

[h0tb0y6998]

Everyone. I have a 1992 Pontiac Grand AM SE, 2.3L quad4 SOHC. i cant afford to go to the shop right now so i cant figure out the problem. But me and my fellow car people narrowed it down. It's not the alternator, not the battery, not the starter, or fuel filter.
suspecting battery wires or fuel pump.

The car starts up. i can run it for like 10 mins, sometimes 15 mins. then the car just dies. Then it WONT start up again. but get this, most importantly, i can JUMP Start the car up and it'll run again. then i can turn it off and turn it on again and it starts right up. I've asked a million people, what the problem is, and no one seems to know. So i had to resort to forums and outside expertise, give me some feedback PLEASE.

oh I almost forgot. I have a hose that is broken [fill tube to separator hose--Crankcase Ventiliation (CV])] that goes from the base of the engine to the oil/air separator lil box. i duno if that's a big factor. i noticed if i try to floor the car the car lags then dies. what is the problem??

Possibilities: fuel pump gumming up, battery wires shorted, hot ignition coils. Are those possible?

[Ex0r]

Well, I am almost 100% certain that it's not the fuel pump if it starts up after a jumping. I'd suspect bad battery wires/terminals. Try cleaning them with a battery terminal cleaner to check it first. if that doesn't help, take the battery in to autozone or equivalent and have them test it. They'll let you know if it's bad or not.

If the battery is fine, inspect all of the battery wires for fraying/cracking/burns. If you notice any, replace them. If not, take it back to autozone and have them run a diagnostics test on the car. That should throw you some error codes that could help solve the problem.

The CV hose being broke won't affect it to the point of it not starting. I just replaced mine, and I drove across town to the auto parts store without it.

By the way, the 2.3l quad 4 uses a direct ignition system. There isn't an ignition coil, but two ignition modules mounted inside of the direct ignition cover (the cover with the Quad4 text on it).

[alegar001]

How dose it die just up and dead like you hit the key or sputtering then death. But yeah I kind of agree sounds like a loos battery wire or something along that line. Might also be bad plugs. so you might want to change them out though only use ac delco plug our 2.3 seem not to like any other type of plug.

[Matt95GT]

Originally posted by h0tb0y6998
oh I almost forgot. I have a hose that is broken [fill tube to separator hose--Crankcase Ventiliation (CV])] that goes from the base of the engine to the oil/air separator lil box. i duno if that's a big factor. i noticed if i try to floor the car the car lags then dies. what is the problem??


Then you have a huge vacuum leak, and are likely losing oil too. Fix that first - it may be your problem.

[h0tb0y6998]

first off i have a brand new battery from autozone. and they checked it. the battery is A OK.

second, the spark plugs are fine, changed those out not too long ago, they restored lots of power and took away that annoying chug/lag upon acceleration.

third, i seem to only have one ignition module which im on my 3rd one, so i think it should be fine this time.

lastly, i already cleaned the battery terminals and replaced them. they are nice and shiny and i replaced both of the screws so i have proper contact between the screws and the terminals.

thanx for the tips u guys, wednesday i will take a trip to the dealer and buy that fill to separator hose. will a vacuum leak make my car die? and those wires for the battery go down pretty far, havent seen where they end up at, anyone know?

[Ex0r]

nah, it was cracked for well over the year i've had it and it was fine matt95, and it was only off for the short time I went to the store. I replaced it soon after.

[4kQuad]

Ok, I agree the battery is clean, I even agree that the thing that hook to the battery are real clean on the inside and tightened dcown good.

But, what you describe is a car that is loosing ground. When the system looses ground the whole dam car dies. No head lights, no radio......blaw blaw.......blaw.

Now a jump fixed the problem, that is a big hint. Again that points to bad battery connections...Why, well when the jumper wires were hooked up, I bet they wiggled then just a bit to make good connection. That wiggled a wire, that allowed the power to flow.

I have two hunches as to what is up.

Ok, you have the conector that hooks to the battery, where the wire goes into that connector can get dirty Green build up in there. Stoppping enough power from getting through the wire to power the car. Look at both wires where they connect Good, I think you will find green crap living in one. The best fix is to run to a parts store and buy new ends, cutt the old ends off the battery leads, mount the leads to the new connector and rehook up the system.

If that is not green, then I think where the ground wire from the battery hooks to the frame of the car is dirty.

Again I agree that the parts on the car are working.....I just think you have a dirty wire or ground problem. Heck have someone sit in the car with the key turned to start the car, pop the hood and wiggle the wires on the battery. Bet it spins. If it does...back to dirty wires.