1992 Buick Lesabre Automatic 122500 miles
Hello! I'm having a problem that is so random, my mechanic can't catch it in action. I have a new code that showed up today right after it died, so I'm hoping someone can help narrow down what to replace or check.
Car is a 3.8L VIN-L (1992 Buick LeSabre)
I replaced the crank sensor last June, and shortly after, the check engine light came on. Mechanic said the code was for the Cam sensor, and that the car would run with it not functioning properly, but just at a lower efficiency. So far, so good...
In December the car died while driving down my street. No sputter, just cut out as if the key had been turned off. I coasted into the driveway, and at first the car just turned over, but wouldn't start. 10 minutes later, it started right up.
Two months later it did the same thing twice in one week. Took the car into the mechanic. Car was showing the following codes:
(Based on this site: http://www.troublecodes.net/GM/92-95_38L.shtml )
41 (Cam Sensor)
17 (PCM did not detect spark...)
31 (PRNDL issue...)
Mechanic checked fuel and some other stuff - all looked good. He kept it for 4 days, driving around, parking, restarting...driving cold...driving warm - could not reproduce the problem.
Car was returned a couple weeks ago with codes cleared except for the 41 Cam Sensor code.
Today it died 5 minutes after starting. It started back up immediately. I went straight to the mechanic and the codes that showed up were:
41 (Cam sensor)
31 (PRNDL issue)
51 (MEM-Cal error)
(Note: on his scanner, 51 came up as an anti-theft code???)
I thought the PRNDL code was there previously because I mistakenly tried to start the car while it was still in gear the first time it died. But that code came up again.
I also thought the problem was happening on occasions where I'd driven for a while, stopped to run into a store, then re-started on my way home. But today I'd just left home after it being parked all night.
My mechanic thinks this is between another bad crank sensor, the ignition module, or maybe the computer?
Does the new occurrence of code 51 make the case for any one issue over the others? I don't want to change a part and then be driving around for 2 months trying to see if it will randomly die again - thus not even knowing if the repair solved the problem.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Chris
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Friday, March 13th, 2009 AT 1:25 PM