1999 Buick Park Avenue Car occasionally and won"t star

Tiny
MIMAUSA
  • MEMBER
  • 1999 BUICK PARK AVENUE
Engine Performance problem
1999 Buick Park Avenue 6 cyl Automatic 106000 miles

My Buick stalls sometimes while driving. It happens completely randomly. I can't reproduce it. Usually it happens after I have been driving for a while.

Most of the time it happens when I slow down to 20-30mph (or below). But it also happens on the highway when I drive 70-80.

Here are some more details:
1) When I drive slowly it stalls and I have to go in "Parking" and restart it. Two weeks ago, I could start it right away. As of last week, it won't start right away and I have to wait for a while until it starts.

2) When I am on the highway driving fast, I realize that it stalls (lights go off, no electricity, etc etc.) But after 1 second it is back up again.

I took the car already to the mechanics but they couldn't tell me what the problem is. No error codes, nothing. They said maybe it is the fuel pump.

I can't reproduce it, it happens completely randomly.
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 AT 1:14 PM

3 Replies

Tiny
SATURNTECH9
  • MECHANIC
  • 30,869 POSTS
First of all thank you so much for your donation. If there are no code's to go by and it is completely random then your going to have to when it stall's and won't start see if you have spark and fuel pressure those are the two most common reason's for that to happen. That way we know what direction were going in to figure this out.
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Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 AT 1:39 PM
Tiny
MIMAUSA
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Hi Lou,

thank you so much for your fast reply.

How can I check if I have spark or fuel pressure?
The car got new spark plugs last week.

Does this help somehow in determining the problem?
It just happened again. I couldn't start it for 30 minutes. When it cooled down it was fine again. Could it have to sth with the cars cooling system?

The mechanics said that sth is broken and I am leaking coolant liquid.

Thanks
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Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 AT 7:56 PM
Tiny
SATURNTECH9
  • MECHANIC
  • 30,869 POSTS
Hi Lou,

thank you so much for your fast reply.

How can I check if I have spark or fuel pressure?
The car got new spark plugs last week.

Does this help somehow in determining the problem?
It just happened again. I couldn't start it for 30 minutes. When it cooled down it was fine again. Could it have to sth with the cars cooling system?

The mechanics said that sth is broken and I am leaking coolant liquid.

Thanks[/quote:1c0a763220]
To check for spark you could take a old spark plug and remove one of the spark plug wire's from the plugs and hook the wire to the old plug then touch the the plug to the block while someone cranks over the engine while you watch for spark. There is also a tool that hooks inline between the spark plug on your engine and your spark plug wire that light's up if you have spark. There like 6-10 it's up to you which way you want to check it. Fuel pressure is a little harder you can rent a fuel pressure gauge at auto zone there is a cap on your fuel line going to your fuel injector rail that you take off then screw the gauge hose tightly to the fitting. Then crank your car for a few second's and see what the gauge read's. Let's stick with spark first if you have spark then we will move on to fuel pressure. My guess is were loosing spark. New spark plug's won't help us narrow down the problem in this case. Were looking for loosing spark all together. Also what is sth that is broken and leaking?
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Thursday, August 12th, 2010 AT 1:40 PM

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