1999 Pontiac Bonneville Car dies

LKUCKS50

MEMBER
1999 PONTIAC BONNEVILLE
6 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
142,000 MILES

Have been having a on again off again problem with the car dieing while I'm driving down the interstate or maybe even when im at an initial start up from a stop. The engine will die just like someone turned the ignition off. I can coast off to the side of the road and put it in neutral and it might start right back up or it may have to set and wait for anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour. This problem might happen on an every day basis or it might go two weeks before it happens again. Have had it in to the shop and of course they cant get to act up while there. They had a code saying the fuel pump was bad, so they replaced it but didnt fix the problem. The last couple of weeks it has started to act a little different before it dies. Now, it will start to hesitate and loose speed before it dies. If, I try to give it more gas I can keep it running but loose speed and it spits and sputters untill I let off the accelerator then it dies instantly. Have considered the crank sensor and the Mass airflow sensor as potential culprits, please help!

1 Reply

IMPALASS

MECHANIC
3,112 POSTS

Hello -

To better assist you please tell me if your model is a SE, SLE, SSE, SSEi. Also your engine size in liter and the 8th digit of your VIN.

Please go to Auto Zone (AZ) or O'Reilly's (OR) and for FREE they can pull the codes to the car. Most important: Once they check your codes, if they find something and you don't get it fixed and need to get back with us, please make sure you tell us exactly what the code was, number and all. Example, if the code was E0568 O2 Sensor bad. Then make sure you give us all of that. While there for FREE also they can bring their tester out and check your battery and alternator.

We need to figure out if it is electrical or fuel related. Pull a plug wire off of the spark plug and insert something into the end of it and have someone try to start the car and have the metal object really close to a piece of metal on the engine and see if you are getting a good strong popping blue spark. Don't have your hands on any part of the metal! If there is no spark, then it is electrical.

If you are getting good spark then spray some starting fluid in the throttle body and try to start it and see if it tries to start then.