Car dies abruptly on the highway

Alright so she's been a real champ so far. 95sc 98k miles, brand new rebuilt tranny. But I was just driving down the highway at 55mph when out of the blue with no warning the oil and battery lights come on and my car loses total power! Engine died, power steering gone, difficult braking. Well I got her slowed and to the shoulder and turned her off. Upon restart she seems to run fine but my service engine soon light is on. Also noteworthy is my traction control off light has lit up sparatically for the past week or so as well. No lights were on during the event, only the oil and bat lights.
No idea what to make of this and was hoping I could get an idea from you guys before letting mechanic joe look at it

llamalor2112 wrote:

Alright so she's been a real champ so far. 95sc 98k miles, brand new rebuilt tranny. But I was just driving down the highway at 55mph when out of the blue with no warning the oil and battery lights come on and my car loses total power! Engine died, power steering gone, difficult braking. Well I got her slowed and to the shoulder and turned her off. Upon restart she seems to run fine but my service engine soon light is on. Also noteworthy is my traction control off light has lit up sparatically for the past week or so as well. No lights were on during the event, only the oil and bat lights.
No idea what to make of this and was hoping I could get an idea from you guys before letting mechanic joe look at it

Ignition switch (just a guess)

Thanks. I just got done reading through Ilan's adventure with his riv and similar situation. Mine hasn't been a repeat offender as of yet and idles very nicely at 1k. No bizarre lulls in its drivability otherwise and purrs like a kitten. I'm really hoping its the ignition switch now and I can get that switched out and get her back on the road.

Get that SES lamp checked. Might be a big clue.

My best guess at the moment is the fuel pump is starting to go.

Hmmm the fuel pump was my immediate guess before reading Ilan's posts. I'll be calling around tomorrow morning to see which of my guy's have an obd1.5 scanner. Honestly I'd take more solace in it being the fuel pump simply because I'd be more comfortable with the repair of a fairly routine operation as opposed to something a little more obscure like the icm

The crank sensor is another possibility.

My preferred guy says he has the right scanner to read the codes so I've got an appointment for 1:00 today to do that. I'll try to post em here afterwards. It'd be great if it was really straight forward, but being a Buick, when has that ever been the case? haha love these cars to death, but its a such a reoccurring nightmare.

yup,aint it the truth.she's like the gorgeous girlfriend who keeps fuckin you over.you dont know why you keep getting back together? things are ok for awhile and then she fuks ya over some more. I guess its the ride.
speakin of fukin you over,my guess its the pump.

Hahaha there's definitely a lot of passion right there.
Well my guys are a little swamped so I left her with them. Just awaiting a call back.
I just enjoy the casual nature of it all. I pull up and get in and Mike (my mechanic) says damn, that's a nice car....well, what is it this time? Haha

Usually, a fuel problem shuts the engine off slowly. If it cuts out suddenly, especially while driving 60 MPH on the highway, I'd suspect electrical. Ignition switch or crank sensor will do that. Get a fuel pressure gauge and connect it to the rail. Tape it to the windshield, and have a look next time it cuts out. That ought to narrow it down.

LARRY70GS wrote:

Usually, a fuel problem shuts the engine off slowly. If it cuts out suddenly, especially while driving 60 MPH on the highway, I'd suspect electrical. Ignition switch or crank sensor will do that. Get a fuel pressure gauge and connect it to the rail. Tape it to the windshield, and have a look next time it cuts out. That ought to narrow it down.

Yep, fuel issue will starve out the engine, probably with some stuttering or hesitation. On these cars the ignition switches will go at some point, it's just a matter of reaching the number of cycles plus or minus an error band... When I was dealing with my ig switch problem, I found out there was a service bulletin, back in the mists of time, for certain models of the GMC Jimmy, which uses the same style switch. There was no bulletin for the Riv, the mechanic who told me about the Jimmy bulletin opined that it was due to lack of data for the make/model combo.

And yes, find out the cause of and fix that CEL code.

I don't know; when my fuel pump started sticking, the result was instantaneous shut-down at highway speeds. It's the same sort of instant drop-out you get when you hit the speed governor, which I believe is also initiated by fuel cut-off.

But I'm not sure it's the pump in this case, since the OP has an SES lamp, which fueling deficiency shouldn't cause. Need to read that DTC.

AA wrote:

I don't know; when my fuel pump started sticking, the result was instantaneous shut-down at highway speeds. It's the same sort of instant drop-out you get when you hit the speed governor, which I believe is also initiated by fuel cut-off.

But I'm not sure it's the pump in this case, since the OP has an SES lamp, which fueling deficiency shouldn't cause. Need to read that DTC.

Agreed. Chance it could be both. At the fuel pressures the Riv needs to run if your FP fails (intermittent) car should shut down pronto.

Someone with a Tech II could test that pump (command it on and watch the fuel pressure) without any trouble.

albertj wrote:

AA wrote:

I don't know; when my fuel pump started sticking, the result was instantaneous shut-down at highway speeds. It's the same sort of instant drop-out you get when you hit the speed governor, which I believe is also initiated by fuel cut-off.

But I'm not sure it's the pump in this case, since the OP has an SES lamp, which fueling deficiency shouldn't cause. Need to read that DTC.

Agreed. Chance it could be both. At the fuel pressures the Riv needs to run if your FP fails (intermittent) car should shut down pronto.

Someone with a Tech II could test that pump (command it on and watch the fuel pressure) without any trouble.

Which is why I suggested just running a line and small gauge to the fuel rail, and taping it to the bottom of the windshield. If the car shuts down, a quick look at the gauge will tell you what you need to know.

UPDATE

Errors coming out from a ground short in the control module and the cam shaft and crank sensor aren't reading correctly because of it. Yet another $700 kick in the pants