I drive a Chevy Malibu and it has been to the mechanics many times this month. I thought I got some bad fuel or something but now after thinking, I have only broken down in one certain area. Everytime I get to this town my car shuts off. It starts as soon as I turn it back on but it only turns off once I get off the exit and almost slow all the way down to turn. ??? This is getting weird. I can drive all day long or not long at all but it always turns off once I exit to go into one certian town? The last owner was a criminal so I feel like it has something to do with the police??
Seriously, I used to have a Buick Regal that would shut down after it had been driven an adequate distance AND when getting off the accelerator to exit a freeway.
The Buick dealership couldn't find it. I called the zone representative ( I am sorry that Buick has made that option extinct) and he knew the problem immediately. There was a TSB on it (which the dealership chose not to read). A new computer put me back in business.
Yours may be any of a bunch of things, but I would advise you look through the TSBs for your car as a starter.
That reminds me of the infamous Vanilla Ice Cream story. BTW - snopes.com reports that this is a true story. FWIW
Vanilla ice cream == car problems??
For the engineers among us who understand that the obvious is not always the solution, and that the facts, no matter how implausible, are still the facts ...
This is a weird but true story (with a moral) ...
A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors:
"This is the second time I have written you, and I don't blame you for not answering me, because I kind of sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of ice cream for dessert after dinner each night. But the kind of ice cream varies so, every night, after we've eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it. It's also a fact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem. You see, every time I buy vanilla ice cream, when I start back from the store my car won't start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. I want you to know I'm serious about this question, no matter how silly it sounds: 'What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?'"
The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter, but sent an engineer to check it out anyway. The latter was surprised to be greeted by a successful, obviously well educated man in a fine neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinner time, so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn't start.
The engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, the man got chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got strawberry. The car started. The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start.
Now the engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this man's car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore, to continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem. And toward this end he began to take notes: he jotted down all sorts of data, time of day, type of gas used, time to drive back and forth, etc.
In a short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why? The answer was in the layout of the store.
Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup. All the other flavors were kept in the back of the store at a different counter where it took considerably longer to find the flavor and get checked out.
Now the question for the engineer was why the car wouldn't start when it took less time. Once time became the problem -- not the vanilla ice cream -- the engineer quickly came up with the answer: vapor lock. It was happening every night, but the extra time taken to get the other flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapor lock to dissipate.
Moral of the story: even insane looking problems are sometimes real.
(A better moral: chocolate ice cream cures vapor lock!)
No it doesn't. It reports that it is a LEGEND, i.e. fictitious - and that it appears in variants where vanilla was the fastest served and the slowest served. This is a fable, do not report it as fact nor lie about references.
Whether the story was true or not, the lesson is valuable. Even Jesus taught by example in stories....
There is always a reason why things behave as they do, but the reasons may not be obvious. And apparent relationships to other phenomena may lead you down the wrong path.
A story that is false, presented and "certified" as true, is a lie. I don't recall too many places in the Christian bible where Jesus (or anyone) told a parable, then burst out laughing and said "Nah, just fooling - it was BS from start to finish - but there's a good lesson in there".
The story being presented as "certified true" was my own fault. The false certification was due my own mis-interpretation of the snopes.com website. It was not a blatant attempt on my part to lie about the authenticity, I simply screwed up and apologized for it. You may killfile me, flame me, say bad things about my mother. I am not aware of a way to go back and edit my original post.
The lesson to be learned from the story is still valid despite my own error. I have been troubleshooting electronic and mechanical devices professionally for many years. Sometimes the original complaint and reported symptoms don't always make a whole lot of sense, but every reported symptom can be a clue, if you're willing enough to look for other than the obvious.
Getting away from the religious references, the point was a vapor lock condition.
For the OP, scan your comp. Any error codes? Could be a faulty pressure regulator, overheating condition, some other mechanical problem that likely overheats or shut-off modes.
I dont disagree with you that false is false. Interesting that religious observances and business meetings are the occasions that you hear most of these illustrative stories.
Bobba Oooom Mau Mau,,,, Babba Ooooo Mau Mau,,,,,,,, Folks,come on over to Larry's Used Car City.We have a real good deal on a 1954 Pontiac Automobile. cuhulin
I had a car that used to do something similar, stall out while driving past a certain point often. Wound up changing most of the usual, ECU, etc. Eventually while inspecting the distributor one day I found the tiniest sliver of metal that had one end stuck across the reluctor gap. it turned out that somewhat like a compass needle, it could move and short across the gap intermittently, causing the engine to die, then eventually it would clear.
One place where it stalled sometimes, repeatedly, there was a nearby radio tower, which could probably make the loose metal spec line up across the gap and short out the ignition pickup.
Just needed to clear that piece of metal off it and it was fine, but did take at least a few months to solve.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.