After driving the car approximately 200 miles on the Interstate, the engine will suddenly shutdown as if it were not getting any gas. The engine will not start immediately, but after a 30 minute cool down it will restart and be good for another 100 to 200 miles, until the problem occurs again. This has occured several times.
The problem has never occured during city driving and there is no trouble code in the computer.
Any help would be much appreciated.
That's a fun one. The *proper* way to diagnose the problem is for the car to be driven until it stalls with a recording data scanner hooked up. Once the engine stalls, the recorded data can be analysed so that it can be seen which datastream(s) went silent, in what sequence and under what prevailing underhood conditions. It's likely *something* is quitting when it gets good and hot, but it could be any of many sensors located in several different systems on and in the engine, but it's difficult to guess what. Camshaft position sensor, crankshaft position sensor, MAF or MAP sensor, engine temperature sensor, throttle position sensor, ECM itself, etc., or even something not on this list.
Guessing at it will likely wind up more expensive than diagnosis and repair.
DS
I had a similar experience recently with my 96 GV and the culprit was the fuel pump. Well, I'm reasonably convinced now that I've run three tanks through the van with no recurrence.
Matt
Yes, that will that detect a flakey fuel pump? The dealer finally put a fuel pressure gauge on my van and when it acted up saw the fuel pressure was low and erratic. The problem didn't set any scan code that was especially meaningful. It set "multiple cylinder misfire" a couple of times and "lean mixture on the upstream O2 sensor" one time. Both obviously related to a faulty fuel pump, but they also could have been related to other problems.
Matt
One thing to try next time it happens... Get out and open the gas cap and then try to start the car again. This may or may not apply to your car but I had a similar issue once on a different make vehicle. The evap emissions system had failed and the car would run until the vacuum in the fuel tank overcame the pumps ability to pump. Open the cap and things equalize. Again this may not even be possible on your vehicle.... just a guess.
Steve B.
I also think fuel pump is the problem as I just went through it with my '99
300M a month ago. Drove me crazy and stranded me for several times -- just needed to let it sit about half an hour or longer and then it started up OK. I told the dealer to keep the darn thing until they found a problem. They drove for a number of days with diagnostics hooked up and it finally stranded their guy also (there is justice, after all!). Ended up being fuel pump and they replaced it. I am also on about 3rd or 4th tank of gas and looks good so far. Good Luck!
Quick tip-- if you have a no start condition and you suspect the fuel pump,smack the fuel tank with something and dont be afraid to really hit it hard,if car starts it needs a pump.Works 75% of the time,will get you out trouble but you eill still need to replacethe pump in the future.
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