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97 Grand AM V6 dies intermittently

Hi all,

I am trying to help a friend of mine to fix his 97 Grand AM with a 3.1L V6 engine automatic. The car ran fine till today with the exception of that it would sometimes need longer to crank the engine to start it (either cold or hot). Today it suddenly died at a traffic light, and a couple of times on his way home after that. We checked it parked, it idles smoothly at about 600 RPM but sometimes will start shaking and losing RPM and then die. It seems to do this completely at random times either in park or in gear. What could the problem be? Thanks in advance for any info.

andrei

Reply to
Andrei
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See what trouble codes, if any, are set. Then go from there. It could be:

Crankshaft sensor

Ignition module

Fuel pump

PCM

Or one of several other problems. Diagnose first before throwing parts at it.

Regards,

Al.

Reply to
Al Haunts

Thanks to you all guys for the info. Just an update. Today we unplugged the MAF sensor and drove for a while, no problem (of course the light was on). We then plugged it back and again no problem. Will have to wait until it stalls again to check if really this is the sensor. Will pull the codes off the computer. Is this a simple procedure like on Ford's OBD-IV, or it needs a special scanner?

Thanks, andrei

Reply to
Andrei

Reply to
Geoff Welsh

Just one more update a couple days later. The car ran with no problem whatsoever. I am now guessing maybe there was a bad contact to MAF sensor. When we disconnected and reconnected it, this made the contact better. Or, there are some spliced wires in the same region. Maybe there is a bad contact there. Again we moved them a bit and this made the contact better for a while. BTW, tapping on the sensor did not make the engine stall. Interestingly, the same testing method -- tapping is given in the Hanes manual for this car. Are there some fragile parts inside? The sensor itself looks very solid.

Andrei wrote:

Reply to
Andrei

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