Pointiac Cutting out after running awhile

Normally I would say check for vapor locking, but this is un-usual. It might be caused from poor fuel pressure caused by constant higher RPM's. Just a guess though.

check fuel filter and fuel pressure.

This can be a major pain to diagnose if it occurs intermittantly.

I've had the exact same thing happen on my Grand Am twice.

Replace the fule filter and see if it happens aga> Grand AM 3.4

Thanks for the replys,

Speedy, Vapor lock on an fuel injected car?? Didn't think that was possible. Where would you check?

John C ---What year was your Grand Am and did the fuel filter fix the problem?

Thanks

MB

Can you get the codes scanned to see what is stored in the comp?

Not showing any codes per se, but I'm going to hook it up to autotap to see if there are any pending.

Are there any other parameters I can check while hooked up to autotap?

Thanks

MB

My guess, and at this point just a guess and not a diagnosis, would be a faulty crankshaft position sensor.

I have heard of some Ford Taurus's with fuel injection having vapor lock, but it usually happens when driving in the city during stop and go traffic too. That's why I only mentioned it.

Ok, I think some of those Fords also had the fuel pump under the hood or on the firewall which would have made them "draw" type pumps rather than in tank "push" types.

I don't really think this is fuel system related, I think it's igntion related. I'm now wondering if there isn't something wrong with the ignition switch whereby it's intermittently cutting off the fuel pump sort of like in "pass lock" mode.

MB

Mine is a 98, 2.4L.

It would cut out occasionally on acceleration, particularly on the highway, and in a short amount of time progressed to the engine simply dying randomly then working again later. Two shops couldn't reproduce it so they said they couldn't diagnose it.

It worked the first time, and the second time the shop insisted on doing a complete diagnostic and found nothing. I told them to go ahead and replace the fuel filter and that fixed it again.

It's a $10 part that probably needs replacing anyway, so it can't hurt. Will take you 15 minutes to replace, but you might need the $8 tool from Autozone to get the old one off. Unplugged the power from the fuel pump (it was the only bundle of wires going into the rear of the tank on my car), started the car and let it run til it died, then just unscrewed the thing and put a new one in. About a cup of fuel leaked out and onto my hands but it was no big deal.

I just replaced the filter about 35K miles ago. My car has a huge fuel filter. It just doesn't seem that this would be the problem given what is happening. I gues it's possible but how many miles ago was that that you had that done?

Thanks

MB

The second time happened about 20k after the first one. I've replaced it every 20k since.

I figure it's entirely possible that the gas station I frequented just had dirty gas or something. I've used another gas station since.

Thanks Jon,

I picked up a filter at Advance and tomorrow I'm going to put it on. Certainly worth a try as this paticular problem was really a P.I.T.A. with the Beretta years ago and I never solved it. I just kept replacing parts and eventually traded it in on the 2K GA I've got now.

It's entirely possible that it's also the filter media that deteriorates impeding flow. If you've ever seen the little membrane that prefilters fuel to the pump in the gas tank it would be hard to believe that much sediment would even make it to the fuel filter.

Anyway tomorrow the new filter goes on and we'll see.

Thanks

MB