89BuickRegalGS Posted April 1, 2003 Report Share Posted April 1, 2003 This past saturday, i left my home in NJ to drive to my university in Alabama. In North Carolina, my girfriend and I decided to pull over and switch drivers at a rest stop, and when I started the car up, it was running very rough. At higher speeds, teh car was running smooth though, so we decided to continue on. About 20 minutes of driving later, the car just shut off. It didn't sputter or hick-up, it just shut off. I coasted to the side of the interstate and managed to get the car running again, and was able to get about 1 mile before it would shut off. I did this for roughly 20 miles. After this i got a hotel room and made arrangements for the car to be towed to the only place that had a mechanic on duty on a Sunday: Pep Boys. Had the car towed in and spent 6 hours at Pep Boys while they changed out my coil packs. It cost $330.00 and did nothing but make the car stall less often I guess. I really need to figure out what is wrong with this car. Here are a list of details involved with my problem: The car is a 1989 Buick Regal GS 2.8 liter v-6, automatic transmission, 181,500 miles -Car cuts off with out hesitating, sputtering, or hick-uping -runs smooth at high speeds but still cuts off with no warning -runs rough at idle or low speed -the voltmeter on the dash is pegged, one notch from being so high its in the red -when the car stops, restarting it takes a normal ammount of time, but I have to pump the gas (its fuel injected though!) and everything electrical dims to the point that it looks like my headlights are off for a second while starting -i noticed that some of my dash lights (the climate control buttons, the clock on my stereo head unit) where "pulsing" or flickering at a constant rate while driving down the interstate, but my digital dash was fine -had all three coils replaced, wich seemed to ease the problem of the car cutting off, but it could also have been cutting off less because it was about 15 degrees colder the next day. I would appreciate ANY help here. This is causing a lot of friction between me and my father (it was his $330.00 that was spent "fixing" the car at Pep Boys). Thank you guys very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gimp19 Posted April 1, 2003 Report Share Posted April 1, 2003 It could be the fuel pump or filter, if the engine was running rough while you were driving that could cause the flickering. How does it run at costant highway speeds? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GnatGoSplat Posted April 1, 2003 Report Share Posted April 1, 2003 Try checking the voltage with a regular voltmeter. Sometimes low voltage can cause erratic symptoms like that. Also, with the car running, try rapping on the ECM and see if there's any effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luminator94 Posted April 1, 2003 Report Share Posted April 1, 2003 I had a similar problem when I owned my Grand Am. My coils went bad, but it was my ignition module that caused my coils to fry. Aaron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
89BuickRegalGS Posted April 1, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2003 It could be the fuel pump or filter, if the engine was running rough while you were driving that could cause the flickering. How does it run at costant highway speeds? running at constant speeds the engine maintains constant RPMs and I can even use the cruise comtrol. I thought the ignition module under the coils could be bad, but pep boys swore it COULDN'T be teh ignition module cause tehn the car wouldn't run at all. I think they are wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chronic139 Posted April 2, 2003 Report Share Posted April 2, 2003 the car will run intermittantly with a bad ignition module. Mine did anyway. But the cold made mine worse not better. The symptoms were very similar to the ones you described. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted April 2, 2003 Report Share Posted April 2, 2003 I thought the ignition module under the coils could be bad, but pep boys swore it COULDN'T be teh ignition module cause tehn the car wouldn't run at all. My TGP just did this back in December. It would start fine, wouldn't stumble, and then just die. It was the ignition module. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
89BuickRegalGS Posted April 2, 2003 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2003 ok, so after this class i am going to take the car into a local shopand I am gonna have to pay to have the problem RE-DIAGNOSED, and then fixed the right way. This is gonna be fun, not, its gonna be exspensive though...damn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankzen Posted April 5, 2003 Report Share Posted April 5, 2003 ok, so after this class i am going to take the car into a local shopand I am gonna have to pay to have the problem RE-DIAGNOSED, and then fixed the right way. This is gonna be fun, not, its gonna be exspensive though...damn. So was it diagnosed? The suspense is killing us I' m curious as I drive the same car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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