1989 Buick Century wagon stalling

Have you found the solution yet? I ask because I just found a 1992 cutlass I can get for 700 bucks. Looks new with only 17k miles. Keeps shutting off.

 

I haven't found it yet, but haven't gotten back to it in a couple months. I have found in my research that seemingly everyone that has had this issue has found a different solution, meaning it could be a plethora of different issues. But I can tell you this wagon is in near mint condition and I can't give it away. So I'd offer 200 for the car your talking about which is about the scrap value. I have about 1500 into this one and I can't give it away. So 700 is way to high for it even if it was like brand new. Because like me you may never find it, or you may get lucky out of the gate and go right to it. I'm well prepared now to replace the whole harness in the car because I believe it'll be a bad wire somewhere ... everything else has been replaced...

 

Tell me again, what are the conditions when it stalls. Does it chuggle, like not enough fuel or failing spark? Or when it stalls, are you braking to a stop? Does it only stall while sitting still? Or while rolling down the road? Will it stall rolling down the road if you downshift the trans a gear? Let me know, and I'll see what I can come up with. And for the record, if it's a single wire, believe me when I tell you, finding a fully-matching harness is just about impossible. Twenty years ago, I replaced an '87 Celebrity's harness, and they were hard to locate a match back then.

 

ground issue?

 

Ground issues are possible, and usually at the battery terminal, from corrosion. It would also keep a car from starting, but not cause it to die. Usually, it's spark or fuel loss, but if electrical on these, you'll find the problem in the ignition switch, the computer relay, the ignition control module or fuel pump.

 

Otherwise, it's a component in the EFI or ignition that fails when heated. Have you scanned the PCM for fault codes?

 

Check your fuel injectors. Had to replace all 6 with rebuilt injectors on friends 1990 buick century
with 3.3 engine and fixed the problem.

 

its electrical i bet, something shakes and the connection to (sounds like ignition system/pcm board but could be fuel system) gets dropped just long enough to stop the motor, temp fluctuations can cause it to change its seating. GM is NOTORIOUS for poor electrical plugs, many times i go in with a tiny screwdriver and pull the "finger" on the plug out some to make a smoother connection, also alot of people put dielectric grease everywhere, this shouldn't be on the terminals or receptacles for the pins themselves, mostly this is useless on most things except plug boots just the inside of the boot, not the plug terminal. the grease actually is an insulator not a conductor. De-Oxite will clean terminals, and even wd-40, but you want to make sure the rubber boot on the plug is in good condition to keep debris out, this is where you could rub the die-electric grease, the idiots at the parts store that try to sell this to you with tail lights are just not educated in what that grease actually does and what its use it for.

This assume it runs great and pretty much dies right away, you can probably tell the difference between fuel and ignition issues by feeling how it dies, injectors are not likely the cause, but if the computer controller lost current and they all stopped then this could be the case, some fuel will be in the cylinder and it will probably die just a bit slower as the cylinder/s already sprayed or in the process will try to fire, an ignition failure would be completely instantaneous, but this may be impossible to tell.

if it starts struggling and then dies, then you have something else on your hands, probably fuel system. DO NOT replace all your injectors for this problem, while they may need replacing this will not fix the issue, also you would have to have it running with a fuel pressure gauge connected and watch it die to see if the pressure drops right before it dies.

if you have the 3-pack on the back like i do, check its plugs, and check all the wires close enough to the engine to get melted, each injector has a plug but this isnt your problem because one to lose power will not cause the motor to stop like the key was off, not sure where yours is but check the last plug to the fuel system, start with ones near the engine, and ones that have collected alot of dust and debris. Hell don't forget the ignition switch itself. Starter relay and other parts are on different pins

my buddy had a 81 dodge kept stalling, he kept replacing ignition "brains" and it would work a little and have the problem, i took the plug and squeezed the circular connectors in it, never did it again, i fought an issue with mine and "bad" TPS sensors, on the 3rd one i was like ok this isnt right, bought a new plug (had to ignore color coding on wires as they were wrong) soldered the wires smooth with no edges, and used heat shrink to cover them, coated with a little liquid electrical tape and never got a code or have had another issue with it in 20k miles. "butt splices" are your ENEMY these are a quick fix, the proper way is to repair as i did or replace that part of the harness all together.

Also the looming at the parts store is not high grade if you need to re loom any parts of your harness that will get hot, get some rated for high temps, you could also get some heat looming as you run the wires (the kind they put on O2 sensors) Ive had a 3100 and a 3400 and on both the wiring to the speed sensor melted due to a design flaw. Hell electrical tape will stand up better to the heat than GM wire insulation. on the first one i had years ago, i just repaired it the cheap way, pulled the side crank sensor and speed sensor plugs, pulled that harness out from behind the motor and covered both of the smaller speed sensor wires that were totally melted bare with on long piece of electrical tape rolled over the bare wires, plugged it back in and it held up for another 100k miles until i sold. you will be astonished at how much damage these wires can take before they finally find a place to short, looms away from the engine you can usually peak in and check, they should be fine, the loom may be dry but not burned dry.

But again check those plugs, sometimes even wiggling them while running will not show you the problem as the amount of movement needed to cause the issue is so slight and when you wiggle them they actually rub the pins and create a better connection temporarily.

I cannot stress how much you should look at the electrical system before dumping any more money on parts. I rebuild TVs and Radios for fun, i can tell you one little connection on a vacuum tube can cause all kinds of issues, half of the time the socket can not be repaired and must be replaced to be just right (same with your plugs) also on a set one little poor solder connection can render you with a TV set that just shuts itself of randomly even with no jolting, i even got a free set back in the day that was very expensive from a couple that got tired of having techs come out to degauss it (almost every TV will self degauss due to even turning it effects the picture because of the earths magnetic field) the coil around the CRT was fine, the plug was fine, one of the pins had a barely visible hairline crack in the solder, i re soldered it and i ran this TV until the picture tube was worn out.

Its electrical, especially if you can let it idle for hours smoothly and then jolt it around moving it and it dies. a plug somewhere has a pin not making good connection, also mine has the newer 3100 but if they ever overheated or some jackass mechanic didnt loom every single wire up right the insulators on wires can melt and the only indication you would have is the plastic covering being chipped away or rock hard. electrical gremlins are a PAIN and are usually the culprit when you rule out a bazillion other things in these situations

 

Replace the secondary fan relay. Some of the mid sized cars read the current through the coil of the secondary fan relay, and will shut off the engine when it is not withing spec. It sounds stupid, but leave it to GM to do something like that.

I had a Lumina that had that same issue.

 

I can believe that, had an '01 or '04 (been a long time) Grand Am no start, believe it or not, a blown A/C clutch fuse, for some odd reason, keeps the car from firing! If I ever meet the electrical engineer who came up with that, or caused it to happen, I'm gonna shove an A/C compressor sideways up their kazoo, with extreme prejudice.