My daughter has a 98 Cavalier that is stalling. Last weekend I had to go to the college she is attending to try to fix the car. Last weekend the car would not start. I placed the key in the ignition turned it to run and did not hear the fuel pump start. I ended up swaping the fuel pump relay with the A/C relay and the fuel pump started working. I thought this was the problem so I purchased one from a local car part store. Now the car is stalling without warning at all speeds. I have not been in the car when this happens but I am told that it stops abruptly. There are no codes in the computer. I suspect the problem is the fuel pump or a wiring problem to the fuel pump. Do you think I am on the right track or do you have any other ideas?
If you can, hook up a fuel pressure gauge, tape it to the outside of the windshield and drive around with it.
But one of the other culprits in sudden - but sometimes intermittent - stalls is a failing ignition control module.
Thanks for the information. I hope it is not the ignition module but I will keep it in mind. I was thinking it may be related to the fuel pump just because it was not working when it did not start. I do not have a fuel pressure gauge but I will ask about one at the car parts store. The gauge seems like a good idea.
Maybe the relay went because the pump is over-drawing?
Last Friday I inspected the conectors and wire crip on the fuel pump relay that is in the fuse box under the hood. All looked fine. I searced the internet for more information and found one post where there was a problem with the wire harness under the carpet near the hood latch but all looked good here too.
Saturday morning I inspected the terminals to the Ignition Module and applied some delectric grease to the connector pins.
After all of this the car stalled when ideling in my garage. I turned the key to off and back to on before restarting and could not hear the fuel pump. I replaced the in tannk fuel pump assembly. Because of the intermitant failure it may be some time before I know for sure if this has fixed the problem.
My daughter did drive back to college with no problems.
I thought I should follow up with what seems to have been the actual cause of the car stalling. My daughter was home over Christmas break and one morning the car failed to start. Onece again the fuel pump did not come on when the key was turned. While pushing the car into my garage I heard the fuel pump start and the car would start but then would stall. I noticed that when the car would not start when the car was in park the driving lights were on. This seemed strange because the are usually only on when the car is in gear. When trying to find the problem I removed the fuse to to Powertrain Control Module (PCM). I noticed that when this was removed the driving lights would come on. The short version is that there was an intermitant break in the power wire to the PCM under the battery tray. I replaced this section of wire and the problem has been solved. I did get the experiance of changing a fuel pump before finding the intermitant wire. The break was caused from the wire rubbing on the protective cover over the years. This seems to be a strange layout to me. The PCM is located behind the front bumper on the right side of the car an the power distribution box is over the tire on the right side of the car. Oh well when she completes he education maybe she can afford a good car…