Complete vehicle shut down while driving at high or low speed, no steering, no brakes, no lights no warning lights won’t turn over or restart for several minutes to hours! No warning lights nothing it just completely shut down no rhythm or reason
that sucks, and is likely scary and frustrating.
What have you done to find the remedy for this? Check battery? Check fuel pressure? Check for DTC codes?
Seems the battery or its connections are intermittently bad. When bad, the ignition system stops working and the engine quits, so the power steering quits. The brakes still work, but the pedal has to be pushed much harder because engine vacuum is no longer providing power assist. No lights of any kind is another indication of a complete failure of power from the battery to the electrical system.
It has had a new battery, new connector to battery, new ignition, newfuses, new ecu (twice), anything that has been said to do we have done (we have only had this vehicle a few months (what a waste of money) it’s still at a repair shop now because they don’t even have the ability to fix it because they have said it’s the programming in the ecu which can only be changed by gm
If you just bought it, I suspect you know why the previous owner got rid of it.
Could the ignition switch be bad? Just a guess.
Sorry for your troubles.
That can be caused by a failing crankshaft position sensor.
Heat can effect the crankshaft position sensor where the sensor stops sending a signal to the computer.
When the computer loses the signal from the sensor, the computer thinks the crankshaft has stopped rotating. The computer then see’s no reason to operate the ignition/fuel systems and the car shuts off.
Then if you wait long enough, the sensor cools down and starts working again. The engine then starts and runs.
Tester
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I immediately informed my mechanic about that and I’ll keep my fingers crossed thanks tester
We already replaced that lol but yes I now see why the dealership sold me this car and why they received it on trade because it’s a lemon
The only code is u0100 lost communication with control and I don’t think my response to everything ended up right below your question but it’s there
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a 13 year old car with issues is not a lemon- even if you did just buy it. (not according to Lemon laws, anyway.)
I see your updates on what has been done. With the further description, I am in agreement with @Tester. I’m not even sure I would test the old Crankshaft sensor- as Tester said- they can work when they are cool, then fail when hot; and they are notorious for not tripping a DTC.
for roughly $40 in parts, I’d just put a new one it on and see what it does. These can run you ragged trying to find out what it is.
furthermore:
I see you replaced a battery cable- which one? or did you do both? When the car quits and everything shuts off- have you checked the battery voltage then? at the battery and also at the power control box under the hood? That big fuse box under the hood should have a wire straight from the battery, so it should have 12+ volts all the time. I’ve seen those wires come loose and cause some issues, too.
Your shop talks about only GM being able to program the computer, and that may not be true. Many parts houses can do this as well, depending on what is around you. NAPA, Parts Plus, CarQuest.
When you say 'No warning lights",
Do you mean none of the lights on the dash light up, oil, battery, temp, etc. ?
or just the Check Engine Light doesn’t light up ?
EDIT, have no idea why it replied to Tester.
The OP is saying there are no warning lights before the engine shuts down.
Tester
Correct not dash lights give any warnings about it and nothing is lit up after it doesn’t restart immediately but sometimes it’s only a couple minutes sometimes it is hours sometimes it gets towed
We replaced both on the battery cables and have been in contact with Ac delco and then gm which is where the information comes from in my post now it’s just been put back on to the ecu and I’m purchasing a third and then I’ll just burn it if it doesn’t work, I’m so irritated with my bad purchase uugg
I haven’t said it yet but thank y’all for your assistance and suggestions on this!
Update, it’s once again back to gm to rewrite the programming, I didn’t mean to imply they were the only one who can program it as they are not, but they are the only one who can rewrite faulty programming, right? Because that’s the issue now, any more suggestions would be appreciated while I wait for gm as I don’t think it will ever happen