I have a 99 Mazda 626 (automatic) and in the past year it has stalled out on 3 separate occasions after coming to a stop at a stoplight. The car sputters off, the wheel locks and it just dies. After this happens the car won’t click over to start. However, after letting it sit for several hours, the car will start up again without any problem like nothing was wrong. I even had the car towed to a mechanic after one of these instances. The car was towed to the shop on a Saturday and on Monday when the mechanic went to see what was wrong, the car started up fine and showed no signs of an issue. I have always been able to start it up without a problem on a day to day basis. (The car also just recently got a lot louder – I found a sizable hole in the B pipe–so I don’t think the noise is related. Anyway, I just don’t want to stall out in traffic again so is it time to buy a new fuel pump or could a smaller fix take care of the problem?
Hello Kyle, is your car a four or six cylinder?
Stalling while stopping and dies while driving are quite different things. Fuel pump failure is not likely to cause stalling while stopping.
Start with checking the fault codes if the check engine light is on. Make sure the check engine light bulb is working.
The truth here is that no one can guess what causes stalling on a 15 year old car without touching the car.
When the car fails to start after stalling you need to determine if you have no spark or no fuel pressure. Also take notice if the check engine light goes off during cranking when the car fails to start.
You don’t want to start making guesses because that will guarantee wasting the most money possible.
I agree, it could be as simple as a loose wire which occasionally causes you to lose spark.