I've had the truck for a few months, never a problem. Today (my b-day of course) I'm driving it down the road when all of a sudden I lose all power (engine cut out, power steering went away) I pull it over, pop the hood check it out. things seemed a bit warm for only traveling a few miles and it appears something on the drivers side was leaking. I touched it, smelled it, seemed like water. The coolant reservoir is on the right hand side and was just below full, oil was full and looked in good shape. Let it sit for a few minutes and it seemed to crank over for a few seconds, but would die again. any subsequent cranks were just the starter going re-ru-re-ru etc. All of the lights and radio worked fine, but I still checked the battery connections to be safe, they seemed fine. Spent 30 minutes pushing it to a side street where it was okay to park. then walked a few miles uphill home. Planning on walking back tomorrow and hoping it just over heated (which doesn't make sense to me) and that I can get it back home... but does anyone have any ideas? thanks.
The battery light was on because the engine stopped running. The alternator was not charging the battery.
On a model that new, if the engine did overheat the computer could kill it. A stuck thermostat comes to mind. But your temp gauge should have been on the hot side.
Its also possible something locked up and is preventing the engine from cranking, such as the water pump or alternator. You may need to remove the belt to verify. If the belt is slipping it would not power the water pump to keep the engine cool.
SOURCE: 2006 Chevy Aveo won't start in cold weather
go to an auto parts store and get an electcic dipstick heater . remove your oil dipstick after parking car for the night.install electric dipstick preferrably while engine is still hot plug it in at night .this will
help keep the oil warm and also the block after car starts unplug heater remove it and install original dipstick. this is the easiest to install but there are also block heaters
SOURCE: My 2000 chevy blazer cuts off while you are driving.
This can cause your problem if the cat is plugged and cant exhaust it will shut the motor down
SOURCE: vehicle dies
Sounds like a possible fuel pump problem...When they begin to go bad they will overheat and lock up, then work fine for a while and do the same thing again. By changing the filter you lowered the flow resistance and allowed the pump to work a bit easier but still being bad, it did the same thing again. There are other things that can do this as well, but pump is most common.
SOURCE: Start of day. Engine starts and runs fine. Drive 5
There are usually three things that cause this problem. Either 1. your car is intermittenly having the power supply to the ignition interrupted, i.e., loose battery cable or ground, or ignition module, etc 2. your alternator is failing intermittenly, or 3. Your fuel pump is going out. The most common is the fuel pump, especially with your symptoms. The way you test, is, when it won't start, shoot a little fuel into the throttle body, and see if it hits and dies, or hits and keeps going, etc. These things are notoriously intermittent, and of course, you can only troubleshoot something when it's currently not working. As for the alternator, you'll usually have some other warning sign, such as a battery light, or failure of instruments, etc. As for the ignition module, it's more of a remote chance that I included as an option. Hope this helps you out.
SOURCE: what does reduced power traction fault mean?
Other people I've read about have this problem which may be attributable to a bad PCM connector or even bad gasoline (I've read).
One person had a random fault code that went away with driving.
They only had 4600 mi. on their vehicle.
Good luck on this one.
440 views
Usually answered in minutes!
Also, after it died, the battery warning light did come on, but clearly the battery was working fine (radio and lights still worked), the connections were tight and looked very clean. vehicle only has 31,000 miles on it.
×