I need help trying to narrow down possible causes of my car shutting off. Have 02 with 150K miles. Starting last week, my car just shuts off while driving. It has done it 4 or 5 times since then. The battery light, oil light and brake lights comes on when this happens.

I did a search on what I thought could be the problem but had to eliminate these.
Originally thought it was a bad alternator, but car does not need to be jumped after it shuts off. After sitting for about 30 seconds, the car cranks back up.

I also searched bad MAF, but ruled that out as car does not idle funny, mpg is normal and car runs perfect while driving.

Does anyone have any ideas of anything else that I could check/research or has anyone else had similiar problem. If so, what did you do to correct?

 

The lights in the dash being on is normal for when the engine is not running and the ignition key is in the on position.

Why the engine shuts off... that's a good question. Maybe the contacts in the ignition switch are becoming worn and losing connection intermittently.

 

I spoke with a co-worker earlier and he advised that he had the same problem with his Jeep a few years ago. He said it ended up being either a camshaft position sensor or a crankshaft position sensor. I am going to research the 2 of those to see if I can narrow it down.

 

yeah i would check those.....mine did the same when they went bad

 

My car, with 146k miles, has been doing that a bit as well. It occurred more-so in the winter months but it still happens every now and then. Although for me, it only happens on the initial start up and after idling for a bit. Then when I pull out my car stutters a bit then seems to get its act together and I'm fine from then on. I'm thinking it may be an o2 sensor because I've cleaned my maf several times and used sea foam but it didn't cure much.

 

This same exact thing happened to me..I would be driving on the highway and suddenly everything would go black and I'd have no power steering, very scary. I came to figure out that when I was reinstalling my transmission after I replaced the clutch and flywheel, I didn't torque the bolt for the crankshaft position sensor correctly (this is after I had to tap a new hole for it b/c I broke the head off while trying to remove it). My suggestion is to check either the CKP or CMP, although some cars will still run, just in LIMP HOME mode with no CMP signal. Check the crank sensor and be careful if you are going to remove the bolt!

 

I decided to go pick up a Camshaft sensor. I am getting a code for bank 1, which according to everyone is the one closest to the windshield. Everyone says it is about a 5 to 10 minute job. It looks fairly easy to remove, however, I can not determine the best way to get to it. For those who have replaced this on a 5.5 gen, did you have to move/take anything off to get easy access to it?

 

OP, did you find a solution to the problem? My 03 GLE, w/114k miles, JUST started doing this today. Same exact thing you are experiencing. Happened twice, once is fired right back up, the second time, I had to wait about a minute. Just wondering which worked, the Cam Pos Sensor or the Crank Pos Sensor.

 

this problem is a recall, check the recall section, we might be able to get this fixed for free
if anybody got it fixed at the dealer what did you have to do

 

If the Brake and battery light is on, sometimes it will still start without a jump start, so dont get confused thinking that it cant happen. Cause it did with my car. So get your alternator checked anyway. If its below 14.4v-14.3v then you need a new one