Shuts off while driving?

Tiny
LSANCHEZ01
  • MEMBER
  • 2005 CHEVROLET EQUINOX
  • 90,000 MILES
Doesn't matter if engine is warm or cold. Doesn't matter if sitting at stoplight or driving 65 on interstate.
Thursday, October 27th, 2011 AT 4:57 PM

1 Reply

Tiny
KASEKENNY
  • MECHANIC
  • 18,907 POSTS
There could be a number of things but let's start with these guides that will help identify the things we need to start checking:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/stall-at-idle

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/engine-stalls

We need to start with the crank sensor as that would be the most common cause.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/symptoms-of-a-bad-crankshaft-sensor

The other possible cause would be a PCM issue. The best way to find this out would be monitoring the RPM on a graph with a scan tool. I suspect if the PCM is the issue the RPM will drop in a straight line down to 0. If you think about it, even when the engine shuts off, it doesn't just stop spinning which is what it would have to do in order to drop in a straight line down on the graph. The engine ramps down the speed and so the graph should show this. However, if the PCM is dropping out and shutting the engine off it will not see the ramp down of RPM. Here is a couple of reviews of scan tools that would be able to do this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb7whGkD8vw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY-1CsAzrFA

I attached the process of the crank sensor. I would suggest starting with that and go from there. Thanks
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Saturday, November 28th, 2020 AT 6:44 AM

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