Vehicle stalls on highway suddenly, but will restart once we pullover and turn key again

Tiny
VLR
  • MEMBER
  • 1996 CHEVROLET TAHOE
  • 155,000 MILES
After driving for several hours, our tahoe stalls on the highway. It will stall with AC on, without AC on. It will stall with cruise on and without cruise on. It will also stall up a hill and down a hill (or scary mountain pass such as it was). We typically have brakes for a few seconds, so pull over quickly, then put it in park, and start it up again. We don't seem to have any issues with it restarting. We take off down the highway again and it will be good for anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. The last time it stalled was just as we pulled into town from the interstate. Any ideas would be wonderful, we have 2 mountain passes to navigate today and are hoping to find someone who can offer an idea to look into before we have to leave. No one wants to even look because they say it will check out on the diagnostic and will only give a code once it fails. I can't believe no one can even come up with an idea without the computer telling them what to fix!
Friday, August 9th, 2013 AT 6:33 AM

5 Replies

Tiny
HMAC300
  • MECHANIC
  • 48,601 POSTS
If it stalls when you come to a stop clean throttle plate on both sides with choke cleaner if it just stalls then check fuel pressure an dif it's a small block then it should be 60-66 psi. That won't show up on computer
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Friday, August 9th, 2013 AT 6:43 AM
Tiny
VLR
  • MEMBER
  • 3 POSTS
Thanks for the quick response, I'm sorry to tell you have I have no idea what the throttle plate is. I am on the road with little access to anything other than a repair shop in the town I am currently in. I am hoping to have a better idea to these guys with the blank faces. Crank position sensor? Fuel pump is not loud. A relay? Distributor? These are ideas from my brother who is a mechanic, only 1200 miles away. Thanks!
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Friday, August 9th, 2013 AT 7:05 AM
Tiny
HMAC300
  • MECHANIC
  • 48,601 POSTS
Look under tune up on the site here it shows a pic of a throttle plate. Doesn't the repir shop have access to a ascanner? That could say the crank sensor etc. The repair shop should be able to check fuel pressure as well
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Friday, August 9th, 2013 AT 7:26 AM
Tiny
VLR
  • MEMBER
  • 3 POSTS
They say it won't show up on the scanner as the crank sensor resets? Idle is good. No vaccum loss.
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Friday, August 9th, 2013 AT 8:22 AM
Tiny
HMAC300
  • MECHANIC
  • 48,601 POSTS
Tell them to check resistance of crank sensor if high replace it I have no specs on this so they will have to check against new. If the resistance is high when it gets hot it won't work and theengine will stall. Same with cam sensor. They also won't give a code
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Friday, August 9th, 2013 AT 9:46 AM

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