2005 Buick Lesabre stalling issue - please help!
Hello everybody,
I’m new here, I own a 2005 LeSabre with the 3.8 engine that I bought a few months ago out of dire need for a vehicle to get back and forth from work. I’m currently in a financial bind so I had to buy something cheap just to get back and forth from work since I don’t go anywhere else or drive any lengthy distance. A little bit about the car, it’s a 2005 with high miles (251,xxx) I bought it with 249,xxx back in October and the main reason I bought the car is because of where it came from and who owned it. It was a local car that was basically a one owner car since new and was owned by a couple in their 70’s and it came with a shoe box full of receipts for what was all done to it since new. They were very adamant about maintaining things and after looking through the receipts the oil was changed every 3,000 miles or before along with recommended transmission service and anything else it needed. The guy I bought it from told me he had just had it into the shop about a month before I bought it and was told it was in exceptional condition for the miles after having a full inspection and diagnostics test done. In reality they weren’t even trying to sell it but they found out I was looking for a car on a budget and decided to let it go rather than let it sit in the garage since they were only driving it every couple weeks or so due to the wife loosing her drivers license because of health issues.
Up until my current issue the car has ran flawlessly, it started great, didn’t use or leak any fluids and ran exceptionally well for the age and mileage. Last week I was on my way home from work driving down the highway and all of a sudden the car just stalled out of nowhere, I coasted to the shoulder and attempted to restart it and couldn’t get it to restart at all, it would crank over fine and maybe attempt to run for a second or two but would not stay running. I had it towed back home and let it sit for awhile and tried to restart it and then it would maybe try to start and run for 5-10 seconds but would not stay running, when it did want to start it didn’t run smooth for the short time it would start, it would chug and it seemed like the only way I could keep it running longer was to push the gas pedal slightly. Then the next day I had nothing, the car was completely dead. I thought I might of left the key on since the day before when I was messing around with it trying to see if it would start I didn’t shut it off, it just died when I let off the gas pedal so i figured it’s very possible I left the damn key on. So I then tried to charge the battery but could not get my charger to start charging the battery with it connected to the cables, once I disconnected the cables the battery started to charge and took a charge fine. The odd thing I did notice when I tried to charge the battery with the cables connected was there was a clicking noise coming from the rear fuse box next to the battery which I had never heard before. So after the battery was charge and a couple days passed I went and hooked up the cables again to try to figure out where that clicking was coming from and it was gone, I tried to start the car and it started and ran like it did before all these issues started. I have not ran it for more than maybe a minute nor have I even drove it yet since I don’t want to get stranded but I’m wondering if anybody with these cars have ran into a similar issue. I need to get this fixed sooner rather than later since after all this virus stuff subsides I will need to go back to work, it’s kind of a blessing in disguise that I’m off work during this time otherwise I don’t know what I would do to get back and forth to work so I need to figure it out. I just don’t want to start throwing unnecessary parts at it since it’s a waste of money I don’t have and it’s hard to figure things out that way. Some things I’ve read lead me to think it’s a fuel pump issue but then other people say these are notorious for sensor problems, can someone please help me or point me in the right direction as to what to do or test. I’m quite mechanically inclined but when it comes to newer car electronics I get lost quick. Any and all help is greatly appreciated since I just can’t afford to take it to a mechanic and get charge hundreds of dollars for them to look at it, especially right now with being out of work.
Thanks in advance!,,
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Comments
The clicking with the battery charger connected was most likely just a situation where the power being demanded from the circuit that the relay was turning on exceeded the battery charger's output.