The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Non-Bolt Newer Chevy Help Requested

Last night, while driving my 2001 Lumina, I began to experience a weird happening.

As I would drive, the car would periodically seem to shut off and restart itself. The radio would go off and come back on, as if someone had turned the key off and back on. It didn't seem to lose power (engine wise) during this. Although the airbag light would begin flashing when it restarted, just like it does when started up cold, and I was running near 80 mph.

While it was running, I couldn't see any difference in the beams of the headlamps, or the instrument panel. However, the face of the stereo, i.e. the clock was pulsating. I could also hear engine noise through the radio, even when it wasn't on???

Could it possibly be something as simple as a loose batter cable, bad alternator, or am I more likely looking at a hefty labor bill to find a short or something?

Any thoughts from you other guys? I hate these dag-nab computer controlled contraptions.

check your battery terminals to see if they are clean and the cables are tight. then check your groung strap to make sure it isin good condition. i would also get the alternator checked - just check the voltage while the car is running, it should be in the 13.5v-14.4v range

Not an expert here but possibly it may be one of those computer chips getting flakey.

My bet is the alternator. Brian

I had this happen in 2004 silverado, except I would loose power to everything my engine would shut off, all accesories, everything.... it turned out to be bad wire in the steering column coming from the ignition switch.

My guess is a bad ground. The items turning on and off can be several things, but radio noise is caused by a bad groung 99% of the time. This makes me think that all of the problems are due to a bad ground.

Phil

Thanks to all of you for your replies.

I'm hoping to get a chance to look it over this weekend. I'm hoping it's something as simple as a ground, bad battery cables, or the alternator.

Those were my first thoughts, particularly the alternator, but I was afraid of something more like HotRod Rocker, or Bruck K is talking about.

I started it up late last night, after I got home, and it didn't seem to be having any of the issues I experienced the night before.

Oh well, at least it gave me an excuse to drive the truck downtown.

I'll let you know what I find out.

Any UFO sightings in the area?

If not, it's likely a losse wire somewhere. Was happening to my '53 pick up - turned out to be a wire that was holing on by 1 strand.

Ian,

I like that theory. With all of the aero-space industry we have in the area, it's hard to say what might be flying through the air at 1:00 a.m. when it was happening.

These newer cars are not simple like the old days. Is the check engine light on. If it is, there will be codes in the memory about what the computer thinks is wrong. This could be very dangerous for you on the freeway.

Jed, what kind of engine noise could you hear from your radio? I worked in a Delphi generator lab, and when we would get bad returns from newer cars (2002-2003) the engine noise would be a howling coming from the alternator. The howling means there was more amps pulling from the alternator than it could handle, which was for the most part a bad regulator.

so if your noise is howling = new alternator.

-Brad

Brad, the noise sounds like engine noise to me. You step on the gas, the noise increases, you let off, it decreases. As I said, It happens whether or not the radio is on of off. Kind of like running non-resister plugs back in the day.

Truckernix, the check engine light never comes on. The only lights I see change when it happens is the airbag light comes on and flashes a couple of times immediately after it happens.

Just like when you turn the key on cold before start-up.

Jed,
that airbag light would tell me that the computer is going through some kind of restart, just like you said.

Well, I had to tear half the front end of the car off to get to the battery, but I'm hopeful I found the problem. Negative cable was 1.5 turns loose, positive cable was about 3/4 of a turn loose.

I drove the car today, and so far, no problems.

Hope I make it home...

Thanks for all of the advice.

salt gremlins @ work late @ night