camrod67

Ok, it's been a long time since I posted anything on here. Been lurking a little but I haven't even had a chance to get on the site in a looong time.

I have a 97 Camaro with the 3.8l V6. I know, I know, not an LS anything. It's my commuter car. I bought it in Dec 07 with 56,000 miles on it. It now has 115,500. Like I said, commuter car.
Anyway, Over the past few months I have been having an odd problem with it. It keeps dying for no apparent reason, while I am driving. It is mostly while on the freeway, probably because that is where I spend the most amount of time.
I will be drive along and the engine will start sputtering and the voltage gauge drops to around 8 or 9. If I catching it in time I can drop it in neutral and hold the gas and it doesn't stall but if I don't... I have stalled out a few times while driving down the freeway. When it does stall, it takes a few tries before it will start up again. There is no one thing that I can pin down that causes it to happen. Its pretty random.
I have changed the fuel filter, I've ran some different injector cleaners thru it, I have tried different gas stations. Nothing seems to fully cure the problem. Someone I just talked to said it might be time to replace the injectors, not just clean them.
Any ideas?

Rockin C Racing

iTrader: (3)

Catylitic converter is probably plugged. I had an oldsmobile with the 3.8L V6 and it acted the same way when the cat plugged. Had to replace the cat and the O2 sensors and it was fine.

crazylane

iTrader: (19)

May also want to check your conection to your battery. Every time it looses connection it restarts yours computer, thus shutting the car off...

This is what I had wrong with mine. I bought it from a dealership, the battery terminal was broken, they used gorrilla snot used to stick it back together and make it off the lot. Driving it down the highway it started acting up. I checked it out, turned around, and made them replace my battery...

jrwilliam1988

iTrader: (5)

You may want to check the wire that plugs onto the top of the alternator. that thing dropped my volts and ate my battery.

1BAD95Z

Did you get your car fixed? My first Camaro was a '95 V6 so don't feel bad, they are welcome here too.

One day my v6 started running bad so I had a professional injector cleaner (Dr. Injector) clean them and it ran like a champ afterwards. Might want to try that...

camrod67

I'm still working on it. The check engine light popped on yesterday. I haven't had a chance to take it in yet and find out why. Came on once before and the code reader said it was the crank position sender. I spent the $50 thinking it was an easy fix. I guess it could be, if I had the right tools, which I don't. The part is still sitting on a shelf in the garage. It will probably turn out to be the problem and I am just retarded and have pursued fixing it. Anyone ever changed this part out before?? It looks like I need to pull the crank pulley off to get at it. I don't have a puller.

foxySS

Get your alternator checked out. Also, inspect all of your major elec. connections.

Rawr256

I had my CPS go out on my GTP and it did the same thing. I replaced it twice, first time it turned out it was a severly corroded battery terminal that was causing the car to have issues.

I would opt to change out the CPS asap, sometimes it it will die and start right back up and other times it will be just flat out dead. I put it off on my GTP when it first started having issues after I replaced it once because it only lasted 30k miles or so, eventually it completely died. After no spark and changing just about everything ignition related I changed the sensor and it fired right back up.

You will need a puller, and a beefy wrench to remove the bolt from the crank also. If you have the right tools it shouldn't take more than 2 hours tops to pull it apart and throw it all back together.

camrod67

Yeah, I need to get it changed. In the past couple of days it has died on me while driving. The first one was tuesday on I-90 just out of the tunnel. I was doing 70, I hit the gas to pass someone and nothing happened. I looked down and the needle on the tach was at dead zero. I was coasting. Same thing happened today coming down the hill on 16 going into Gorst. Same deal, tried to accelerate and no go. Both times I dropped it in neutral and started it back up while coasting. It took a couple of tries, but it finally started. Not cool.

tmoney223

iTrader: (2)

If you haven't check the alternator."then take it in". That happen to me " not in a camaro but in a another car and that was the problem.

Rawr256

The worse it gets the more the chance of it not starting again becomes real, at least until the sensor is changed. I put mine off for about 3 months after it started acting up and it finally died in the snow. That wasn't a fun day getting it into the garage. If you have some general tools it should be easily replaced in just a few hours tops, unless Camaro 3.8 engines have some weird spot that the planets all have to align in at the right time to come apart.

camrod67

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I can't get the damn crank bolt out!!!!!!! Someone please shoot me and put me out of my misery!! I have been wrestling with this thing for hours and I am no farther now then i was then. Whats the trick for holding the pulley in place so I can loosen the stupid bolt?????????????

Wicked_muscle

iTrader: (34)

Put the car in gear.

Rawr256

Can do that or somewhere on the pulley you should be able to put a bolt through to lock it in place. I don't recall having to deal with that issue being an auto, but maybe I did. After the first time of doing the swap I knew where everything went so it went a little faster, after I had the correct tools of course.

smnitFB

iTrader: (3)

I usually stick a large pry bar through the openings in the pulley, atleast on LS cars anyway. I don't know if they have torque to yield bolts on the 3.8's but on the LS cars/trucks it takes a bit of force to loosen that thing. As far as the codes go, if you ever need it scanned I have an OBDII scanner and I'm just up the road in keyport if you ever need your codes scanned/cleared. Hopefully you've got it fixed by now.