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hi, my brother and i bought our cavalier not too long ago. it drove perfectly all the way home, but the next day we drove it around town for a bit and drove it to bloomington which is about 30 miles away. randomly in busy traffic it starts "sputtering" i guess, and it wouldn't give any thrust when we would pump the gas pedal. after a few seconds of sputtering it dies. the weird thing is, it starts back up immediately after it dies, but after the first time it dies it starts dying like every mile if we have to stop for a stop light or a stop sign. if we can get it to a highway its usually fine. its very upsetting because we just got it, and really need a reliable car to get us to work and back. we have had our fuel filter changed and we took it to a shop and had them check our fuel pump. they said the fuel pump pressure was fine so they didn't know what the problem was. it has died like this 3 or 4 times so we know its not just a one time thing. and like i said it usually only does this after about 30-50 miles of driving it then it starts acting up. if anyone has any idea of what my problem could be will you let me know? i would appreciate it very much.

thank you  

i would start with something cheep...

is the check engine light on????....   can you scan it for codes...  it will have codes...   codes point to the circuit that has problem..  not just the sensor that is named.. there are pages of flow charts for each code...



Duralast / Crankshaft Position Sensor
For your 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier 2.2L SFI OHV 4cyl
Part Number: SU1181    these go for 10 bucks...

and they do go bad a lot...

use care getting them out... they have been known to break off... and then you have to use a drill to make a shallow hole and a drywall screw to pull out the rest...  shops have been known to drop the pan.. but only about 10 percent break off.. with care and luck it won't...  

thank you very much for your reply. ya ive been hearing that it might be the crankshaft sensor, and im hoping thats my only problem because it sounds like a cheap fix. the check engine light has came on a few times, but its not on all of the time. we took it to a place to hook it up to check for problems, but the check engine light wasnt on at the time so they didnt find anything. do you think i can rule out the fuel pump being the problem?

thanks again!  

i don't think that a crank sensor intermittent will really show up with a code... as the computer thinks the engine has just stopped turning..  the engine just dies...

there is a lot of problems with them.... and they are cheep...  

there have also been problems with the crank sensor pigtail connectors... were the connector may fail or the first few inches of wire at the connector..


there are a lot of things that can make an engine not start... but the crank sensor is one that is really heat sensitive..

the ignition module is another... but i think thats over 100 bucks.. probably a lot more i have not looked...

usually .. when the check engine light comes on...    it sets 2 kinds of codes... it late and i have forgotten.. but the first one that are read are current codes...      then there are history codes...   ones that had set but had cleared...  

it is also possible that the fuel filter is clogged...  the fuel pump can go bad...  is the fuel pump noisy????

some well equipped mechanics have low amp current probes and hand held digital storage scopes..   they can place their clamp around the fuel pump power... and record a snapshot of the amp draw...  you can see the individual windings amp draw...  if one or more of the windings is shorting or drawing more amps... it will be seen....

a good pump will have a pattern like this...~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

a pump going bad may have a pattern like this...~~~~~^~~~~~^~~~~~^~~~~~^

a really worn pump will have a very erratic pattern...

for those techs without $3K to $9K in a hand held scope..  you can actually look at amp draw with a conventional volt meter with a miliamp probe... about 160 bucks...   or a conventional digital volt meter with a built in 15 amp shunt... 10 amp shunts are just barely enough..