• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

90' OLDS dies on start

imma honky

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Augusta, Ga
About 30 mins ago, my mom came home and said her olds died like 4 times on her. I went out and it cranked fine, started, then died. Any ideas? Batt/alt?
130k, and no problems until now......
NEED HELP BAD, since my jeep is KO until MY alt gets here (damn truckperformaceparts.com) it is the only running vehicle..... I have all day tomorrow and fri morning to try and get this thing fixed before i work again.....
TIA!
 
A couple of things to check first: bad or disconnected ignition or fuel pump ballast resistor, either of which will be bypassed while it cranks - will start but not run. A bad EGR valve will cause stalling at idle. Check all vacuum lines. Maybe one blew off or rotted. Check all the electrical connections in the engine, too.

GM's of that vintage should set codes. Check the owner's manual if you can to see if it gives a procedure for reading them. It might require a jumper wire.
 
Unless you have manuals and tools to diagnose the Olds, it may be more economical to pay a shop to diagnose it for you than to throw parts at it. Here are a couple of things that went wrong on my Mom's '86 Olds with the injected Buick V-6:

1.) Starts right up, stalls when you shift into reverse/drive, or when driving, stalls when you come to a stop. Had to replace the torque converter clutch solenoid in the tranny, it would stick on keeping the converter locked up. Gave the same feeling as coming to a stop in a stick-shift car without pushing in the clutch. Her car just turned 50K miles and we have had this repaired twice!

2.) Dies while driving, starts but wont idle, no codes stored in ECM. Had it towed to the dealer twice for this one, always ran perfect for them!! After much diagnosis and not finding anything wrong, the tech pulled the ECM out from under the dash, started the engine and tapped on it. Everytime he tapped it the engine would stumble, so the ECM was replaced and no more stalling.

Good luck with the Olds, and Happy New Year!!!
 
Last edited:
MJmk said:
Unless you have manuals and tools to diagnose the Olds, it may be more economical to pay a shop to diagnose it for you than to throw parts at it. Here are a couple of things that went wrong on my Mom's '86 Olds with the injected Buick V-6:

1.) Starts right up, stalls when you shift into reverse/drive, or when driving, stalls when you come to a stop. Had to replace the torque converter clutch solenoid in the tranny, it would stick on keeping the converter locked up. Gave the same feeling as coming to a stop in a stick-shift car without pushing in the clutch. Her car just turned 50K miles and we have had this repaired twice!
hmmm, i hope thats not the problem. How hard of a job is it to replace that? Ill have to ask her when exactly it stalled on her. THANKS!
PS - i went out this morning and it cranked up fine, no stalls.....maybe cold weather problem? it was much colder last night that this morning.
 
MJmk said:
Go back one space please!! I posted somehow before I was done and had to edit
LOL! thanks again. I got the edit. Nothing I can do today, since EVERYTHING is closed (losers)..... :)
 
Back
Top