90 Buick Lesabre Gets Warms And Quits!!

I A NEWBIE AND I NEED SOME HELP!!

Ok, car was doing fine, then just stopped while idle at a stop sign. Would not crank, seemed to be drain the battery to when tried 2 or 3 more times. Had it towed in, thought was fuel pump. Not so. Pump ok said was ignition coil. Car cranked up running fine for about 30 minutes. Just enough to get warm. Stopped while idle at stop sign again. Pushed to the side of the road came back next morning and cranked up. What's going on?

Check for corrosion at both battery terminals. One time I was driving and the car cut out. The terminials were completely corroded. Cleaned up and starts right up all the time now. Check terminials then see if it continues.. Before trying something expensive.

My '91 was *just* doing *exactly* that. Battery terminals were fine (like 93buicklesabrelmtd said, check the cheap things first!!). Problem on mine was the crankshaft position sensor - no reference pulse from sensor once it warmed up. I saw somewhere on this forum or somewhere else a wild suggestion to try pouring cold water on the crank sensor and see if that makes the engine start. Sensor is on the forward side of the crank pulley, just underneath a plastic guard on mine. Four wire connector on mine, older ones might be 3 wire. Not sure of '90. Not sure if it is feasible to squirt some cold water in there or not (or whether that is even really advisable??). Didn't try it.

Mine set a code 42 (EST bypass) when the engine died while running. No code set when it was refusing to start.

As for the tendency to stall at slower speeds, my hypothesis was that the reduced airflow at low speeds allowed the sensor to warm up more.

Replacement (not for a newbie though) involves removal of crank pulley (puller and special bolts needed, btw), and re-alignment of new sensor using brass feeler gauges. Took a while to get it right; replacement sensor came with instructions on aligning it though.