93 bonneville stalling out!

Hello to all, My friend just brought a 93 bonneville, when he brought it it shut off a few times he thought it was the Maf censor(because the only way it whould start back up when he used starting fluid), but after he brought it to the mechanic they said none of the censors are bad, its the exaust system thats causing the car to shut off. there is a hole in the converter!
so my question is can a hole(that someone tried to cover)in the converter cause the car to loose power and shut off especial after its hot?

fyi, at one time the car just kept shuting off right after it starts! but when I drove it my self it when a few blocks than it would shut off(and the motor was hot at that time(meaning been running for a while)

can someone help please, he doest not have a lot of money(for mechanics guesses), and its his first car.
I know someone has had this problem before,

Doubt the cat would do this, you need to check for fuel pressure at the rail when it dies, if good, spray carb cleaner into the intake if it starts you have a fuel delivery problem. If not it should be scanned for cranking rpms, if none, suspect crank sensor or Ign. module, without experience this is not a job for an amatuer, lots of parts and money could be wasted here.

thanks for the reply!
How can you tell, there is not service engine light on(when I drove it the first time I seen a check gague light come on but I think that was because of low gas)

I just want to know if its worth the fix it has 170000 miles on it, like I said its my friends first car, dont want him to spend every thing he has and the car still dont run right!

any one know whats the best way to find the exact problem?

It is highly possible that the converter substrate has broken, and is laying across the opening, effectively blocking it and plugging the converter. IF the plug has been knocked out and the converter is gutted, then obviously the problem isn't the converter. Another thing to check is the oil pressure switch. The fuel pump relay is grounded through the oil pressure switch as a safety feature. The crank sensors and harmonic balancers are known problems with these engines, so I'd check them as well as fuel pressure like mentioned in earlier posts.

Im going to put a few bucks on this post and say its the crank sensor. If its intermittently stalling, and has regular power otherwise, the cat. wouldnt likely be suspect. With a bad cat, when the substrate "breaks" - you're clogged period. A hole in the converter would NOT make the car stall. If anything, it would make it louder and you might smell raw exhaust in the cars cabin.

Back to the stalling. Does it do this when warm/hot, just cold, just hot, all over the board or what? Does it start back up, start back up after a while, start back up at all?

A flakey crank sensor (common repair on the 3.8, especially of the age you are referring to) will do this and drive you NUTS finding the problem. 99.9% you will not get a code stored in the computer.

Im going to put a few bucks on this post and say its the crank sensor. If its intermittently stalling, and has regular power otherwise, the cat. wouldnt likely be suspect. With a bad cat, when the substrate "breaks" - you're clogged period. A hole in the converter would NOT make the car stall. If anything, it would make it louder and you might smell raw exhaust in the cars cabin.

Back to the stalling. Does it do this when warm/hot, just cold, just hot, all over the board or what? Does it start back up, start back up after a while, start back up at all?

A flakey crank sensor (common repair on the 3.8, especially of the age you are referring to) will do this and drive you NUTS finding the problem. 99.9% you will not get a code stored in the computer.


Well I took it to meineke and the converter was not bad(just needed to pactch the Exhaust. but that did not solve the problem.
then he took it to a locale macanic and he tried everything(from mass censor, crank sensor, and a few others(had a few 3800 motors at hand) and none of these solved it! finally he decide it was the fuel pump, being that it only stalls and shuts off when comming to a stop!
but my friend decided that he doesnt want to try and fix it he decided he wanted to sale.

so now after he sales we will see what the new owner will say the fix was!

thanks for the help, I did really want to know what this problem was, this car has a strong motor and tranny even with 170000 miles, and it looks good!