2003 Grand Am engine shuts off while driving. Help?

mitsnist

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Hi,

I own a 2003 Pontiac Grand Am SE1 (2.2L engine).

I've been having a lot of trouble with my car shutting off at random times.

Sometimes when I start my car and then put it in R to pull out of a parking space, the engine suddenly shuts off. The engine has also suddently shut off while I was idling at a stop light. In both of these cases, all I have to do is take out the key and start the car again and usually after one or two cranks it is running again and I can drive off like nothing happened.

Today was the very first time it shut off while I was actually moving at about 25mph. The engine shut off, my power steering locked up and the car was making a weird muffled buzzing noise as I slowly pulled over to the left as best as I could. I think the "Service Engine Soon" light was on at this point, and a couple more lights may have been on as well, but I didn't take a good look at them because I was a little shaken since there were cars in front of and behind me. I simply cranked the key again and it started back up.

In all of these situations, when I start the car back up, I don't see any indicator lights that remain on and all seems normal.

Any idea what is causing this? In the past year, I have replaced the fuel pump, fuel filter, spark plugs and motor mounts. I had to replace the fuel pump because in November 2014, my car all of a sudden died at a stop light but in that case, I couldn't start the car back up after cranking it several times. The shop decided it was the fuel pump and then replaced it. I didn't have any issues for several months but then I started having to crank my engine 3-7 times on some days after letting my car sit for 8-9 hours. It would eventually start but it got annoying. The issue sort of went away after a while though, and now I am at the point where the engine randomly dies while I'm reversing or driving as I described above.

Prior to the fuel pump incident, I was also having issues with my car not starting sometimes. I linked that issue to the passlock sensor and I would have to leave my key in the "Acc" position for 10 minutes, pull the key out and then put it back in before my car would start up.

I don't know if any of these issues are connected, but I want to give more of a background here.
 
you can have the computer scanned for codes in history and you may want to do a fuel pressure test
 
you can have the computer scanned for codes in history and you may want to do a fuel pressure test

When I took the car into the shop for one of its previous problems (cranking the car multiple times and then it not starting), the mechanic checked for codes and did a fuel pressure test. Both came back normal. No codes and the fuel pressure was fine. This was about 3-5 months ago.

But I will try to scan for codes at Advanced Auto Parts tomorrow. The Service Engine Soon light does not stay on when the car is actually running. It only appears when the car shuts off and then operates on the battery. I think the "Service Engine Soon" light is supposed to illuminate when the car is in the "ON" position by default.
 
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