The car - 1995 Millenia 2.5 155k miles
The problem - Intermittent stalling.

Problem defined - Will die OCCASIONALLY when at slower speeds - ie 20 mph or less with no hesitation or warning. Just dies. Headlights, radio, and all electrical do not even flicker.

On the highway at higher speeds - feels like it dies, but if you let off the gas, the rpms level out. You press on the gas - which is the automatic reaction to a car that suddenly slows down - and the rpms drop and it gets closer to dying. Let off the has again and the rpms pick up (or stop falling as fast) It;s difficult to describe because the car is slowing. When I get the rpms down low and the car has slowed down to almost a stop, it dies.

Here's where it gets weird.

Sometimes, whatever is causing this only lasts a fraction of a second - then it just picks back up and runs like normal - like for 50-100 miles. I just went two days without the issue to find it pop up again today. Sometimes it just does whatever it is doing for a few seconds then picks back up. Sometimes it just does it until the car eventually dies and then I have to restart it - and it starts just fine. Sometimes it dies then takes 5 minutes to start. I just drove it for two days almost 250 miles intentionally doing everything I could come up with to kill it. I drove 80 mph for 30 miles, went straight to bumper to bumper traffic for 45 minutes, drove another 30 miles at 65 mph, more bumper to bumper top and go, put it in my driveway with the emergency brake on IN GEAR and let it sit for 20 minutes, and drove it another 40 miles. I PUSHED this car and it wouldn't die. Then today it has died 4 times in 20 miles.

Temperature has no effect. Coolant temp can fall anywhere. Nothing else comes up on my scanner that is consistently the problem. The scanner picks up the open EGR boost sensor circuit since I pulled the thing out 2 yrs ago and it won't capture any other codes after that.

So my thought was distributor - but I replaced that 10 months ago with a used one. But I went and bought a new one because the manual said the primary coil resistance was supposed to be between .56 and .83 (or somethign like that - I dont' feel like looking it up again). It was exactly 1.0. But when I bought the brand new one, it has the exact same reading! So I can only assume the manual is wrong.

So now I am leaning towards fuel pump while I am driving around with a brand new $300 distributor and a socket set in my trunk "just in case".

The problem is weird and I cannot nail it down. I also can't afford to just start replacing things till I get the right one. If I install the distributor I can't take it back and it will be another month before I can replace the fuel pump. And then what if that's not it either? Any help or similar experiences could really help. This is very odd. I don't often go to message boards looking for help. I am usually giving it. But this one has thrown me for a loop. I need someone who understands this car better than me.

Thanks!

 

I would put a fuel pressure gauge on it and drive it til it acted up i think. That would tell you if it is a fuel pump issue at least. If you had a bad distributor 10 months ago chances are the cat converter is partially clogged or coming apart. Bad distributors and bad converters go hand in hand. When you don't get enough spark you get too much raw fuel hitting the converter and it damages it.