Hi, I recently borrowed the family "boat" and went sailing back to Houston to return to school from the holidays, when I noticed that the "check engine" light was on. The car ran fine the whole way from Yoakum, Texas to Houston until I got on I-10 east heading toward I-45 north and had to hit my brakes hard on the entrance ramp due to a traffic jam ahead. As soon as I did that the car started sputtering and stayed @ 40mph and wouldn't go any faster or slower, it was acting as if it were in a trance or something. So I pulled to the side and as soon as I did it started to sputter and died. Then when I got to FM 1960 from I-45 north it died twice @ the interection. This is a beloved vehicle of the family, it has over 231,000+ (highway miles) on it. We recently replaced the upper radiator hose, front valve cover gasket, fuel pump (twice), fuel filter, and water pump. I spoke with my folks about the problem and they said it usually does it when the car is almost empty or below a half of a tank of gas, but it is VERY dangerous as my mom uses this car for trasportation as an agency nurse (reason for the high mileage). Is there any suggestions that yall can help me with on this issue, I'd really appriciate it greatly.

You need to determine if the car has an electrical or fuel problem.
A good start would be to have a qualified technician check the fuel pressure
at the rail as well as the pressure regulator. If the problem is more pronounced
@ 1/2 tank I suspect a fuel pump or pickup screen problem.

Don't ignore the SES light. You need to get it scanned first, before anything else. Autozone will do it for free, as well as several other Auto Parts stores.

Sounds like a fuel problem....since it happened when you slammed on the brakes...maybe a loose baffle in the tank...or the pickup is falling off....

Well I did a little research, and I'm taking the Bonneville up to my school tomorrow to have it put on a scanner. Someone told me that the fuel pump relay switch is notorious for going out on 1992-99 Bonneville, Delta 88, Park Avenue, and La Sabre'* with Gen 1 and Gen 2 3800'* This car just does some crazy stuff. I was driving it today and the door bell started going off, it sounded like three times and the engine light just stayed on constantly so I know it wasn't a mis-fire or it would have started flashing, as OBD II'* do that on those cars. It hasitated once on me when I punched it a little but other then that it ran fine all day, I dunno whats up with this car, it needs Jesus

Yeah get to autozone

the codes are the only way to diagnoise this problem

Well I pulled the codes today, came up with three, two were emissions, but I figured that they were there from when we replaced the entire exhaust and drove the car from the shop to the house with just the exhaust manafolds on. The third code stated that the vehicle had a "random multiple missfire". I can only assume that the camshaft position sensor is going out, because we've replaced all the coils, plugs, and wires less then a month ago. So I'm going to pull some more info off the net and take the camshaft sensor out, and messure the resistance on it to see if its within specs. So far the car hasn't acted up yet, but I don't doubt that it will stay that way for long, and the "SES" light hasn't come on....yet.

Umm do you know what the codes were? like the DTC#'*. If you tell the numbers we can tell you eexactly what the problem is instead of jsut guessing

Well, we pin pointed the culpret to be the camshaft position sensor, a $25.99 fix thankgod. Haven't gotten the part yet but tested each sensor and this is the one. It seems like as the days go by the car runs worse and worse, right now I'm not driving it over 40mph, just to and from the campus and back to my house which is 10 minutes away, I hope I'm not damaging anything major on the car as it has over 237,000 miles on it. To keep it from dieing @ intersections sometimes, I have to put it in neutral and rev it up, or shut it off and restart it again. I sure hope that it runs better after this, but we're still considering spending the extra $870 for a rebuilt engine this summer, that car is worth it I think.

P.*. Does anyone have any extra hubcaps for a Bonneville they'd like to get rid of, I lost one driving in the Woodlands the other day, and the dealer wants $59!!! for it, they are crazy, cause I bougt a full size spare on ebay for $78, if anyone has any spare hubcaps let me know. My email address is jessie_harbin@sbcglobal.net

Thanks