This is an issue with a 1998 Chevy Monte Carlo 3.1 that i have been having since last week. Any input/advice would greatly be appreciated. Here it is...Car ran fine until it recently just started shuddering and stopped completely. After a little while it started up again and drove fine for a few days. Then the problem occurred yet again. All of a sudden no power, shuddering and then complete stall. Engine laboring hard to start after cranking to no avail. Then Battery decided to give up. This is what i have done so far. After checking fuel pressure, I decided to replace Fuel Pump and Filter, New Starter and New Battery. Getting enough juice from Battery and checked Trigger wire on Starter, Car still experiencing same problem. Vehicle has a very hard time turning over until Battery is overloaded. Battery cables seem to be fine and Starter is ok as well. Could the engine be seizing up? Turned it manually which was a bit difficult. In addition, have intermittent problem with Interior Dome light and and Door open Bell sound after Connecting and disconnecting Battery. Sometimes it works and other times it does not. Very much at a loss at the moment. In regards to the motor, Could it be the Timing chain? Please Help...Thanks in advance.

 

I hate to say it, I think the description of your issue is a little beyond me...

Have you had the alternator tested? I'm wondering if the alternator is not properly charging the battery and causing these issues. When the battery gets drained, these more modern cars do screwy things (such as my '04 Monte will have the back up lights flash, not sure why but I've seen it). If the battery and alt both check out, I'm wondering if the BCM or the PCM have a wiring issue (such as a bad ground) or are failing.

Does it throw any codes at all?

If it's not throwing codes and the battery and alt check out, I am currently at a loss as to how to diagnosis it next.

 

Ok, this is going to sound weird at first but I will explain. If one of your cables are aluminum, it will act as though the battery is almost dead and will drain the battery in the process. It happened to me on a foreign car once and I didn't believe it until I changed the aluminum cable. (Someone had to tell me too.) The problem is the characteristics of the aluminum cable. When aluminum gets warm from current flow, it builds up a resistance to current flow. Although copper does too, the resistance drops back down in copper when it cools off. Not so with aluminum. The resistance remains high. The next time you try to start your car, the additional resistance causes the aluminum cable to heat up even more causing the resistance to increase even further. This continues until the resistance becomes so high that the starter is unable to draw enough current to turn the motor, and the aluminium cable is acting like the filament in a lightbulb, heating up and using all of the current. My guess is that the accessory wire is connected at the solenoid and not at the battery post and all of the electrical functions of the car have to go through the aluminum cable to get to the accessory wire thus causing a current drop at that connection. If the cable is copper, make sure the terminal itself is lead and not aluminum our you will have the same problem.