98 buick centry 3.1 6 cyc one owner family owned
98 buick century custom-3.1 6 cyc - family car - one owner - red light came on while driving with the oil can with the little drip pouring out, car kept running, so i stopped to check the oil, level was perfect. recently car has been hesitating, when it did, i pressed on the gas pedal and it did not cut off at that time. car stalled first time, full tank of gas; it started back up. engine test was done by autozone: reveal codes egr and oil pressure sending unit. replaced them but it did not help afterward it stalled again. car was towed again, it stalled and would not start back up this time. afterwards now it starts but engine runs very rough and shakes hard and after about 2 seconds it shuts off by itself. mechanic says that oil is not being distributed, took oil sending part off, but no oil was present. Engine has a perfect level of oil. recent tune-up. new battery too! replaced pcv valve. i did cut the gas cap off and replaced with locking gas cap. could this have messed up the car?
Cars & Trucks - Buick - Century - 1999 Buick Century
Answers & Comments
Unfortunately, you've got serious problems. The GM 3.1 and 3.4 engines have a nasty habit of breaking camshafts. For some reason, which I have yet to determine, the cam bearings seize on the cam and the camshaft ends up breaking in half. The engine will continue to run, albeit very poorly since all the cylinders are not working because the rear half of the camshaft, which runs the oil pump, is not spinning.
Get a manual oil pressure gauge hooked up to confirm absence of oil pressure. there may be a low oil pressure shutdown circuit to save the engine. if oil pressure ok,by manual oil press. ga. could be a fuel problem or ignition module.
The fact that you have no oil preswsure at the sending unit tells me that you have a serious oil pump problem. Your mechanic is right your oil pump is not pumping oil to the internals of your engine. Major repairs are required to solve this problem.