# 2011 Chevy Cruze LS Stalls while driving. Appears to do a full electrical restart.



## Eddy Cruze (Jan 10, 2014)

Why not replace both Cables, possibly the battery?


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## ichheissebrent (Nov 18, 2019)

The battery is new. Replaced in March. I'll look into the positive terminal cable. Seems like it should be a (relatively) easy replacement.


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## rejesterd (Oct 31, 2019)

12.0-12.4V is a little low. If you're not getting something close to or above 13V just after you shut the car off (after it's been running for a while), I think you should have the alternator looked at. Seems like the battery isn't getting properly charged. So if replacing the cables and cleaning up the connection points doesn't help, I'd look at the alternator next.

Edit: Also, I'm pretty sure if the battery charge is too low, the fuel pump will not work.. so that could be a reason you're stalling.


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## ichheissebrent (Nov 18, 2019)

rejesterd said:


> 12.0-12.4V is a little low. If you're not getting something close to or above 13V just after you shut the car off (after it's been running for a while), I think you should have the alternator looked at. Seems like the battery isn't getting properly charged. So if replacing the cables and cleaning up the connection points doesn't help, I'd look at the alternator next.
> 
> Edit: Also, I'm pretty sure if the battery charge is too low, the fuel pump will not work.. so that could be a reason you're stalling.


12-12.4 is after sitting for at least a few minutes with the engine off. If I shut the engine off and watch voltage, I can see it steadily drop until it's around 12.

I originally bought the battery at O'Reilly. So they tested the battery and alternator. Both are working fine.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

I'm inclined to think that you've got a problem with the car's bus. Anything plugged into the OBDII port? Anything malfunctioning that you didn't mention because you don't care about it?


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## ichheissebrent (Nov 18, 2019)

UPDATE:

Little backstory that is likely relevant:

First week of November, I had the valve cover and valve cover gasket replaced because the gasket was leaking. Fast forward to This Tuesday, and on top of all of my other problems; my car started misfiring. I'm at 100,000 miles, so decided to replace the spark plugs, and for good measure the coils also ($110 part at my local O'reilly). Well, lo and behold, spark plug wells 1 and 3 had about 1/4 inch of oil on top of the plugs. The coils on 1 and 3 were decently covered in oil as well.

So here's my new running theory, old leaky valve cover gasket-->Oil leaked on top of spark plugs 1 and 3. -->Oil caused an intermittant short/mis-fire/shut down on cylinders 1 and 3-->Had gasket and valve cover replaced, but whoever did this didn't bother cleaning out the old oil 

To the more knowledgable people out there, could a significant mis-fire cause an engine to safety shut-down at speed? Would this potentially cause my stalling problems and electrical problems? Or would the stalling potentially trigger the problem in GM Service bulletin 14311b? Maybe GM Service bulletin 14311b would cause an additional short in the cylinders?

In the mean-time I'll check the spark plug wells again in a week. If there's more oil -- well, I'm going back to my Mechanic to get that issue fixed for real.

Thanks!


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