Today Legacy GT stalled in the Holland tunnel at the end of rush hour. After driving 35 miles towards NYC, abo3 miles before entering the tunnel, I hit traffic. The car is in stop and go traffic doing about 10mph. On I get into the tunnel, we started to move normal. Them the engine starts to rattle then stall. I turn off the ignition and start he up again and it runs rough, but I can put her in gear and go for a few feet before it stalls again. Happens a few more times and then finally decides to stop starting. A Cop pulls up behinds me and asks if I'm having any problems. I tell him that I stalled.

 

as he stayed behind me I continued to try to start the car. After being frustratedI for 10 minut, I decided to wait 5 minutes then tried again. Miraculously the car started and I was moving again. No more problems since, including a long ride home.

 

Never had any issues with the car but I did full up the near empty tank earlier in the day. Does it sound like the gas caused my stalling? The car gets all of her regular maintenance.

Edited June 30, 201213 yr by lhrocker

If you had filled up, then reported stalling within a few blocks/miles (???) afterwards, perhaps water in the gas 'might' be at fault.

 

but 35 miles+ after filling up - seems unlikely to have been bad gas.

 

did the CEL come on? even if it didn't, there might be a pending code. Try to get the OBDII system read with a scanner for codes. If you can also get freezframe data, fuel trims might be interesting to look at.

 

 

any rain or driven through a puddle? maybe moisture splashed onto cracked spark plug cables.

Sitting in traffic, lose engine power, rattle sounds, engine stalls. The only thing missing here to add up to a major overheat is some steam from under the hood, but you might not have that if there is no coolant in the engine.

 

Check the coolant level.

Lucky - no CEL, obdII read no codes (all clear) and no puddles/moisture as it was 95+ all day. I did put bottle of Techron in this morning into the tank with the remaining gas (about 12 gallons) and ran it all day today. No issues whatsoever. I even ran it down to 4 gallons remaining and refilled it at my normal Lukoil station. Lets see how everything looks next week.

 

Fair - I checked all of my fluids this morning and the coolant was where it should be. There was not rise in temp during this episode either. Kinda strange, but lets see what happens.