2002 chevy avalanche 2500 with 8.1 engine dies without warning at driving speeds. the battery light comes on, after the vehicle shuts down, but no check engine light and no warning whatsoever. the vehicle just shuts down. when this happens there is no power steering and no brakes for this 7000 pound vehicle. sometimes, once pulled over and shutting everything off and trying to restart it will restart, sometimes taking up to 10 minutes of trying to crank it intermittently before it will restart. it has done this, off and on, at random intervals over the years i have owned it. i have read on the internet others from who have the same problem and most likely solution seems to be the crankshaft position sensor which some say has been recalled on the 2001 model engine for the silverados, but cannot find anything for the same 2002 engine, which is the same engine. this is dangerous and frightening enough at "back road" speeds, but considerably more so at major highway speeds as the vehicle loses all power when the engine shuts down, leaving the driver unable to steer, brake or immediately restart the vehicle leaving it stalled in the middle of the interstate there is no code in the ecm so the dealers have not been able to diagnose it. does someone have to die before something is done?
The engine shuts off while driving. the vehicle had been idling for several minutes and after pulling out across the highway the engine shut off. after trying for at least 10 minutes it restarted. thought this was an isolated instance, but has now happened multiple times at various speeds and even when idling at a stop light. *tr
The first time this happened i was going home from work on the freeway. i was going 65 mph and my engine died i had no power steering and the brake pedal was very hard to push. i was able to put my truck in neutral and restart it. the second time the engine died i was sitting at a red light and it shut off. the third time it happened i was going home from work, just got off the freeway and stopped at the red light. when the light turned green i made a left and was going to the next light to make a right and the engine died. i tried to put the brakes on, but they were very tight and i had no power steering. i had to fight to turn the wheel and just made the turn without hitting the other traffic. *tr