8.1L Engine Stall

KurtMcMouth · March 18, 2004

I have an intermitent issue with my 01 2500HD, 8.1L. About once every couple days, while cruising down the highway, then engine just stalls, quits running. The truck still has power, i.e. headlights on, guages, etc.

I have to wait a minute or 2 and the truck will then start.

Anyone ever seen this? One fella suspects the fuel pump is getting hot.

Shaners · March 19, 2004

How many miles are on your truck? And does it ever throw the "service engine" light?

horsenut50 · March 19, 2004

A friend of mine had a similar truck with an 8.1 that was doing the same thing. After several frustrating attempts to find out what it was, it was finally determined to be the crankshaft sensor. Might be worth checking out. Good luck!

KurtMcMouth · March 19, 2004

~45K miles, no service engine light. When it stalls, the red battery light comes on in the monster screen in the left of the guage panel. Turn the key off, wait a minute or 2, fires right up. Attempts to restart immediately are unsuccesful, just turns the motor over, no fire. Sounds like it's time to leverage my extended warranty. To the dealer it is...

Philmo · March 19, 2004

i had the same problem. take it to the dealer. hope you got an extended warranty. crankshaft position sensor. it does the same kinda job that the distributor does. except you don't have one now. i changed out my fuel filter first and that didn't work. it's a common problem with the 01's. good luck.

KurtMcMouth · March 22, 2004

cool cool, thanks for the tips. yeah, have extended warranty. taking it to dealer tomorrow, will update this forum for the purpose of a third data point.

KurtMcMouth · March 25, 2004

As predicted, it was the crankshaft positioning sensor. Of course, the dealer needed to keep the truck for 2 days in effort to reproduce the problem before they would replace the part and charge it to my GMPP warranty. I spose if I were them, I would do the same. Anyway, increment the CSP culprit counter for intermitent stalling symptom on 01 8.1L

swheeler · March 26, 2004

I have a similary problem with my 01 Suburban with the 8.1L. The difference with mine is that is tends to stall when idling or low speed. It has only stalled 3 times over the past couple months so I'm hesitant to take it to the dealer because they probably will not be able to duplicate. It does one other thing though. When idling, it will suddenly idle very low and rough (about 250 rpms) then pick back up again. Is this caused by the crank position sensor also?

Forgot to add. I have never gotten a check engine light when this happens.

jimbo21165 · March 29, 2004

I have the exact same problem with my 01. The stealer could not duplicate the prob, so I picked it up. The next time, I will tell him about this information...thanks, Jim

Jtaylor-hd2500 · April 8, 2004

I have a 2002 2500 HD 8.1 and experienced the same problem. My truck only failed about once a week and some times would recover from the stall without turning the key off and back on. It always presented a battery light in the console display during the stall. Since it was so intermittant, I pushed the issue with the dealer, offering to pay for the crankshaft positioning sensor myself, but wanted a refund if the problem went away. The dealer did agree to make the correction under the warranty, had only 25000 miles on the truck. Was great to see this entry, cause the error did not present any codes for diagnostics. I even had a black box attached that did not capture any info either. Dealership was leaning towards a fuel problem and was reluctant to do anything until I saw this posting. thxs...

KurtMcMouth · April 9, 2004

Yeah, the symtoms of this one really suck. Glad this was of help.

boomer 33 · September 13, 2006

How much does the sensor cost?

496SS · September 13, 2006

As predicted, it was the crankshaft positioning sensor. Of course, the dealer needed to keep the truck for 2 days in effort to reproduce the problem before they would replace the part and charge it to my GMPP warranty. I spose if I were them, I would do the same. Anyway, increment the CSP culprit counter for intermitent stalling symptom on 01 8.1L

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Same problem here, but the dealer did a diagnosis and found the error code for it. I bought the sensor and changed it at home. (about $80.00 I think) I beleive it hits on the firewall when assembling the truck and cracks it. Once enough moisture finds it's way into the crack it starts acting up. Mine was broken and a lot of others have reported the same.

boomer 33 · September 13, 2006

I took it to the dealer and they are replacing it now. I looked and did'nt see how I could get my ass up in there to replace it without the mosquitos feasting on "plumbers butt" while I was doing it.

ABQFirefighter · September 14, 2006

The sensor is around $100 at the dealer. I got mine from gmpartsdirect.com for $62 shipped. Took about an hour or so to do (a bit of a PITA). My truck never threw codes, would die sometimes while driving or just idling at a stop.