08 Pontiac G6 GXP

[TooManyHobbies]

This spring we got my oldest son a Pontiac G6 GXP coupe. Has the 3.6 VVT engine in it. He was reporting that the engine was cutting out and the CEL and TCS lights would go off when it happened. This initially happened rarely, but seemed to be happening more often. It eventually did it when I was was driving too. A very short less than 1 second loss of power and the CEL and TCS lights flash and then it runs fine. It would never set a code that I could read with Hptuners.

Took it to the dealer last week so they could figure out what was going on. They called and said there was a camshaft performance issue and was a known issue with those engines. It was also going to be over $3,000 to fix. I voiced my displeasure with the cost seeing how the car was barely out of powertrain warranty. GM did the right thing and goodwilled about 2/3 the cost, so I was pleased. When picking it up the service writer mentioned that the battery cables were not stock and that can sometimes cause issues. The son was driving it back from his job the next day and called me in a panic because it stalled in the middle of an intersection and would not start. I calmed him down and had him put it in park or neutral so it would start. He made it home fine but now refuses to drive it until it is fixed. I don't blame him there.

I found the right stock battery cable part numbers and had Amazon deliver them on Saturday. Saturday afternoon I replaced both battery cables and am glad I did. Whatever mechanic did that hack job should be denutted so that he does not reproduce. The ground cable had a cut/worn/rotted sheath and was very corroded. Put the factory cables on and looking good again. Had high hopes that it would fix the problem finally. That night it initially drove without any issue so I was hopeful it was fixed. We drove from one store we were stopping at to another and it did the momentary engine cutout and CEL again. Crap. I ended up waiting in the parking lot of that store with the engine idling while my wife finished shopping there. The engine probably did the momentary cutout 10 times while sitting in the lot.

The car is at the dealer again and they were able to get it to reproduce once after driving it a bunch. Still not sure what it is though. It seems it has to be something electrical somewhere. I checked for loose engine grounds, but only found the one that I replaced that was part of the battery cable.

Tired of throwing money at it. Any ideas on things to check?

[TooManyHobbies]

In case someone wonders, we replaced the ECM. Problem solved.

[G8 GT V8]

Glad that got it all squared away. Have you hooked HPT up to it and started tuning that bad boy