car dies

very odd thing here.......Starts right up from a COLd start....but if I drive
down the road and stop (don't even have to turn off engine...the idle drops
and most of the time dies. 4 hours later I can get into the car and it
starts but immediately dies. smells like it has flooded out. I can
sometimes get it started and keep the idle above 1500 and it will continue to
run but if I need to stop say at the store it won't start upon return it just
does the ra ra ra ra...but won't turn over. Would this be something with the
choke? or is it the fuel pump?

 

oh by the way its's a 1997 Saturn SC2 with 94,000 on it

 

We had a similar problem w/ our '93 SL1 was the fuel filter. Have you
checked for any codes?

 

I had a similar problem with a '95 sw2. It would start and then I could
drive for a while (Sometimes a few days sometime a few minutes) before
the engine would just shut off. This would usually happen while I was
driving (moving). It ended up being the fuel pump. The pump is in the
gas tank. The gas actually keeps the pump cool. When the fuel level got
lower the pump would cool less and as a safety measure it would turn off
before it got too hot!

The problem with this type of problem is that it could be several
things. Unfortunately I changed several parts before I found the root
of the cause. I wasted a lot of money and time because of this.

There's a way to test the fuel pressure in the engine compartment. Next
time this happens test the pressure. If you don't have fuel pressure
then it is most likely a filter or pump problem. If the engine dies
only minutes after starting then I would suspect the filter. If it
takes longer then maybe a pump. The problem with the pump is price and
time to remove and install. You want to be pretty confident that it is
really the pump before you put that kind of effort into it.

 

oddly enough this turned out to be the heat sensor. The sensor regulates the
fuel and the coolant system........wild!

 

If we had a FAQ, this problem (and solution) would be VERY high on a list ordered by relevance and frequency!