Stalling on 99 SC2 -57k miles; electric issues?

I've had my 99 SC2 for about 2 years now, and up until now, it's been
problem free, a really great car.
However, I've been having this problem where on occasion, a few days a
week, it will randomly stall, or when parked won't start up again, and I
lose all power- when it does start up again the radio and clock presets
are all lost.
Today, it kept stalling when ever I press the break- it usually recovered
before the engine died completely, but this is a huge problem.
Any ideas on what it might be- electric issues, battery, other...?
Any ideas are greatly appreciated!!!!

 

I've had my 99 SC2 for about 2 years now, and up until now, it's been

It would be a reasonable assumption that *something* is interrupting
power. If it's happening when you press the brake, it could very likely be
related to motion. Because the engine is stalling even while running, it
doesn't sound like you're just losing a connection to the battery, even the
current from the alternator is (for some reason) not making it where it
should.

This sounds suspiciously close to something that happened to me with an
old blazer - but the circumstances I'm going to describe aren't very likely,
so take it with a grain of salt.

With this old Blazer, every once in a while the combination of turning and
a bump would immediately cause the engine to die and all power to be lost
for just a brief moment. It would almost always start back up, but
occasionally I'd have to shake the blazer a little (literally) before it
would work. Inspection revealed that the cable from the posive battery
terminal to the starter would - when jostled just right - come in contact
with one of the accessory pullies. After that happend enough times, the
insulation wore through, and when just the right bump would make it contact
the edge of the pully, it would short the positive battery terminal to
ground for the brief moment. Any more than a brief moment probably would
have caused some SEVERE fireworks under the hood! To fix it, I just wound
electrical tape around the damaged insulation, re-routed the cable, and
never had another problem.

Again, that's a pretty unlikely set of circumstances, but the symptoms you
describe sound similar - something could be temporarily shorting out your
electrical system (TRULY shorting it, connecting positive to negative).

steve

 

You may be right- I know sometime when it won't start, I'll jingle the
transmition around and sometimes that does the trick. thanks!

 

Wont start up as in nothing comes on or makes a sound?

The brake booster will create a demand on the engines vacuum which can
stall it. Brake lights will also create a electrical load.

Disconnect your battery and clean off the contacts and any other
contacts you can get to. Use Vaseline or something of that nature on
your batt post and snug everything back up. Charge your battery up as
well if you can and see if it takes a charge and then see if that
straightens everything out.

(If you have the original battery 6 years of use wasnt bad. The batt
"might" just be the problem.)

 

Makes no sound at all- and I had a good look under the hood today-
corrasion everywhere! you think that might be it?

 

That would be a big fat YES. Batteries are often neglected until
something goes wrong.