I was driving home Friday and I was caught in traffic. Rolling alonog about 10mph and it all of a sudden, quits. The RPMs dropped to zero, CES light on. I tried to start it and it turned over great, it just would fire. So I finally get it to the shoulder and occassionally would try to start it. A guy I work with pulled off to help. I had 3 ideas. So first, I took off the breather cover to see if I was getting any fuel while he cranked it. No fuel was shooting in there. So I thought it may not be getting enough volotage to the fuel pump. Second thing I thought it may have been was the alternator because right before it quit, the voltmeter was reading about 10 and then the fan kicked on. I thought this may have killed it. Third idea I have is that the ignition module may have overheated. It sat for probably 10 minutes and it started again and I was able to get home without any other trouble, but the volts was still reading 10. What do you think the problem could be?? It has a new fuel filter, cap, rotor, plugs.

 

I don't know why it died on you, but 10 volts is to low. But your gauge may be off. It shouldn't have cranked if the battery was that low.

An easy check for the battery and alternator is to use a voltmeter set on DC volts and measure across the battery terminals before and while it is running. Voltage should be around 12 when it's off and should be slightly higher while running. If the voltage drops when you have it running something is wrong.

 

if the volts were tool ow, would the fuel pump stop working too? This is my only guess as to why the throttle body wasn't spitting any fuel. Could it be a VATS glitch?
When I first start it, the gauge reads 13, then it falls quickly to about 10.

 

It "sounds" like it is simply the alternator. For the battery to recover on its own when you shut the car off for a while is pretty good for a battery. But if the gauge is correct than I would suspect that is what is happenning. And the battery won't last much longer if you keep driving it with a bad alternator. Taking an alternator off and getting it checked for free by autozone is just to easy to do.

And ye, below a certain battery voltage an electric fuel pump will stop working. I learned that many years ago when I tried to jump start my 87 IROC by popping the clutch. Doesn't do much good to push start a car if the fule pump ain't pumping.

 

It is just sitting right now, but as soon as I have time I was going to have the alternator checked. Thanks for the help.