Car died on highway all of a sudden.

[yell-O]

Last night my car died while I was on the highway. It was running fine and suddenly the enginge turned off. I tried to put it back in 4th gear and start it but it didnt fire back up.

My car has been giving me a little trouble recently, It seems like it is randomly firing or missing. Kinda jerks all of a sudden. A few times it had trouble starting as if it was going to start but didnt.

Either it seemed as if it was missing spark or fuel was being cut off.

Now I am thinking either its the spark plugs or the fuel pump/fuel filter.

Please help.

My car:
1996 Eclipse Spyder 4g64 Non-turbo

If I need to check the spark plugs or if I am getting spark how do i do so?

and If i need to check if the fuel pump is working fine, How do I do that?

Thanks in advance.

 

[just2asian]

well for the most part if you feel like it may be the plugs, than u need to just get a new set of plugs and swap them in because plugs are really cheap. fuel filter is a little harder, u would have to take it off and see how it flows. i'm not too familiar with the NT fuel filter, but I'm assuming it works the same way as turbo ones, just not sure where they are. Did you hear any other things when your car went dead on the highway? check the timing belt.

 

[Locke]

To check the spark plugs, pull them out individually, and note their condition. Pay attention to any deposits, ash, abnormal wear, discoloration, etc.

To check for spark, pull a plug and with the wire attached, hold the plug body firmly against a good ground and crank the engine. You will see the spark. You can also use a screw driver in the plug wire, held 1/16th" - 1/8th" from a ground.

To check the fuel pump, first turn the car to the ON position without starting it, and listen for a whirring sound from under your rear seats. It would only spin for a moment. If it does not make a sound, pull the seats and try listening again. Still no noise, check for voltage at the pump when the key is ON. If you DO have a sound and/or voltage, check the fuel pressure. I am unsure if your car has a schrader valve or not, if it does, install it there on the fuel rail. If it does not, you will need to put it inline with your feed line.

And inspect your cam timing. Turn the crank to top dead center, pull the top part of the timing cover off, and check that the marks on the cam gears are aligned.

I would definitely check your cam and crank angle sensors, as well. This would seem a likely culprit to me.

 

[endeffect0]

You may also want to check and see if you lost spark all together. If you had a loose wire bracket on the back of your coil packs it would miss every once and a while then eventually come lose and die. Check all your connections while your under their lots of times its the simple stuff that gets ya. Good luck man

 

[seskyrabart]

I am going to check all what you guys mentioned tomorrow morning (since its dark now).

I looked at the spark plug wires, one of the wires was in really bad condition and broke when i was pulling it off the spark plug. I have ordered new spark plug wires. Could that be the only problem? The rest of the wires seem fine.

I will have to check if there is spark tomorrow.

I was also thinking, Could this be that my timing belt is gone? I have 110k miles on the car and I personally have not replaced the timing belt. I bought the car when it had 85k on it and I am not sure if the timing belt was replaced or not.

The engine still cranks but it wont start. Could it be the timing belt?

Thank you guys.

 

[always_broken]

Check your ignition fuse. Mine blew and would not start. You are getting interior power right? If so skip this step. If you have a buddy have him/her turn the key on but instead have the gas lid undone and put your ear next to it. As soon as you tell her to turn on/but not start, you should hear the pump. If that works out cool, if not pull it out.