[Engine stalling] someone point me in the right direction, please!

[toasty]

I've got a 91 Talon TSI, and lately it's been giving me some trouble.

It started on the way to work one day, where as I pulled into the parking lot, the car just died. It's about an hour drive from my home to work. I thought nothing of it at the time, but as the days went on, it would die after running for a shorter time. Now it will run barely 5 minutes.

After it dies, you turn the key, and it tries to start, but refuses to fire up. If you let it sit for say... 10-15 minutes, it will start again, but die soon after.

Could someone please send me in the right direction here...?

Many thanks.

 

[motoman358]

Check to see if the car is getting spark and fuel, these are the two most important aspects of a gasoline engine, without one or the other it will not run. If it has both, check the base timing. I am assuming the car has compression because of the fact that it does start, but you could also check that. Let us know what you find and we can go from there.

 

[megadeth0]

It sounds as if you may be flooding out. Pull a plug and tell us what it looks like.

 

[laserspeeddemon]

try to run some injector cleaner through it, and then check your spark with a timing light.

After that, its BOOST LEAK TEST TIME!!!!!!!!!!

Too much of a boost leak (like a blown off hose, or missing BISS) will cause the engine to lean out and die at idle.

 

[andymoraitis]

You might also want to make sure that the MAF sensor is fully plugged in as well and also ensure that the intake coupler to the turbo inlet is attached properly. I had mine come loose and the car wouldn't hold idle or move under load.

You've also received some good advice in the above posts. Do some digging and let us know what you find.

Andy

 

[laserspeeddemon]

COUGH **rep points** COUGH....

Whew, this cold is getting worse.

 

[toasty]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

As for as the boost leaks go, I've had a test done, and had afew small ones fixed prior to this problem happening. Also, I replaced the harness on my MAF, as it seemed to be giving me abit of a hassle before aswell.

I guess the next step is some injector cleaner and checkin' the plugs.

Also, just figured I'd add this... when it dies, it's instant, no warning or sounds... just dead. All the dash lights, stereo, that sort of thing will stay on though.

I should probably mention this as well: sometimes when driving, not boosting, just cruising, the car will suddenly seem to go extremely rich, and backfire like crazy. If your at a light, it can barely get itself going. Then after 1 or 2 minutes, it'll just go back to normal. Not sure if this is related, but figured I should mention it.

Thanks again everyone.

 

[ereckerdeet]

Mine was doing almost the same thing....it ended up being the ECU capacitors had leaked and my ECU was on its way out. Ended up blowing up the engine so CHECK THE ECU ASAP!
Bad ECU can cause stalling, for me I was on a WOT max speed run(155+mph!) and it killed one of my injectors or spark plug, causing insane lean detonation and "catastrophic engine failure". Before that the engine was sometimes sputting, sometimes running perfect, I cleaned the engine and did a full tuneup it seemed fine, then boom.
To get the ECU out, it's in your console under the radio, if it has leaking capacitors it will smell kinda fishy, take the screws off and smell around on the green circuit board, also look for corrosion around the round capacitors.

Hope this helps!
~Eric

 

[dsmdizzle]

Definitely check that. ^

 

[femmeDSM]

In addition to everything mentioned above (good job everyone!), I would check everything related to the Idle, as well. A bad ISC can cause the symptoms you're describing.

My guess would be, however, that this is more an issue of bad plugs/plug wires than anything else.

You might also want to check the base fuel pressure. If your fuel pressure is too low, the car can be hard to start - I haven't personally heard of a fuel pressure problem that was bad enough to randomly stall a car out, but anything can happen in the Magic World Of DSMs.

Do you have a logger? Might want to check your O2s - if the ECU is giving the engine too much fuel, you could be flooding out and "drowning" your plugs in the process.

 

[awdtalontsi1992]

Sounds like it could be a heatsoak problem. Since it will stall and then start up after 15 minutes. I have seen a problem with a coil on my old camaro was too close to the header. It would run fine then spit and backfire. Eventually it would stall with symptoms of flooding and then stall. After 15 minutes it would fire back up like nothing had happened. I'm not saying your coils are getting hot but it could be something similar. I would check your ignition components and others for heatsoak. Also the ECU could be getting hot and "leaking" as stated above. It seems to be an all too common problem that is overlooked.

 

[toasty]

Thanks for the advice guys.

Looks like the ECU could be toast. Is there anything I need to know about replacing the ECU, or can I just grab one of Ebay and toss it in?

 

[91gsxdsm]

You need to read the code on your current ECU case and make sure you get the exact same one, or pm steve on here he has them and can also fix your current one.

 

[femmeDSM]

As long as the ECU is from a 1991-1994 and matches your transmission type (i.e. manual vs. automatic), it's basically a "plug and play" affair.
Alternately, as 91gsxdsm suggested, you could PM member "Steve", as he is the resident ECU-fixer-upper around these parts. What makes you think your ECU is "toast"? If you haven't already, you should pull your ECU and take a look at it. Any stains or discolorations on the boards could be caused by capacitor leakage (all too common DSM problem). However, if the board has burn marks on it, that's another story entirely, and you'll need to do two things - 1) find the culprit, so you don't fry your new ECU and 2) buy a new ECU.

 

[91gsxdsm]

I ment to ask that. +1

 

[laserspeeddemon]

As long as the ECU is from a 1991-1994 and matches your transmission type (i.e. manual vs. automatic), it's basically a "plug and play" affair.
Alternately, as 91gsxdsm suggested, you could PM member "Steve", as he is the resident ECU-fixer-upper around these parts. What makes you think your ECU is "toast"? If you haven't already, you should pull your ECU and take a look at it. Any stains or discolorations on the boards could be caused by capacitor leakage (all too common DSM problem). However, if the board has burn marks on it, that's another story entirely, and you'll need to do two things - 1) find the culprit, so you don't fry your new ECU and 2) buy a new ECU.

Yea, thats a good point, having an ECU replaced or repaired/rebuilt is not cheap at all. Before you go replacing it, make sure it is the problem.

 

[toasty]

hey again all. pulled the ECU out today. everything seems fine. no leaks/burns. any other suggestions?

 

[laserspeeddemon]

Try swapping it with a fellow DSMer in the area to verify