So I was on my way to heartland park topeka yesterday to go watch pinks! My friend and I were cruisin down the interstate around 75-80 about half way there...then all of sudden my car like loses spark and my tach goes crazy...check engine light comes on...I hit the gas and nothing...kinda sputtering and back firing. I pull off to the side of the road pull it out of gear and it dies.... I pop the hood, thinking a spark plug wire popped off or my maf came unplugged....Check everything it all seems fine... I unplug my negative battery cable and light up a cig...trying to figure out what just happened.

I finish my cig and put the battery cable back on and try and start it...it seems like its missing and I have to give it some gas to keep it idling...I turn it off and check under the hood one more time....My friend and I decide to try and limp it to the gas station thats only a couple miles ahead. I start it back up giving it some gas pulling onto the interstate..I look back and theres a bunch of cars comming a good half a mile away so I pull back on to the shoulder trying to pick up some speed cause I dont wanna pull onto the road and cause a bunch of people to slow down you know.

I say screw it and floor her...shes a sputting and and buckin but the rpms are rising....hits about 5000 I think and vrooooooooooooooooooooommmmmm tires lite up!! I'm like ya baby hit second and then it starts sputtering and back firing then clears out again takes off like a raped ape I hit 3rd and the cars that were comming up start fallin back quickly so I jump over on to the road, I try putting it on 5th but the car just wouldnt drive in 5th it just acted like I had no gas or spark possibly just did nothing...I put it in 4th and try to get here to start goin...no luck so i put it in 3rd and she starts sputterin and bucking and takes off again I put it in 4th and am haulin ass trying to get the gas station I see the on ramp for the gas station and the car stops responding...wouldnt go in 4th...3rd or second....im just coasting with it trying to make it the car slows down enough that I can put it in first and it does the same thing sputtering and back firing and takes off and I pull into the gas station..

I pop the hood again and check everything I start unpluggin stuff and starting the car trying to see if theres a change..i unplugged the maf,tps and it just made it worse...I then notice the adapter for my filter was only being held on by 1 bolt WTF so I go in the gas station and buy this package of nuts and bolts they had for like 15 bucks!!WTF any ways ya it wasnt that easy of a fix.. I then notice i have 3 puddles of oil under my car I get under there trying to see where they are comming from 1 small one was from my drain tube I knew about that one its a small leak. The other one is quite big now but I can see it dripping it was right below the oil filter housing but no oil was dripping from that from what I could see. The next one was a little bit behind this puddle, below the crank pulley it seemed. I check my oil and my oil level is still fine.

I sit in my car trying to figure out what could of happened. I did notice that while I was trying to figure out what was wrong and with it idling I could here my ecu clicking I think or atleast it was comming from that area. So I was thinkin maybe my ecu went bad? My car has 182000 miles on it. I then get out and decide to look at my cam gears thats when I see this...

Now the other day when I looked at my cam gears the 2 notches were in the middle facing each other the intake one a tad higher than the exhaust so i think my timing has jumped correct? Now if it did that makes me worried about my motor since I was going wot quite a few times and was just driving it period. Do this sound like my timing jumped from the way the car was acting? If my timing jumped i dont understand why it would affect me pushing on the gas like why it still wouldnt rev up like normal and make my tach go crazy at times. Thanks guys

Nah that sounds like a different problem, timing belt problems dont come and go. You sometimes have to turn the crank a couple of times to get the marks to line up right. Just because the lines on the crank are away from each other does'nt mean that its time for the pins in the crank to be at 12 o'clock, or even for the lines to line up with each other. Everything only lines up every 4 turns of the crank. I think you have an electronic problem somewhere, maybe even ignition module.

Btw those cam gears look pretty bent to me, you might want to replace them without going through ebay next time.

Oh well thats good to hear. It just didnt seem like even if they spun around they wouldnt line back up from the positions the were in. My I havent been able to go get my car yet. Could it be the ecu? I had spark on all 4 coils even while it was running rough at idle my friend pulled each one off and checked. Thats what made me think it was timing related.

If the 2 marks on your cam gears are the same color (There are 2 sets, one is white and the other just notched) then yes, your timing is off. I had that problem. Turns out that whoever chagned the timing belt before I bought the car never tightened the tensioner pulley properly and the belt jumped a couple teeth.

If they aren't the same color, and just to reassure you, get a 1/2" drive ratchet and 2 12" extensions. Stick it in the crank pulley hole through the driver side inner fender. Turn 1/4 turn counter-clockwise and then turn it clockwise until the 2 WHITE marks on the cam gears line up. Then check your timing mark on the crank pulley. It should be at the "T" mark. If everything lines up you know your timing belt and components are fine. At that point look into testing the various sensors. (MAS, TPS, ECT)

If not lined up, pop those covers off, remove belt, get cylinder 1 to TDC, line everything else up and re-install belt remembering to adjust the tensioner pulley in the proper position (that's the 2 little holes at the bottom). You could even chane the belt if it has been more than 60k miles.

Hope this helps...let me know if you need more.

Well I got the car home but it started raining so I dont get to mess with it tommorrow. On the way home I had the radio on and stuff then it started cutting out when I would use anything electrical. like put my window up and push the brake and stay off till I let go. I started it again...barely will idle..The check engine light flashed everytime it would cut out when this all happened but its not on now while at idle, Is there a chance it will still have a code for me if i hook a scanner up to it?


grnchevyz: I am only seeing the notched marks on the cam gears and they are facing the same way now that I look at it. Just doesnt seem like they would meet up in the position they are in.

Oh I thought of a couple other things it could be, thought I doubt this is it possible my crank has been walking and started chewing up my crank angle sensor? I would think it wouldnt even run though if that sensor got messed up but its just an idea.

Manually turn the crank and see if they do line up eventually, if they do not, you HAVE to adjust them manually. It happened to me and holy..what a difference in pull when timing is right!

This better not turn out to be another shorted battery terminal.

Well I didnt get to check my timming cause its been raining all day but I borrowed the scan tool from my work and this is what I found....
P0115 : Engine Coolant Temp Circuit Malfunction
P0110 : IAT Sensor Circuit Malfuntion
P0100 : Maf or Vaf Circuit Malfuntion

Any one know what this means?
Also I cleared the codes and tried to start it but my battery was dead, So I put a charger on it and tried again it wouldnt start then when I let off the key I could hear my fuel pump still running and relays clickin and my ecu making wierd noises then when the key was on my stock boost gauge was pegged then I turned the key off and looked around the engine bay at my fuses cause there was some clickin going on there, all looked good. Went back to the car and I could smell something like plastic or wires was burnt and my stock boost gauge was in the middle this time when I turned the key on.

Well my friend went to work on his car and my car is at his parents house so i went back to mess with mine a little and brought the scan tool and scanned it again I got 3 more codes...
p0170 : Fuel trim malfunction bank 1
P0125 : closed loop fuel control insufficiant coolant temp
P0505 : idle control system malfunction

I cleared them and try to start it again and all it does is crank and kinda sputter like it wants to start. scanned it after than and didnt get any more codes... I could still smell that burnt smell in my car, so I pulled my ecu doesnt smell so good...It smells burnt but I took the cover off of it and it looks fine no leaky caps.

Tommorrow I am gonna check all the wiring i have done to the car like my fuel pump rewire and the eclipse tail lights to see if i have a short some where. Does this sound like shot ecu? I really doubt all these things would just break at once like that.

I want my baby runnin again

I checked all my wiring that I have done on the car and there is no shorts any where. How can I test my ecu to see if its good? Is there a place I can send it to to check it? I dont really wanna try another ecu in case it is a short some where and i screw up another one. Im at a loss here any one have any ideas or things for me to look for?

I further inspected my ecu, how I didnt see this before I dont know. Does any one know what this chip goes to? I'm sure that would help me find the short.

That driver controls the Fuel Pressure Solenoid and the Boost Control Solenoid. One or both of those are shorted to +12v. That frys the driver and may burn up others traces nearby on the ECU.

Steve

So I check those and see if they are shorted and fix if they are. What if they arnt? Like many other people I would Hate to put a new ecu in and fry that one to. Thanks for your help

Your going to find that either the solenoid is bad, it disconnected and water can get into the connector, or that the harness is damaged. Of those only water that was in the connector but has dried would be safe for a new ECU even though it needs to be covered to avoid future problems. The other two cases require addressing before it's safe to plug a new ECU into the car or as soon as you turn the power on you will burn them up too.

Steve

I went and looked at it and my fp solenoid I could see wire showing going into the plug. I had my fp solenoid and egr solenoid still plugged into the harness but I had it tucked behind my intake manifold since i wasnt using the vac hoses any more. They are covered in oil and crap and when I unplugged the fp solenoid there was oil and i think that electrical connector stuff they stick in there and possible water it looked like. Either way it was nasty. Could I cut the connector off and put some of those electrical covers on the ends and tape it up?

Don't forget to check the BCS. The EGR solenoid uses another one of those drivers.
You can't just cut them off since the ECU checks to make sure they are attached.

I checked the bcs but didnt see anything. I know the ecu checks for them and will throw a code that was the reason I left them hooked up. But a while ago I started getting a code for the egr. So having my check engine light isnt really gonna bother me. I know its not wise to have a the check engine light on incase something else happens. I just dont see what else to do since it looks like the short is on the inside of the plug where the wires go in since thats where the exposed wire is.

Have you confirmed your timing yet?

Timing is fine.

I bought me a rebuilt ecu yesterday for 250 shipped. Hopefully it will be here by the end of the week. What do you guys think I should do about the connector on my fp solenoid? The exposed wire goes into the plug. So i dont have good access to fix it other than cutting the wires and taping them off.

Do you still have the damaged one?

You could try some liquid tape to seal the exposed wire.

Do I still have the damaged ecu?
I havent done anything to the plug yet. I Might go and try and clean it all up tommorrow and see what I can do, and go over some more wires just to be sure that this is the correct one. Could I use brake clean to clean all the gunk and oil off the plug?

Brake cleaner is too harsh. There are electrical cleaner sprays that are a little safer on plastics.

And yes I was asking it you still had the damaged ECU. It would be interesting to see what else failed beside that one driver.

Steve

Where would I find electrical cleaner? orielys? Radio shack? Walmart?

Do you want me to look at the ecu or do you want me to send it to you? From the burn marks on it ic110, ic113, q40, ic111 and ic109 were damaged, there is no ship for ic111 or ic109.