Car died on me, w-t-f

[miamieclipse]

Hey guys, well i was driving today from my friends shop where he let me use the lift to change my oil & shoot some shit....Anyways I'm driving on the way to Dynamic Turbo to pick up a fuel pump to finish off my list of goodies for the custom turbo kit.

As I'm driving I'm about 1 or 2 miles from DT & on some side street real close to their shop that theres not too much traffic. All of a sudden my car died on me. It was gradual where it just started decelerating by itself to where it got to neutral and just died. This is where i stuck it in neutral and pushed the car for about a mile and a half to DT at which point they had a little incline into their parking lot ... Let's just say it wasn't fun

Anyways - what could it be? If you put the key in the ignition it goes all the way but it won't crank the engine, the SAFC shows theres 12.5v when the key is in the ignition. At first i thought it might be the fuel pump - but the motor would at least turn over and start to whine...I don't think its the battery b/c the safc shows it has life - Couldn't be the alternator as i replaced that 8 months ago & the car would at least turn over. This is not cool I'm thinking it could be the distributor? Any thoughts...

Oh and this wasn't the best of timing - moving to Orlando next Saturday & this happened

 

[BigRand]

Yo, I sh*t you not, I just had the same problem, did all of a sudden your speedo drop to zero, then you push in the accelertor but nothing really happens except you here the car winding down. I'll bet you right now, you could go outside and start your car right now, and a few minutes later it will die. Try wiggiling both the positve and negative wires on the battery. That might get it started again but It will probably die again.

Here is a link to my post and my solution.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=186922

 

[Burnett03]

Hey guys, well i was driving today from my friends shop where he let me use the lift to change my oil & shoot some shit....Anyways I'm driving on the way to Dynamic Turbo to pick up a fuel pump to finish off my list of goodies for the custom turbo kit.

As I'm driving I'm about 1 or 2 miles from DT & on some side street real close to their shop that theres not too much traffic. All of a sudden my car died on me. It was gradual where it just started decelerating by itself to where it got to neutral and just died. This is where i stuck it in neutral and pushed the car for about a mile and a half to DT at which point they had a little incline into their parking lot ... Let's just say it wasn't fun

Anyways - what could it be? If you put the key in the ignition it goes all the way but it won't crank the engine, the SAFC shows theres 12.5v when the key is in the ignition. At first i thought it might be the fuel pump - but the motor would at least turn over and start to whine...I don't think its the battery b/c the safc shows it has life - Couldn't be the alternator as i replaced that 8 months ago & the car would at least turn over. This is not cool I'm thinking it could be the distributor? Any thoughts...

Oh and this wasn't the best of timing - moving to Orlando next Saturday & this happened

O NOOOOO!!! W-T-F?!

 

[ECLIPSE95]

well I threw my timing belt twice...take off your timing belt inspection cover and check to see if it is that...my car did the same thing twice..just shut down and wouldnt crank..so check your TB and hope it isnt that..~Dustin

 

[XMasta19]

Has it started since you gave it a push to the shop?
If not, have you tried starting it with a jump?

 

[miamieclipse]

well I threw my timing belt twice...take off your timing belt inspection cover and check to see if it is that...my car did the same thing twice..just shut down and wouldnt crank..so check your TB and hope it isnt that..~Dustin

Changed my timing belt about 9000 miles ago so i HIGHLY doubt it's that - thanks tho.

Burnett03 WTF, if you don't have anything helpful to stay then don't.

Big Rand: Yes that is exactly what happened - just stared to deacelerate and went to 0...I will look at your thread now - anything else? What was the final solution?

EDIT: Rand I read your post "My main Ground wire for the car or one of the grounds (of the many little gadgets I have hooked up to my car) had part of the wire exposed and not covered by any rubber or protecitve wrapping, well this wire seemed to have fused or melted itself on to the EGR block and when the car would start up when the EGR was on and when that function stopped "like its supposed to sometimes" the car would shut off as well. Took a lil longer to figure that out then I would have liked." I'm going to go outside and try n wiggle out the terminals - if it dies i'm gonna look for a burnt fuse, which fuse did yours burn?

EDIT 2: Eclipse 95: Why check the tb?

 

[BigRand]

Actually it wasn't even a burnt fuse(which it could be on yours) a piece of my main ground wire became exposed from the wrapping in it, and physically fused itself onto the EGR. Once I fixed that and wrapped it back up, no more dying. Also your not getting any check engine codes are u?(I don't think you would, but I'm just checking). If your like me as well and you have a lot of gadets going to your battery, you should considered redoing your battery terminal set up so its more effcient. I did and now my battery gets more of a charge when I'm driving, I'm even considering buying a ground wire kit, but I've got other stuff to worry about first.

But one thing I would like to ask you is if your car has started up again since you left it for a while. (don't get mislead by it starting, it will die again. You should let it idle for honestly about 20min-30min. Then drive it around your block a couple of times to make sure it stays runnning.

I thought we fixed my car, and I even pulled off a couple of dyno runs, and then I drove about 15-20miles back to my house and thats when it started to die again. (I made it home via wiggling the battery terminal wires, because at that point it would just start up again.)

Good luck

 

[GSleeper]

So the starter isn't cranking?

 

[miamieclipse]

No the start wont crank ... I haven't had a chance to do anything that Rand was suggesting b/c it's fathers day & i had to go to the cemetary today....

This is what i will try, wigglin the terminal & see if it starts...I'll be back in a few to post the result.

 

[BigRand]

So the starter isn't cranking?

Yeah he said it cranks

but the motor would at least turn over and start to whine...

 

[miamieclipse]

Wiggled the terminals & it didn't start...AFter looking around i saw that one of the wires from my afc was semi-exposed, the electrical tape wasn't completly on...It was the White Wire - Map IN What could this mean...

 

[miamieclipse]

Yeah he said it cranks

No i was talking about the Fuel pump & if it was bad that it would atleast turn over and whine that there was no fuel....It does not crank.

 

[pr0]

No i was talking about the Fuel pump & if it was bad that it would atleast turn over and whine that there was no fuel....It does not crank.

Could be your ECU; but before I jump to conclusions, did you check the wiring to the starter? Mine actually got unplugged before... I have no idea how.

 

[ECLIPSE95]

Changed my timing belt about 9000 miles ago so i HIGHLY doubt it's that - thanks tho.


EDIT 2: Eclipse 95: Why check the tb?

meaning Timing belt..sorry about that..probably confused it with throttle body..

 

[miamieclipse]

timing belt was changed at 109k aprox, the car now has 119k....

The starter wire...How could that unplug itself? Would that cause the car to shut itself down while i was driving?

 

[bullettdsm]

Does sound like electrical, but just to be sure, can you turn the engine over by hand? If you can't then the obvious. Also, when you put the key in the START position do you lose warning/oil lights? I'm heading toward a short in the column or the ign. switch witht that last question.
MB

 

[XMasta19]

gotta start simple...is your battery dead??

does everything come on when key is in accessory position?
how bout when you turn it to ignition?
does everything go dead as soon as you try to start?
have u tried jump starting it yet?

I know this all seems frivolous, but it hasn't been answered yet

 

[miamieclipse]

the battery is fine the safc monitor says it has 12.5v when the car is not on...Yes everything works when the key is turned to igntion - then dies when goes to try and start the engine....

Does sound like electrical, but just to be sure, can you turn the engine over by hand? If you can't then the obvious.

What do you mean then its obvious?

 

[GSleeper]

ECU is prolly taking a shit on you.

 

[XMasta19]

Ok, so it says you have 12v until you go to crank it up. Have you tried jump starting it yet? I have two dead batteries (have bad cells) in my garage and they both read 12v, but everything dies when you try to start the car. Give the car a jump, and see is she starts then. Have you checked all of your fuses? Possible that alternator fuse is blown or alternator is going out itself, so car ran for awhile off battery but eventually died cause it couldn't keep charged. I've had that happen to me before, so I'm just throwin it out there. Let us know what the status is after checking these things.

 

[miamieclipse]

Ya the battery was def ok - i towed it to my friends show & he let me get it on the lift for free - anyways after a little bit one of the mechanics comes by and says did you take a look at the fuse box yet? To be truthful I hadn't - we looked at fuse 33a i think it was and it was burnt out...I replaced it and it ran fine - so we tried to figure out how it burned and it must have been that the positive terminal came loose as i hit that bump & then somehow burned the fuse ... Anyways the car is running...

All of this did cause a delay in my turbo kit install since I have to move to Orlando this saturday there's no way i can finish the install since my last day of work is thursday & i have to pack

 

[XMasta19]

muah ha ah ha ah fuse it was

sorry you gotta wait longer on the install...now you'll feel like some of us

 

[pr0]

it was only a fuse. pssht, its common sense to check fuses first. haha

Glad to know everything turned out okay!