Car shut off while driving. NEED HELP!

[sytrus]

I turned on my car to warm it up, and it started and was running fine. I had some fog on the outside of the windshield and the heat was running. I turned on the windsheild wipers and the car shut off. I started it right back up, and everything seemed fine. So, I took off out of my straight and before i could shift into third, i heard a click down by my ECU, and sure enough there was a check engine light... no power steering, pressing the gas... nothing there. So i turned into another street (thank god i was going downhill), and i waited there for like 20 minutes. I tried starting it up, to no avail. I turned on the lights, and i got nothing headlights went up, but no lights. Waited a few more minutes tried it again, headlights were on... at that point i started it up, and it started up right away.... with some loud squeaks.. and the little yellow light next to the check engine light was on. That all shut off and i got back to my street, then once again... it shut off.

Waited a few minutes, started it up again, and got it into my garage. I popped the hood and found that the battery terminal was loose... i fixed that, (and also if this helps, the bracket that holds the battery in place that goes over top of it and bolts to the body is broken.) and so at that point i checked all my fuses.. they were all fine. Checked my belts and alternator, everything was fine... checked my coil pack... all good. So, I started it up, and it turned over right away. I let it run... and it ran for about 5 minutes, when it shut off again, this is when i was outside of the car and it was in neutral.

Do you think I just need a new battery? Or could it be something else?

The only recent modifications were, that i hooked up the oil pressure sensor because when i got it, it wasnt hooked up. And I put on a 3" cat-back exhaust. The rest of the motor is stock.

SOMEONE HELP!

 

[DSMvroom]

It's not the battery. The only time the battery is in use is in one of two situations . .

a) the motor isn't running
b) the motor is running and the alternator is dead

I don't believe your battery or the alternator is the problem because if the alternator was dead, you would have drained the battery down before you could get the car back into the garage. With all the starts you had done, it shows that the battery is strong and had received a recharge from the alternator during the times the engine was running; Both these items are working properly.

I would guess your problem lies in that yellow light that turned on next to your CEL, and also probably involves whatever the CEL is telling you about.

 

[sytrus]

Does anyone know what that little yellow light is.. and can someone give me some things to look for? And possibly how to check what CEL it was without having someone professional to do it?

 

[DSMvroom]

go to autozone. They'll scan your codes for free.

Maybe you did something wrong when you hooked up the oil pressure sensor?? I don't know how long ago you did that mod but I would assume that these symptoms, if caused by that mod, would have started immediately.

 

[blue92laser]

The little yellow light is the coolant lite, it looks like a carousel right? I think it has something to do with your ECU, maybe its dieing and shorting out a little making it do crazy shit. Have you ever had the caps replaced? or even look at the board? Take the ECU out and smell for fish...if it does smell like fish then its probably your caps leaking the fluids onto your board causing it to short. I know I had some funny shit happen when my caps were leaking, but i got lucky and caught it before it destroyed the board.

Atleast it's a start.

 

[kalla]

I was driving my talon one day and it shut off with absolutely no warning, no symptoms whatsoever, and it wouldn't start again. Had to tow it home. ECU was fried. Got another one and it started right up, no problems since then.

 

[sytrus]

thats the only thing. The ECU was replaced with a new one.. it was out of a 90, and my car is a 91 so, two wires had to be switched and it worked ever since.

But yes the carosel light is the yellow light. Why would that come on?

So the ECU is new... I'll check it, and I'll get my codes scanned.

Now... even though someone said it wasn't the battery.... today, i made sure the terminals were tight.

I let it warm up for about 10 minutes.. and it ran fine.. PERFECT. I took it out, and drove it about 5 miles up the road, and back... perfect not even a hint of something wrong.

But problems like that don't just go away, and it couldn't have been that easy to fix.

Any new suggestions?

 

[myfirstTALON]

the carosal light is the coolant which means you're low which means put some in.

for shuting off w/o warning, the little click sound is the mfi or mpi sensor that controls
fuel and some other thing and it triggers some kind of fuel shut off,
it's that little golden box next to the ecu
on my car it would just shut off and on so i read on this board that it was the ecu, i changed it and walla it works normal, but i have a 1992 2.0 na auto

 

[Boosted4]

why dont you do a little information lookup on cam angle sensors, yours (if its not your ecu) is almost certainly fried.



Good Luck

Brandon