Serious Help With Sudden Death :[ - - -

[Lincolnmania]

are these chineese parts that you put on the car?

[Jill]

no scott, no china.

[packman]

Hmmmm.......at first I thought vapor lock (it's still fairly warm in FL right?), but that wouldn't explain the ignition coil consistently going bad. My old Malibu would vapor lock in traffic and just die after a half hour in anything above 80*F temps. A three core radiator fixed that. I know this is going in the complete opposite direction of what everybody here is saying, but what kinda shape is your radiator in? This could possibly be a cooling system problem.



Packman

[Jill]

everybody here is saying, but what kinda shape is your radiator in? This could possibly be a cooling system problem.

radiator is less than three years old. still nice and shiny.
also has a relatively new thermostat because the old one was stuck open.

temp gauge reads okay, thermometer to the engine reads okay [one of those fancy industrial infrared ones], a little on the low side assuming 90-110C is normal.

the coil was pretty cool to the touch just a few minutes after it died last. it must have been 75-80 outside, no -30 weather here.

[Jill]

so today ---


it made it across town.
I PARKED IT, WENT INSIDE FOR HALF AN HOUR, AND THEN NO START.

then it made it back across town, it died on my street,
CRANKED BUT DIDN'T START, THEN WOULDN'T CRANK, AND THEN STARTED RIGHT UP.

WITHIN FIVE MINUTES. LIKE THIS:
turned key, no start. say fuck. sit for a minute. turn key, no crank. FUCK SHIT FUCK WHAT THE HELL. turn key, car starts.


FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

[86VickyLX]

sounds like what happened to me in one of the 2 doors i drove for a lil while for work. it was a bad connection on a relay by where the fuel pump relay is. it was the brown relay and it fire when it wanted but a lil movement and car would quit. it quit on me and left me on side of raod but fired than died again... i replaced the relay and noticed the corrosion in the connection and since changinging relays it hasnt acted up. the brown relay killed the car and i thought it was fuel pump or fuel pump relay but tried fuel pump relay and still nothing... wiggled wires and tried starting it and found out that it was a bad relay.

brown is the computer relay mang.

[Heather]

I don't know if this would be any help (I usually have other people do work on my cars) but I did have a VERY similar problem with my '87 GM.

It would drive fine for a while, then I'd be cruising along, and it would all cut off and I'd have to coast to a stop. Turned out to be a bad wiring harness to the battery.

Also, it would CONSTANTLY stall at stops when it started EATING spark plugs like candy. That's when the engine slowly started to seize. Two of the cylinders were seized up, and my mechanic was able to repair them, but it just kept fouling out spark plugs, and eventually the cylinders re-seized and another one did and there was nothing we could do.

[P72Ford]

I guess the thread is kind of old...

But I had something similar happen to me repeatedly about 2 years ago. Its a good damn thing my old man has wreckers, or else I'd have racked up a couple G's in tows, trying to figure the damn thing out.

For me, it was the "sock" on the pick-up inside the fuel tank. The damn thing got clogged, and started to break down. Shit would go up the pick-up, plug it, and the engine would die. Totally intermittent.

I replaced the distributor pick- up, replaced all the rubber fuel lines on the car, and battled it for months. When it first happened, my old man was never so sure of anything that it was the pick- up module in the dist. I didn't even check for spark, just replaced it. It was a fuel problem all along.

It was a bitch to drop the tank on mine with the custom 2.5" tail pipes; but we got it down, and it was not rusty at all.

Just a thought, although it sounds like crappy modules may be your problem.

[ÆJackacks]

old thread, is it still acting up?

I had the same problem with the car not starting, try isolating the problem by causing the problem yourself. Since it only happened to me after it rained I sprayed different parts of the ignition system till it acted up again, turned out to be the weak coil that was giving me a shit spark. If you say it happens in warm weather and after long drives, try heating different parts up with a hair dryer on a cool night or something till it happens acts up again.

no crank might be the fender mounted solenoid, you can check by bypassing it with a peice of wire across the terminals, if the engine turns it's the solenoid, i have gone through 2 of them.

[85MercPark]

Moving to Tech.....

This forum is for work for Scott only