Ignition Cutting Out Randomly

[Dude]

So this started the other day. Car drove perfect the night before, came home and parked next day car started right up to head over to a friends house a few blocks away, after a minute of driving the engine cut out while driving in gear. The tach dropped down to zero. So I put her in neutral and tried to start it while moving, nothing. So then I got down to about 10 miles an hour, put her in first and dropped the clutch and she started up. This is the first time anything like this has ever happened while ive owned the car btw. Then got to my friends house and after and hour I tried to start the car and it would turn over but just wouldn't fire. So then I got another push from my friends car and bump started it and it ran. But then stalled again. Noticed my gas was pretty low and my gauge is pretty inaccurate so we put some gas in the tank and it fired up with the starter and was good for the rest of the day. Now today I did about 4 hours of highway driving hitting up scrap yards and such. And again I had the problem while going down the freeway. The tach shot down to 0 rpms while the in gear. So I pulled over, let it sit for a few minutes and then it started up normally.

So what could be the reason the ignition just stops randomly sometimes now. Im guessing I should replace the distributor and cap. But any other places check?


Thanks!


Btw. I did a pretty crafty lip job from a volvo front airdamn like the one in this pic. Pics installed tommorow probs.

[Danny]

Your fuel pump is going out.

[jeffw]

yep thats what it sounds like

[Dude]

Would the gauge cluster cut out like that if thats the problem?

[Danny]

Yes, no fuel -> car dies -> motor isn't sending a signal to the tach -> dead tach.

[Dude]

yes, no fuel -> car dies -> motor isn't sending a signal to the tach -> dead tach.

<333

[jlevie]

If the car is in gear and moving and you see the tack go to zero when the engine dies the cause will be something that is causing the DME to shut down. A bad CPS, bad main relay, flaky fusible link, or even a bad DME are possibilities.

[gtdragon980]

I agree with Jim, my brothers car would have a similar symptom where as you're applying throttle, it would cut out but then come back on. We came to the conclusion, and correct me if I'm wrong but the third relay from the main relay, I believe is the o2 sensor relay, was loose. We pushed it in fully and the problem went away. I'm not sure if it is applicable to your problem but that's what we did!

[Dude]

Thanks a bunch guys. The problem has seemed to go away but im still gonna double check everything.

[iwantspeed]

test the car with a different dme.
i had a similar problem.
through some parts at the car
problem stayed
swapped a dme with a known working one
and problem solved.

[moatilliatta]

Sounds like A main relay issue...

[StereoInstaller1]

The symptoms you described can ONLY be the main relay.

Wiggling it might help for a minute, but the contacts inside crap out, so long term, replace it.

[iwantspeed]

^ agreed
i replaced mine and it still did not fix it.

the 3 relays
engine ground strap
crank position sensor
multimeter tested throttle position sensor
new dme temp sensor
new cluster temp sensor( while i was there kind of thing)
o2 sensor( the orginal one was installed)
fuel pump
fuel filter
rubber fuel lines
rebuilt and calibrated fuel injectors

ended up being something wrong with the orginal dme
robert from e30 motorwerks hooked me up with a spare dme he had and it fixed the problem.