Need help, car died on hwy and won't restart

[foofopps]

Ok so im driving home on I290 where these buttholes have been doing construction for ever! All the lanes are the grooved surface type and I hit a major pot hole or something going like 65mph. It was pretty jarring, my car starts to decelerate and sound poopy, oil light and check engine come on and the first thing that came to mind was that my oil pan was gone. I pull over, car has stalled at this point, I check and my oil pan is fine, but every light on my dash is on, but none of my check panel is on. I try to restart my car and it turns over but does not start. My car is an 87IS so I can't do a stomp test, even though I tried anyway. I got it towed home but its my DD so I need to fix it soon. So what the hell happened? It turns over fine but won't start, maybe a fuse or relay blew from me hitting this big ass pot hole??? Or it knocked a sensor loose?? Or the power to the fuel pump or something of that nature got knocked loose? Tomorrow after work I will try to get some more info by checking to see if the fuel pump is turning on and looking in the engine bay when I can actually see what the hell im doing. Any ideas or tests I can perform would be appreciated.

[StereoInstaller1]

First, cheak to make sure you have power on the small wire running from the trunk. There is a fusable link on it, back in the trunk....but if that popped, I think everything would be dead.

Test your main relay too.

[foofopps]

All my interior lights, headlights, tail lights, brake lights, stereo still works...does that mean its not the main relay?

[quikveedb2]

sorry i'm too lazy to search for your maintenance background on the car, but; test your main relay. test your fuel pump relay. test your cps. check your dme/engine grounds. run the bentley's suite of fuel/spark/compression tests. you need a multimeter for this. (i assume you have one, if you don't, buy one. now would be a good time. good time for a bentley, also) report back with results.

[StereoInstaller1]

All my interior lights, headlights, tail lights, brake lights, stereo still works...does that mean its not the main relay?

Nope. Main relay runs the DME and the fuel pump, basically.

[kway]

First, cheak to make sure you have power on the small wire running from the trunk. There is a fusable link on it, back in the trunk....but if that popped, I think everything would be dead.

Just FWIW, a broken fusible link will allow crank, but no-start. Doesn't hurt to check, I usually replace these as preventative maintenance.

I also thought maybe crank sensor killed or knocked loose by the impact? :shrug: That's about all I have to add...

[foofopps]

I have a bentley and a volt meter, we will see what I get done tonight. But what is the fusible link? never heard of anyone talk about that before? will my bentley refer to this as a fusible link as well?

[kway]

There's your positive battery cable in the trunk, and a smaller wire that runs along with it. The fusible link is in the smaller wire maybe halfway forward in the trunk. You can cut the insulation and have an actual look at it, or check for power past it.

Seems unlikely that it would pop while driving the car, but it's worth checking out.

[foofopps]

Ah ha! fixed it, I checked all my fuses, then I popped the cover off my relays and the middle one had popped loose, I guess the plastic clips had seen better days so its zip tied in place for now. Thanks for the advices guys

[Lyrred]

good job champ. its always a good feeling to get ur car working again.