Car randomly dies when driving. Ideas?

[Batz]

I am not sure if this belongs here or somewhere in the other section, if it needs to be moved, moderators please move.

Hello, so my car has been acting retarded... It caused me to get my oilpan smashed, and now since i replaced that, it is acting up still..

Here is whats happening:

When im driving (cold or warm, doesn't matter) car would randomly shut off. It shuts off not like it would if the ground was lose or anything, it shuts off as if i just turn the car off. Even when driving 45mpg+ and being in gear it sometimes still takes time to start again. It seems to be doing it more and more often. The radio doesn't reset when the car shuts off/turns on again (it would reset the radio when i had a lose ground, which is what makes me think it's not really a problem with the ground/battery) lights don't turn off either if i remember correctly. I am a bit confused what might be causing that. Today i was on my way to college, not even a mile away from my house, the car shut off and wouldn't start. I used all the battery trying to start it, so now the battery is also dead. (It turned off on me on a hill, so i tried starting it from gear, it worked but the car shut itself off about 2 seconds after it started. Revs would go up like they usually do when i start the car, and then go straight down to 0) So far what i think it might be is possibly bad camshaft position sensor, or something with ignition wiring? Other ideas are more than welcome. Maybe someone here had a similar problem?


Car is a 84 ETA but has a build 2.7i engine in it with about 5K miles on it.
It also has a SSSquid chip in it, wonder if that could be causing it? (it was fine for the first 2-3 month after i installed the chip so im not sure that would be it)

please help as i am going to lose my mind with this car soon

[Batz]

Update: came home from work today car started, worked for some time and shut off. Started it again, it worked for a bit less time and shut off. Start again work for even less time and shut off. Start again, works for 2 seconds shuts off. Trying to start again - nothing, doesn't start just cranks. Removed the fuel line to check if there's fuel, there wasn't any. Fuel pump doesn't turn on, checked if fuel pump gets power, it doesn't. Any ideas why the fuel pump wouldn't get power? As well as why it would sometimes have power and sometimes not.. And progressively getting worse? Anything helps, thanks.

[superj]

Maybe the relay is bad and as it gets hot, it stops working

[Batz]

Will borrow my friends ECU and relays soon to check if the problems is in one of those. Will keep updating

[Mpolito3355]

Maybe the relay is bad and as it gets hot, it stops working

I would double check this also.

please keep updated i am curious whats wrong with it =0

[superj]

I wonder what happened?

[Batz]

Sorry guys, have been busy with moving lately didn't have much time to mess around with the car.
Well funny thing is, I went and got bunch of stuff from my friends to test the car, like relays, ecu, crank sensor. But all of a sudden the car works fine... Idles without problems, drives without any problems as well. Doesn't die.. Which made me quite dissapointed because now I can't really diagnose the issue.
I guess will have to wait till it starts acting up again

[george graves]

Does it stumble for a bit before dying? Or just BAM, off. That would lead me to think it's the CPS or ECU.

Things I would look at.

ECU (cracked circuit board could do it - long shot on that one)
Crank sensor (An e30 or any BMW of that vintage will run with just about everything unplugged except the CPS)
Maybe something funky with the cap and rotor??? (long shot, but easy to inspect)
Coil (it's it's intermittently working - could be it to)

[IRON-E]

CPS broeh

[Maddog]

I had the same symptoms as you; intermittent stalls.

Going from easy and least expensive, replaced fuel pump relays, CPS, OBC relay, swapped ECU, ignition switch, etc. with no results. Go with the items that cuts out the signal to the ignition or fuel system.

I checked the C191 connector and it was so corroded the wires fell off the pins. Well after cutting and putting on new connectors, it still didn’t cure the stall. I finally resorted to having it checked by a BMW specialist and it ended up the harness had a broken shield on the ground wire; he replaced the harness and problem gone. This was done over a year ago. Try gently grabbing/tugging the harness and see if it stalls; this is how he figured out it was the harness.

If he didn’t find it it, I would have sold my car as a parts car since I could not sell it as an operating car with good conscience.

[vtechnik]

Its always the CPS...

[george graves]

Its always the CPS...

...unless it's something else ;)

[Maddog]

Ditto on George's comment; mine was a bad ground wire in the harness. It only took 2 years to figure it out and $ of replacing every conceivable parts; of course, the find and fix was by a pro.