I was driving around today and just outa no where my car dies. I threw it in neutral and started it and kept going. Well about a minute later same thing. Car didn't struggle or anything, just shut off. Service engine light was on after it died of course. Haven't added anything to my car latly...Any idea???

 

Fuel? Spark? Compression? Gotta be one of the 3...

 

That happened to my Trans Am. 'Cept it totally died and never started again. The coil burned through the frickin' distro cap!!! I thought i burned a spark plug wire (like I always do), so the miss didn't alarm me too much. But nope...

 

Did you put a new TPS sensor in yet?

 

No i haven't. I am gonna get it looked at to see whats wrong cuz it's still runnin really hot at times and normal at other times.

 

I would tend to agree with RODS92Z...same thing happened to my '85 2.8L Camaro several years ago....car would run fine, and then suddenly stall. Always started back up, but would just stall out occationally...especially upon decelleration & idle. Replaced the TPS, problem solved.

 

Start on the TPS. I'm pretty sure that is whats wrong. Cant see that anything else would cause it on that car. I never changed it, about everything else has been. Its real easy to change. 2 screws and unplug the connector. Take you 5 minutes tops. Either that or buy the part and I will put it on for you.

 

Make sure to check the voltage after you put it on. Would suck if you have set idle w/ too much air!!

 

Not sure what you mean. The idle is factory set. And the TPS isnt adjustable on that car. Let me know if you meant something else.

 

Most TPS are adjustable, they just don't look like it. I had the same problem and it turned out to be the coil to distributer wire. I was begining to burn through it. Check the plugs on the coil and the coil wire.

 

The cap, rotor, wires, plugs are fairly new. The TPS on that car is not adjustable. A person could test it tho with a ohm meter. If it were me I would change the TPS wether it was good or bad, it is the original. The only things I can think of is the TPS, and the fuel pump relay. Those are the only things that come to mind, after owning it for 3 years and going through the drivetrain, I cant see anything else going bad. Unless the fuel injectors are not pumping what they are supposed to. Then it would start when it would want to and not very often. Dont believe that would set a service light either. But there is only like 20-30,000 miles on those. I always put valvaline fuel injector cleaner in once or twice a month. I wish I could help more but it never had these syptoms when I had it.

 

Well it's pretty dead now. Luckily it died in my driveway and not across town. Replaced the 3 fuel pump relays and still nothing. No power to the fuel pump. I can get it to start like every 2 or 3 days but once it's off it's off for a while.

 

Well when you take it in and they say you have no spark and the car starts every once in awhile. Tell them to check out the pickup coil and the coil. We just had a 88 chevy pickup that was doing this. Turned out the pickup coil was bad. They will have to remove the distributer from the engine, then you minus well replace it anyways they are cheap.

 

even though is not same kind of car, neighbor of mine and his beater hotrod 66 chevelle with 355 in it was doing same thing basically an dit ended up being bad pickup coil, i disassembled the dizzy for him and instaleld the new coil last week and its ran ever since.. he needs to add some engfine to chassis and to firewall grounds though... it doenst even have one anywhere,
he wont listen though,... probably wil end up burning somethinfg else up next if he doesnt thorw a rod from all the super high revs he likes to do with the car.,.,,. is a beater car,



good luck

 

How did you check for power at the fuel pump? I don't see the car starting at all if it's getting no power. Have you tried replacing the ignition module?

 

Rezinn, I was thinking "ignition module" too... except the car isn't starting at all now. No power to the fuel pump also means no power to the ECM on my '86 car...

But the fuel pump/ecm fuse should be under the hood, on the passenger side, upper rame rail. On my car, it's in a black clip-like weatherproof housing with one 9/32" screw holding it to the upper frame rail on the passenger side. It'll have a red and ORANGE wire coming from it. Check the fuse to make sure it's not blown.

 

ignition module gets my vote also...mine had the same symptoms. Pick up also may need replaced.

 

Turns out the wires just detatched from the pump so there was no power there. So got em reattatched and got a new 160* thermostat put in.....now she runs like a top