ok, friday, i took a friend to lunch, and as i was going to take him back to school my car wouldnt start. its never really done anything like that to me, i came back later to get the car, started fine, drove it to a parts store to test the battery and alternator, both fine. drove it home, fine. tried to go to a friends house that night and as i was on the access road, the car dies, no warning, just flat out dies. so we tow it to a friends house and today when i went over there, it started up just fine. BUT after maybe a minute and a half, the car died, we battled with it doing that for a while. so it seems like im getting spark and fuel, for a minute anyway, what should i check out? there are times when it wont start, it cranks forever, but never fires. also when i go to pull the codes that it tripped, all i get is code 12 which is no code. im confused

 

code 12
no distributor reference pulse.
this code will flash whenever the diagnostic terminal is grounded with the ignition on and the engine not running. if additional trouble codes are stored, they will appear after this code has flashed 3 times.

also if your key pellet gets dirty or is not making a good connection. and it drops the resistance to the ecm during driving i think it would shut off the fuel pump. thus causing your car to stop. personally i hate VATS:P

 

maybe the oil pressure switch that controls the fuel pump? you could short that plug next time the car gives you issues.

are you sure its getting spark? maybe check the coil wiring or the coil it self.

g/l to ya

 

The no start sounds like a faulty starter solenoid. Perhaps it's creating a momentary dead short across the battery & killing the engine...Next time it won't start, take something heavy and THWACK the starter.

 

thats always fun...carry a big pipe with ya lol

 

Yeah...it'd be like that game CLUE:

"CC89Formula killed the starter in the parking lot with the lead pipe!".

 

Sounds like your ignition module or distubitor may be on it's way out or low fuel pressure. You will need to rule out if this is fuel or spark related.

You can do a spark test fairly easily with mininal tools. When the car will not start do the following:

1. Pull one of the spark plug wire's off and insert a screwdriver into it so that the end of it is touching the metal connector inside of it. Then place the screwdriver with the spark plug wire still connected to it on a good ground point in the engine bay (usually a bolt on the strut tower will work). Then crank the car and you should see blue spark jumping off of the metal shaft of the screwdriver. If you do not see this then you have no spark. Be sure to try the test several times on a couple of different ground points to make sure you just do not have a bad ground point.

2. The fuel test will require you to have a fuel pressure gage. Costs about 35 to 40 dollars at any auto parts store. Just take the guage and screw it into the test port on the passenger side fuel rail. Then crank the car and see what your pressure is on the guage. If it below 36 psi. You have a problem in your fuel system.


Do these two tests and advise of the results. I will then tell you what to do next.

 

haha....aww crap, you caught me


ill work on all that stuff today and see what i can figure out