Still shuts off randomly. I had this problem back in October and parked the car all winter. I put in a new coil last month, and it seemed to be running fine since then the few times I drove it the 5 miles into town. Last night I was going to drive it again and it died a half mile down the road.

Only this time it wouldn't start at all. I eventually drained the battery trying to get it to start.

In case anyone doesn't remember me asking about this from earlier, it was running fine, and would die instantly cruising along at any speed or rpm. (engine light would come on when it quit) Sometimes it would start right up, other times it wouldn't start for about 10 minutes. Or it would start, fire about 3 cylinders, and die again emmediatly. Sometimes it would start, I'd make it a hundred feet or a few miles, and die again. This was all during one 15 mile drive home.

No codes except the usual '12'.

I'm not sure if the spark is cutting out, or the injectors are shutting off, so I'll check for spark tomorrow. If I have spark and it's not starting, then I'll have to look at what would shut down the injectors. (fuel pump is working fine)

I'm going to pull the valve covers too to check the valve adjustments and pushrod travel. That rattle has me wondering about it.

(need to find a new window switch now too. The center console can be glued. I lost my temper)

 

Have you checked your igntion module?? I had a car that would shut down for no reason. Decided to change the module friend said he though that was it. Never had the problem again. Check for fuel pressure (fuel pressure tester)

 

hey kurfbird!

You need to establish if you are getting spark or not. I'm betting this is spark related. Especially with how its shutting down. If it were fuel it probably would not be restarting.

I've had similar experiences with the ignition pickup coil and the ignition module causing the same problems as you. If you replace the module, replace the pickup coil as an easy precaution. Shouldn't take you more than an hour to get both out of the way.

 

Hey blue

YUes He's right about the pick up coil. There old in most cases. Mine worked fine then stop working 5 minutes later. Had to pull the distributor and start all over.

Diffently makes your car more reliable.

 

You may also want to check the magnet above the coil pick up. zminre was broke and after replacing the distributor the car did not have any other ignition problems.

 

The pickup coil is only a few years old. I replaced the module at the same time. I had an accel module on there before. Even though that module was bad, I was still getting spark. Apparenly not enough though. When I did both of those I also re-spaced those magnetic fins so I could feel the pulses again.

I am thinking about a whole new distributor though too. I'll mess around with it this weekend. My quad needs some work first so I can go riding Saturday.

I'm also going to began my search for the elusive '165 ECM tomorrow at the junkyard so I can get that done sooner or later. If I can get the same mileage out of the bird that I do with the neon, I'll be a happy man.