Well my car has now gotten a little pissy with me. 99% of the time she starts up fine and runs like a champ, however the other 1% this happens:
I turn the key, the starter turns the engine, the engine comes to life and revs up to around 2,000 rpms and then the engine just calmly slows down to 0rpms. During its fall from normal starting rpms to zero I can give it gas and I can hear the throttle opening but nothing happens. The engine just dies.
I’ve also noticed that once this happens the car won’t do anything on subsequent attempts to start her. Only when I turn the key to the OFF possision and then back to ON and START does the starter engage again.
Usually I end up getting her started by giving her lots of gas just as I thing the engine is going to catch and when she does, she revs up to about 4,500 rpms and I hold it there for 5 seconds and then she is fine. Drives like a champ again.
So where should I start looking? As far as I can tell none of my spark plug wires are loose, I’ve checked them many times. I haven’t done any work on her that could have caused this, it just kinda happened one day. The only thing that has changed is that I’m driving my car a whole lot less since I’m riding my bike more. My only guess would be something in the distributor.
Thanks, I’ve got a NON OBD VTEC distributor sitting in my garage. I’ll see if I can get away with swapping out the coil in that one. What really worries me though is that this problem only happens sometimes, so if I do swap it and it does work, I really won’t know for sure if I’ve fixed the problem or not.
check your alternator, and the connections relating to it.
When I rebuilt my motor, my alternator belt fell off along with my crank pulley. I could jump start it and keep it alive with the gas for like 10 seconds, then it would just die even if I tried to rev it. So it might be alternator related.
Okay, everyone is going to tell you something different. For me it was the Fuel Pump Relay. The description of the problem you state was solved by replacing that. It is located below the stearing wheel, you need to take apart the center console and kick panels. Costs between $40-50. You see, this should happen when it is very hot outside. The relay does not work, and therefore the relay doesn’t work and the fuel pump doesn’t send any fuel, and as you know without fuel your car will just die. After a few tries, eventually you will be able to start again. Almost positive it is the fuel relay. Check the helms online, and look around for the best price and do some more searches.
You could take it to a dyno and hook up 1 of dem expensive ass o2 sensors If your car leans out while its dying, its probably a fuel problem, if it gets rich, probably a spark issue. Its not cost effective but may help ya
Check coil, ignitor and Main Fuel Relay… An easy way to check the MFR is to listen to see if the fuel pump is running when this happens(also check to see if the CEL goes off after a couple seconds). I had a similar problem which was cured my the MFR. Car would start then slowly die, mostly when it was hot outside…
Originally posted by Answer
[B]Check coil, ignitor and Main Fuel Relay… An easy way to check the MFR is to listen to see if the fuel pump is running when this happens(also check to see if the CEL goes off after a couple seconds). I had a similar problem which was cured my the MFR. Car would start then slowly die, mostly when it was hot outside…
HTH! [/B]
fyi when my coil died i couldnt hear the pump and thot it was the culprit. but ya those 3 are the main problems with our cars
Originally posted by DAY U IZ
I’ve also noticed that once this happens the car won’t do anything on subsequent attempts to start her. Only when I turn the key to the OFF possision and then back to ON and START does the starter engage again.
Based on this piece of info… I would suspect ONE THING…
the ignition switch.
Although many of the things suggested above would keep the engine from running (Coil, ignitor, Distributor, Fuel starvation, etc), NONE of them would prevent the starter from engaging when you turn the key.
Try to WD-40 the #$%#$ of the the switch, (The internal part inside the steering column that has the wires, NOT just the hole where the key goes in. that should fix your problem (at least tepmporarily)
I had a similar problem, where the ACC output of the ignition switch had a bad contact. I’d be driving down the street and all of a sudden the radio would turn off and the Alarm would arm itself (While I was still driving) I used WD-40 and it has been fine ever since (2 years)
