I have an interesting problem that for the life of I can't seem to solve...going on 18 months now.

If I drive my car (NA) for long trips...I'm talking hour+ I have no issues. However if I do 3 or 4 short trips around town where I'm out of the car for about 10-15 minutes and then drive again my engine will cut out while driving...sputtering...no power...I'll either have to pop the clutch or turn off the car while coasting and restart it to get power again.

If I let the car sit for an hour or two...it drives fine again unless I'm making short trips.

About a year ago...getting tired of this...I switched out the ECU and had no problems again...until the last month.

So...I'm guessing that whatever causes the issue, that when the car shuts off, the ECU resets and starts up for at least a little while until the issue arises again. I'm guessing fuel, MOP,or ECU or a combination.

Any suggestions?

 

If this is your 89 vert. First, check all your grounds using Aaron Cakes guide (google aaron cake). Then check all the wires at the grommet from the main harness that goes through the firewall (from the fuse box). Make sure no wires have been rubbing and now exposed.

Next, after you have done all that and everything checks out fine, the verts have an anti-theft system that disables ignition I believe. I had a similar issue with my vert when I first got it. One day I came out of work, started the car when it was snowing. Started up, pulled out of the parking lot, then it just died. No power at all anywhere. I could not get anything to power on. I came back the next day disconnected the battery, reconnected it and it started.

Well I changed the battery out, it was fine after that. However, later I find out my CPU (not ECU) was bad since I had no high beams working. I take out the CPU board and it looks completely fried. I replaced it and my alarm I never knew was there now showed up! But after looking at the board and thinking about what happened, I believe that might of been the cause of my problems.

So if you get 0 power at all, I mean no lights not even a single one, and your vert came equipped with airbags, this could be your issue. Otherwise, it should lie somewhere else...

By the way, in the mists of my panic that it wasn't getting any power, it was pulling a pretty big number in amperage. I forgot what it was, but it was a significant drain. After replacing the CPU, I never had that drain.