The other day my car stalled on me while in a sweeping (kinda high speed, 40 mph or so) left turn. I thought nothing of it, just started it back up and on I went.

Well it did it twice today. Both times on the same type of high speed left turns. And it only does it when the water temps haven't quite reached stable operating temps (80 or so C with my stock radiator).

The only thing I've done to my car in the last couple weeks is change the oil, and it I put Mobil 1 synthetic in instead of the non-synth I had used for the first 4k miles.

What the heck?

 

I assume you've got enough fuel in the tank, right? Maybe oil isn't reaching the sump... dunno, but I'd start looking at the engine liquids. Battery electrolyte too.

 

Theres about 1/2 tank in there right now, I don't remember what was in there the first time it did it. I always put 4 quarts of oil in, just cus it'll burn through that last .1 quart so fast anyways, and I changed the oil a week ago, so I know there's plenty in it.

Could be a battery issue, maybe I'll look into that. How do I check to see if the electrolyte is low?

 

My car would die on my when I made u-turns(left). It was my passenger front wheel rubbing into the front harness which is right behind the plastic fender liner. It had rubbed through 11 wires and shorted them all out together. It ended up frying my computer before I could figure out what was wrong. This only happened because I have bigger tires and my car is lowered about 2 inches. I doubt this is what is happening to your car but I thought I would throw it out there anyway.

 

As you probably know the fd has a fuel slosh problem when the tank is low. The pump is on the left side of the car. Since you experienced the stalling problem while taking a left turn it seems plausible that it is caused by fuel starvation.

 

fuel slosh/starvation and the wheel rubbing the wiring harness seem like the best bets. if the wheel is rubbing, you can run the harness over the fender instead of under like a lot of drift guys do in japan. Filling the gas is the easiest check though. hmmm are you in gear when going thru the corner? are you gassing thur it or just coasting?

 

LOL.

Oil has nothing to do with it.

Battery has nothing to do with it, the car will run on the alternator.

Maybe low fuel..

Is the car stock or close to it? I'd check any electrical connections by the coils, etc. I had a TII that would stall on right handers. It was the bare BAC wire grounding on the intake manifold...

 

I doubt it's the fuel...1/2 tank should be plenty gimme a break

definetaly some electrical problem....I have a feeling it's going to be a PITA for you to find out the problem tho

 

I thought fuel starvation was common in racing with the FD. I remember reading about about it but can't recal the exact words and racing situation. Here's an example: Fuel starvation

 

Yea...that is your fuel tank baffle broken.
My car does the same thing at half tank.
so my solution is to do right hand turn drift instead of left.
I am replacing my tank or stuffing it with foams...see thread on gas tank in the Race Tech Forum

 

wait, the baffle can break? can you take pics cuz im not sure that can even happen

 

This is not mine, but not far from what mine looks like...When it break, it will just float in the tank, sometime you can hear them move about as you stop quickly.

scroll to the bottom.
http://www.alexwan.com/rx-7/journal/040302/040302.html

 

So the baffle is plastic? That explains why it breaks! I wonder if it has damaged anyones fuel pump or level sensor.

 

I ran a whole autoX with the fuel starvation problem in full effect, and the car never flat out stalled, just would miss and buck and be terrible, but never would stall altogether even in the most sustained sweeping corners.

Needless to, say, I run with at least 3/4 tank now, but this doesn't sound like your problem. I would check for an electrical problem.

 

"So the baffle is plastic? That explains why it breaks! I wonder if it has damaged anyones fuel pump or level sensor."

not the plastic...the big metal piece in the tank...
Yes it does damage my fuel level sensor, my gas is now past E.

 

that sucks for you guys
ive heard of it happening but I didn't think it was so common. I thought you had to beat on the car hard launches and catching the wheels hard while shifting....guess not

Well I can tell you I've run the car hard several times near the E around turns and never had a problem. I did have a supra fuel pump though which maybe picks up more fuel and def. pumps with the best of em...wonderful upgrade.

 

My susension and wheels and tires are stock, so I doubt that thats the cause.


That was one of my initial guesses, but it just started happening. I've been driving the car off an on for 9 months, why now? I guess it could be that the baffle broke, if thats the case I guess I'll just keep more fuel in it.

I'll take a look at the wiring by the coils and see what I can find.

That may be true but this it far from racing. I'm not even close to testing the limits of the suspension. Picture a rather wide radius off ramp at 40 mph. The FD isn't even waking up yet at that speed.

Hmmm, so maybe mine isn't fuel related then? My car doesn't show any signs of starvation, or any signs of any issue. It just flat out dies, but starts right back up again. I have about 1/4 tank of gas right now and it hasn't done it at all today. So maybe it is electrical?

 

Is the car dying while in gear, or in neutral? If it is in gear, then I would say that you have an electrical problem. If it is in neutral, try it again with the headlights on. It may be that your idle is dropping too quickly, and dying when you depress the clutch. With the lights on, the idle may drop more slowly.

Any idle issues?

 

how is the stock baffels held in there anyways? is it tack welded or held in by plastic clips or something?

 

I'm not exactly sure if it's in gear or not. I haven't noticed one way or the other. I'll take note next time it does it though. Idle is buttery smooth now that it's been tuned by Dr. Kan. Thanks.

 

Kan........Dr. Kan.........Dr. Genghis Kan, esquire

 

I'm serious! Early '90's M3's had a oil sump starvation so bad BMW issued a recall on it. Hell, I could hear the timing chain & valve train rattle on my old E21 getting on freeway onramps. After too much rattline, the engine would start overheating causing all kinds of strange "running conditions." A quart or two of oil would help for another month or so I haven't built as many FD's as you Jeff (well, I've done zero, actually), so I can't really say what momentary oil starvation does do an FD.

As for the battery, some of these monster stereos can thump when the car's running purely off the alternator, and overload it to the point where the ECU will loose it's supply voltage. Dunno if 911GT2's got one of those though

 

Got any fuel press, boost, voltage, A/F ratio gauges? What did they do?

Notice any lights dimming? Tach zero out? A/C compressor kicking on?

How abrubt is the "flat out" death? A single smooth decelleration like someone killed the ignition, or is there a bit of sputtering? How does it "wake up"? Is that (not) smooth as well? I'd expect a bit of sputtering with a fuel delivery problem.

 

Try the ignition wiring see if it's tangled in somehting. I had a problem like that a few months ago. I would go to make a turn and my car would just stall. It came to find out the igniton wiring was tangled up in the R&P system.

 

Nope, stereo is stock touring Bose.

I have the PFC, so I have a voltage gauge, and a boost gauge. Voltage is fine the whole time, and boost drops as it normally would (or I guess climb, since it never happens under boost) to 0.

Lights stay on, tach is broken anyways, so yeah, it zeros out. A/C wasn't on, and never kicked in.

The motor dies as if I turned it off, no sputtering when dying or when restarting.

So I've basically ruled out battery and fuel problems right? Great, now its a wire chasing issue. woo fricken hoo. But everyone seems to thing if it is a wiring thing it's definitely ignition related? I'll take a look at that stuff tomorrow when it's light out, and let you know how it goes. Thanks everyone for the help, and keep it coming.