Mongoose123

There is a problem with my car, but I have no clue what it is. Cruising down the highway the other day about 60mph and the engine dies. Check engine light comes on and I coast to the side of the road. Turn the car off, recrank it, and drive on home. Get home, turn car off, crank it, car fires up strong, then dies instantly. Does this about three times. Finally, after hitting the accelerator while cranking it, it stays running for a moment. Then after a bit, it dies. Crank it back up and it runs, turn the headlights on, it dies instantly. Do this a few more times. Crank it up, runs, turn the AC on, dies instantly.

Today I go crank it up and it's idleling high, around 1200-1400 rpm. After I let it run for a few minutes, it gets a rough sound to it and the idle goes down a tad. Turn the headlights on, dies instantly. Crank it back up, let it idle, push the A/C button, dies instantly.

I put a tester to the battery and the altenator and they both showed strong readings.

What the hell? I haven't even had this damn thing a week yet!

Mongoose123

Bump.... anyone have a clue? Nice to know I just spent that much money on a 3,000lb paperweight.

RLaoFD

iTrader: (6)

Check if any hoses fell off. Make sure the hose on the MAP sensor is connected on both ends.

zack4173

iTrader: (3)

Its sounds to me like a bad ground somewhere. I would check all of the mojor grounding points on the engine, tranny, and especially the ecu ground.

CantGoStraight

What do you consider a "strong reading" ? with the volt meter hooked up to the battery, when you preform these tests what does the voltage do ? Can you give it gas and keep it running when you do these test ? It could be as simple as the TB load idle needs to be adjusted to a sensor failure telling the ECU to shut it down. Are you getting any codes (CEL) may not come on.

Mongoose123

Ok, you guys have to forgive me. This is my first performance car, and I'm not a mechanic. I've read about and wanted one of these for years and this is the reason that I tried to buy one that was in solid condition, so that I'd have time to learn about the car and get to know how to work on it through installing simple modifications and trial and error before having a major problem with it.

But, three days after getting it, I have a car that doesn't run. And I bought this thing from a board sponser.

I had someone else mention "grounds" to me when I told them about this. Only problem is, I don't know where the "grounds" are. Does stuff have to be pulled and removed to check them? Where is the MAP sensor?

CantgoStraight, the strong reading to me was when the tree on the little battery/alternator tester I used lit all the way up when I hooked it to the battery, and then showed a 14v charge after the car was cranked. Coud this be deceiving me? The lights were dim when this first started happening. It has a manual fan switch in it. The fan was running strong and smooth first couple days, but after this problem, the thing will barely run, like it's not getting enough power. I just don't understand. Battery problems I've had in the past with other vechicles always were first signaled by a very slow, weak crank. The car fires up fine, even if it goes dead immediately after. And it was actually idleling higher than it's suppossed to today before going dead.

I don't have the car here at my house at the moment because there isn't room in the garage right now. I will go look at it again tommorow and see if there are any visable wires or hoses loose. It feels kinda pointless though because I really wouldn't know where and what to look for if this was the problem.

Mongoose123

Another thing to add. The second day I had the car, I cranked it up and let it idle for a few minutes and then backed down the driveway. Well, as soon as I get to the bottom, I smell something burning and realize there is smoke in the cockpit. It was a plastic/rubber like smell. So I pull the thing back up the driveway and open the doors to let the smoke out and turn off the engine. I crank it back up and let it run for awhile and no more smoke. I turn it off and notice all the wires and stuff going to the turbo timer and boost controller and the little panel on the drivers side is lose. So I remove it and discover that two sets of wires which have been twisted together are naked where they are connected. I didn't see anything burned or anything, but assumed and hoped that this was where the smoke was coming from. So I got some electrical tape and wrapped the naked portions of the wires and put the panel back on. There was no more smoke or burning smell and the car ran fine for the rest of that day.

CantGoStraight

The grounds are fairly heavy cables that run from the motor to the chasis (body of the car). The fact that you had a wire shorted to the chassis for a short period of time could have blown a fuse and may be causing your problem. The short could have also caused a problem with the ECU. If you bought the car from a board sponsor, then I'm sure if you contacted that individual he would be more than willing to help you out or give you an idea of where to look (burnt plastic smelling smoke) can be wires melting or just the plastic that near by the wire that was getting hot. Being able to determine where it came from is half the battle (finding the bare wire) the other half is determining if it damaged anything else (which it appears) to have done. Since your new and plan on working on the car yourself, one of the biggest pieces of advise I can give you is to unhook the battery when working on this car. Voltage spikes can and have been known to damage sensors and or the ECU.