What's the most common.. or uncommon reasons for a car to just completely shut off by itself while (somewhat) happily going down the road?

As in, I'm driving down the road like normal then all of a sudden... the car just turns off as if I had just turned the ignition key.. that fast that complete.. the "idiot lights" don't come on for at least 5 seconds after the car has shut off.

Another thing that happened today on my way home from work; only the electrically run will completely shut off for 10 seconds but yet my engine will still run, and then the electricity will return. Then about 10 minutes later it tried to do such again, but this time the engine attempted to stop as well, so I "tapped" the gas pedal ever so bit more than what I had my foot resting at (since a second before i was roaming down the road as a normal vehicle would) and everything came back up after a small backfire... I wasn't varying my speed/ shifting/running the ventfan/wipers nothing in either instance.

Heeeeellllllpppp. Thanks!!

 

damn. that sounds weird. i would have to say GRIMLINS! the first thing i would check is the middle fusable link connections. other than that it's gotta be electrical.

oh yeah, nice to see you on here.

 

My guess would be a loose connection in one of the fuseable links, or an issue with the trailing ignitor? The problem is, an electrical problem on these cars could be caused by an improperly torqued lug nut, or not having your gas cap on right. Hell, if your neighbors dog farts it could make your electrical do weird things.
Sorry, I'm just a bit bitter from some of my own current electrical problems.

 

Check alternator and belts. My 83 GSL was doing the same thing. Turns out that because of the recent hot weather, and me replacing the alternator belt during winter, the belt had stretched out and my car would die as the belt would slip. I thought it was my battery at first, but it ended up being that belt. I am with kettleman in checking the fusible links also because one of my friends toyota truck did the same thing off and on and it just turned out to be a bad fusible link connection. Check your grounds also. Unfortunately with older cars, electrical problems are harder to diagnose and fixing one problem usualy ends up making another. Gremlins for sure kettleman!

 

Hmm, I like the gremlins... though..I thought Gizmo was good at fixing things! :P Oh wait.. he was one of the "good' ones :P

I've checked all the belts and they seem to be ok.. I'll check all the links suggested.. Maybe it's just my alternator just going haywire since I was having problems with it not seeming to want to keep things going enough to send very much of a charge to my battery (the gauge would drop heavily from ~13 to 12 after using something electrical (rolling my window, using the turn signal, the fan, odd things like that ;P) and then through my normal in town driving it'd take it about a week to get the gauge back up to 13. Unless I went on a good stretch of highway then it went right back up after a day or so. Yes Kettleman I know the things Lie but still!

So it was thought I should get a new alternator, but somehow I never got my hands on one, then for some reason the past 3 weeks I haven't had a problem and they alternator seemed to be finally working as it should.. my voltage meter going right back up to ~13 as it would normally do in a "normal" car, even if i had my turnsignal, brake, headlights and i was rolling down the window, after they were turned off it'd go right back up.. Then this stuff started happening.. *sigh*

Thanks for the suggestion... If you think of any more Let me know! (I'll see if this current one might do it :P)

 

12 to 13 is within normal range (12.6 I believe is standard). Mine was hopping between 7-13 and sometimes lower than that. A normal healthy charging system should have between 13 -15V. Just go get an electrical test, they are free at most auto shops and parts stores.

 

The three fusable links on the driver's strut tower show continuity. I only found one fusable link in the steering column, whereas the haynes manual states there are two. While looking through all the electrical I have also found some more items that I need to be put to rest.

First of all the schematics in the Haynes repair manual suck, so I am going to ask for assisance here
A and B are connections from the steering colum
B, C, D, E are all connections near the fusebox
F is near the back part of the radio

A) The only fusable link that I found.

B) B-M2 is connected to B-M4 via a red wire with yellow stripe
B-M1 is a Black wire
B-M3 is a Red wire with Black stripe
B-F1 and B-F3 are null (no wire)
B-F2 is a Black wire
B-F4 is a Black wire with a Red stripe
when the male and females ends are connected B-M1 and B-F2 are connected, and B-M3 and B-F4 are connected

C) (This uses the same connection as the female end of picture B, convert B-F1 to C-F1, B-F2 to C-F2, etc)
This is kind of wierd... C-F1 is connected to C-F4 via what looks like a bent paper clip
C-F1 is a Green wire
C-F2 is 2 Black wires
C-F3 is a Green wire with a Blue stripe
C-F4 is a White wire

D) This one is unconnected (Sounds like some kind of audio connection?)
1 is 2 Black wires
2 is a Blue wire with a Red stripe
3 is a Blue wire with a White stripe
4 is a Black wire with a Red stripe
E) Is what looks like a tube-shaped fuse holder, one end is Orange, the other is Yellow... there is no fuse in it so they are not connected

F) Uses the same style connection as the actual fusable link itself in picture A, they are both unconnected. One is a Black wire with a Red stripe the other is a Black wire with a Yellow stripe

 

Looks like C is the Stop Light Checker. D is the choke control.
E looks like it might be for the rear window refroster... but i have no idea.
F is there looking pretty still....

 

if you can get it to the next izzys meet im sure we coudl all take a look at it there

 

It should be able to get there. She normally uses it as a daily driver since before this it was reliable and the like.

 

I just got new fusable links to try and see if that was it... its not them, i cleaned all the connections for there too....
On wednesday it died 7 times just going from oly, to the lacey cinemas and back (4 there, 3 on the way back)...

 

another idea. try swapping the ignitors around. they are the same ones, but you don't always need the trailing. if the leading is going bad it might stop the spark for a few. if the trailing is bad and stops spark, who cares.

 

i had an odd problem similar id hit a bump and my ignition would cut out ( like turning key off)then id hit another and it would come back on,

and it turned out someone cut the fat ignition wire near the battery and had a butt conector in there, but it got wet and coroded really bad, then came loose and started falling apart.

 

I checked the ignition wire to the battery and the only corrosion is right of the ignition block/switch but then i cleaned that up.
Also, another thing i just realized is that is atmospheric heat sensitive. Like when she is driving to work (7:30-8am) it wont cut out, but on her way home (5-30-6pm) it would.
Later going to check the ignitors, and the timing (although i doubt its the timing... i'm borrowing a timing light so i'm just going to check it anyways).

 

I just recently had a stalling problem with my 85 12A Rx7. I had been noticing that my tachometer when i drove at between about 2k and 4k rpm, that the needle would bounce, and when i got to about 3.5k to 4k, it would catch and the tach would no longer bounce. Well as i was doing a delivery at work (DOMINO'S PIZZA), i noticed my tach appeared to lose power, but i noticed no problem with the workings of my engine. After i got back to the store, i picked up two more orders and headed out the door, i made it about 2 blocks, and right before the light, I started to lose power, my tach was reading 0, and i coasted to a safe place, I would turn my car over after letting it sit for a few minutes, it would turn over, and would start, then would die after about 3 seconds. I had my car towed to a friends house. I called my mechanic in the morning, and they got back to me, told me it sounded like my primary ignitor died. They told me to test it, to look for the little black boxes on the Distributer, take the two connecters and switch them to see if that would work. I switched the wires, and my car came back to life. You only need the 2 primary spark plugs to run, the secondary's help burn unburned fuel, and help with emmisions. I went to my mechanic picked up a used ignitor for $75 (a new one runs at schucks minimum $150 if not over $220. I threw that in, added new MSD Blaster 2 Ignition Coils ($100), and i'm now enjoying the new horsepower gains, better fuel economy, and of course, better emmisions! So try something as simple as swapping your ignitor wires. (the primary is located closest to the carb, the secondary is closest to the radiator. Thanks and I hope this information is useful.

 

Well I switched the coils around, then it overheated when it was being warmed up last night. I checked the levels of everything this morning and they seemed okay, so I fired it up again and it was ok, smoked both start-ups (but its cold, and the coolant leaks a little [need new radiator and hoses]). It warmed up like normal. Then I let it idle for 20or so mins and it didn't die... I kept varing the rpm for another few mins and it was just fine. Then I disconnected the mystery wire (was a wire hooked up to the choke temp sensor to the leading postive coil). Switched the ignitors around. Fired it up again, let it re-warm up (was sitting for 2 or so hours), and it idled there for 20 mins just fine. So we will see when its driven if that stuff is bad. I'd check it myself, but I don't know stick well enough (read: i only driven stick once and out of 10-15 launches I only did it successfully 2-3 times [i need to give it more gas methinks]). So I'll keep everyone updated, and thanks for the help.

 

Tried driving it yesterday, and the voltage was dropping to around 8 just going through the parking lot so that was the end of the test before anything else major happened.

So I just replaced my alternator too see if that would do anything. just too see if the voltage regulator was being dumb and killing the connecton or whatever, plus the replacement looks better and has no rust on the pulley. It stilled died when I was trying to warm up... just quit (it has been doing that every time i try warming it up... about 3 mins into the warming up). Testing the new alternator I was going to turn everything on: wipers (front/back), ac/fan, head lights, radio, hazard...
well the blinkers, radio, and headlights work... but the ac, wipers, the windshield washer pump/nozzle thing that shoots the stuff at your windshield (both front and back) don't work. These all worked before...

 

Well all the stuff works again... like the ac/wipers/etc going to take it on a road test later today see if it keeps dieing.
I just went through the fuses and replaced the bad one to the back hatch release. Now that works, I swear it wasn't blown last time I looked at it.
Then looked over all the wiring behind the radio and made sure everything was okay. Turned the car back on then magically everything that was dead worked again.
This car is really confusing me...

 

Okay, the ignitors and coils are switched around fine etc... the car worked well for a weekend. Now its going back to the cutting out. I looked at all the wiring I could and can't find anything. Few things though... in the haynes manual.. by/part of the cruise-control unit there is a "kick-down switch" whats that connected to? (picture f)
Also part of the choke and check relay goes to the alternator, if that relay is bad would it cause the vehicle to cut out as well?

 

Long overdue, and I apologize.
Shout-out and a big thank-you to Kettlman for coming over and looking at it.


It was the ignition switch not connecting properly and he bend the spring and its just fine now. Sooo yeah. Thanks again and mystickat is enjoying her car as a DD again albeit there are more electrical problems, but those I can fix.