Help!! Car problems!

[Electric Amish]

Strangest thing. Driving into work today the motor just died. I pull over. Check under the hood. I don't see any busted belts or hoses.

I get back in and it starts right back up. So, I drive for a few more minutes and boom, it cuts out again. I pull over. It starts right back up.

So, I do this the last few miles to work. Drive for a few minutes, pull-over and start again.

So, anybody have any ideas what would cause this? No idiot lights came on. All the gauges read normal. It has almost a full tank of gas.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

tia

amish

 

[Migroo]

Hmm...

It could be a number of things...

- No spark - check the plugs
- No fuel mix - check this (i'm not sure how)
- Belts (you say you have checked these)

What car is it?

 

[CraigRT]

I had this problem with my car.. exactly the same thing happening..

Turns out in my situation, it was a frayed coil wire flapping in the wind, and when it got knocked the right way, all the ignition spark would be lost.
- The coil wire is the main wire going into the middle of the distributor providing the ignition power for all of the spark plugs. Really shouldn't have let the wire get that old, they usually last a pretty long time, but this one was REALLY shot... very strange indeed.. my guess as it was original part, or very old anyways... (the car was an '88 in - had the problem in 2000)

$15 part and the car ran perfect afterwards...

 

[Electric Amish]

'94 Ford Probe GT

If it was a belt, it probably wouldn't have resarted and ran, I wouldn't think...

The only one I can't see is the Timing belt. That was just changed a year ago.

amish

 

[Doggiedog]

Did you warm up your car sufficiently?

I'm not a car expert but my brand new Subaru in 92 would always stall if I didn't warm it up for about 15 mins in the winter. My old VW GTI was also the same way.

 

[Electric Amish]

It had been running for ~10 miles and 20 minutes prior to anything happening.

amish

 

[Pepsi90919]

Scan the computer for codes anyway, not all problems will cause the check engine light to come on.

 

[Slap]

This happened in my mother-in-law's Accord. Turned out her key ring was to heavy and caused the switch to go bad and it would cut itself off while going down the road.

 

[MajesticMoose]

we had a similar problem with one of our work trucks. It turned out to be a bad ignition coil. Get that checked first. I don't see how this could be a timing problem. if the belt broke it seems that the engine would stop(and not start again) or detonate a piston.

but yeah, definitely get the coil checked out. As I remember it was a good bit more than yield said (~75), but i could very well be wrong about it. If that turns out to be what's wrong Its a very easy thing to fix. the one i changed had two bolts and two wires. the only thing is that you have to be sure that its the same size because i didn't realize that it wasn't and snapped off two bolts putting in on.

good luck,
m00se

 

[Migroo]

<< This happened in my mother-in-law's Accord. Turned out her key ring was to heavy and caused the switch to go bad and it would cut itself off while going down the road. >>



WOW! Thats a new one on me!

Back to Amish's problem. I'd go with what Yield said. Losing the spark is what could cause it to die.

Check these: Battery, alternator (should be fine as it starts up regularly), distributor, HT leads, plugs.

 

[Illusio]

may sounds stupid, but check to make sure you have coolant in there and that the car is just not overheating...hey, happened to my sister..

 

[sphinctor]

This probably isn't your problem, but it could be something to check...
Several years ago I was driving from Ohio to California, and my engine died on me somewhere in the middle of Wyoming. I was able to start it up right away as well. It did this a few times. Luckily, I was able to get to an exit and get off the highway. Well, it ended up dieing completely right in front of a junkyard. The guy in there went out of his way to help. Turned out the fuel pump went bad. An hour and a half and $100.00 later, I was back on the road to finish my trip.

Like I said, this may not be your problem, but it's something to check.
Good luck with your troubleshooting!

 

Fuel pump?