Re: Car dies whenever it wants to

Can you repost info on what these codes mean?

I used to have this problem on an entirely different make (Nissan) of vehicle. Turned out to be a corroded wire near the main fuses coming off the battery. Also had this problem on a 86 Lincoln Town Car and it turned out to be a bad pick-up coil in the distributor. It was sending the correct fault code for the bad part which made it easy to find.

I know this probably irrelevant to your problem but its a couple more things to take a look at.

Just goes dead. Used to be that it was every day or so, but yesterday, it wouldn't even make it out of the garage. I have changed out the TFI module, but no change in the outcome. I have begun to think fuel, rather than fire. I have been hesitant to think this because of what has been replaced (fuel pump and filter). I need to add that the tach does drop of when this happens. If at an idle, about as fast as a lack of fuel stall. At 70mph, drops off real quick, will hit zero in about

1/4 second. Wiring problems are also on my mind, but I have been through most of it. Other than what goes through the firewall, everything has been checked. Same with vacuum hoses. I know that there is the possibility of getting bad parts, but the codes don't lead to this. Two other things I have thought of, bad ignition switch (the recall was for TFI unit, but I don't know how to check a bad Ign. switch) or a bad clutch/start switch.

This is a Maryland car, not California, which makes it a pain to smog, if that helps. Steve

Rico wrote:

you are looking for a wobbly main shaft...if it is real bad you may be able to feel it if you take the cap off and wiggle it back an dforth. there should be no free play,'

have a 93 taurus that last august, abot 1nc a week, would essentially die for 5 seconds at a time...then continue running. only in hot weather it seems, but it was hot in july and september too...would happen at 70 or idel (would die at idle, would run again if driving

70)

replaced some parts, tested others, tried known good used prats off a friends car. problem resolved itself about sept 10 or so....odd.

chris

Crispy

Life is hard. Life is harder when you're stupid.

Chris is right... or the pickup is flaky.. may not be the distributor itself.

The tach dropping off is the flag.

Coils dont act like that... so, if it isnt the ign switch, it's almost certain the pickup.

USUALLY the ignition switch gets really warm if it's the culprit.

Just get the whole distributor from a salvage yard, check shaft for side play

This may not apply in your case, but it sounded similar enough to post about. I had an 89 Crown Vic that would do basically the same thing. I'd be riding down the road, and it was like you just shut the engine off. Then there were times I would turn the key in my driveway and nothing would happen. Took it to three different shops, all gave up on it. Mentioned it to a backyard mechanic friend of mine. He popped the hood and identified the trouble within 2 minutes. One of the big electrical connectors (the round one with about 12 connector pins inside) had become corroded. Bought some battery terminal cleaner, cleaned it out really good, and never had that problem again. You said you had checked all of the wiring, but I thought I'd throw it out for consideration.