2004 Mountaineer stalling while driving

Just a guess ...

The ignition switch has wires that run down the steering column, when turning left, the wires are able to break momentarily and shut the engine down. The ignition switch provides electricity to the rest of the system, and if the right wire was being chaffed somehow, or stretched, then the electricity it provides can go away momentarily and kill the motor because the computer that needs the electricity goes dead.

I would suggest that the lost signal would post to the on board computer, even though there may not be a Check Engine light. You guys can go to AutoZone and they will pull the engine codes for you free of charge, and see if there are any codes that relate to lost power.

This is a much bigger longshot than Jeff's post, but bears telling even if just for its peculiarity. My father had a work car that started dying at a certain intersection. On realizing there was a huge number of power lines there, he speculated that he may have spark plug wires in bad enough shape that the magnetic field from the overhead lines could be interacting with them and causing the stall. At home, he started the car, popped the hood and wiggled and distorted spark plug wires till he found some that were failing, causing a miss. Whether his theory was the cause or a freakish coincidence, I don't know, but he replaced the wires and didn't have the problem again.

Regarding engine codes, my Chilton's manual for my truck lists all the codes and explains how to get the codes out of the computer yourself with a ohmmeter. Good luck.

Matt

On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:08:36 -0800, Matt rearranged some electrons to say:

Sounds like a coincidence to me. The far field from a power line would not be strong enough to interfere with your car. You cannot read OBD-2 codes with an ohmmeter. I guess your truck is pre-

I didn't know that; it's a '95. The Man's gotta keep us down.