Car randomly shut off whilst driving

Mark

Mark

Active member
Like the title says, I was happily driving down forest ave when the whole car shut down on me, like a stall but without the whiplash. turned right back on no problem but the RPMs then dropped and it stalled again. i turned it BACK on and blipped the throttle, keeping the RPMs up and it drove back home. Did the exact same thing this morning from point A to point B, but from point B to point C it was fine - i purposely kept the RPMs high by blipping it at red lights and drove a gear lower on the highway.

is this my alternator?

any other possibilities? i'm not terribly against bringing it into a shop, i just don't want to pay for diagnostics if i can find out what it is easily and fix it easily.

on a related note - is changing an alternator as easy as it looks? 2 bolts, 2 plugs, 1 belt?

 
k, now the car's sitting behind my work because it didn't make it down the street. i'm popping the alternator out tomorrow and getting it tested. before that though im going to try to isoheet, i filled up at a station 100 feet from my work when i was on completely empty, parked it, and have had this problem ever since. is it possible to have such severe issues with bad gas?

 
Ok this is the same thing that happend to my car when my fuel filter decided to blow itself apart inside of my tank. Do you own an STI? Is it a 04-2007 year? If so I would bet $100 your fuel filter crapped the bed. There is two other guys on iwsti with the same year sti as mine that ended up being the same thing as what happend to mine. Car was running fine then Bam just turned off. No bucking or anything. Then I cracked again ran it for a sec and only way I could keep it crank was keeping the RPM's up.

 
also i already have my back seat out...i just happen to have a short block sitting in my trunk at the moment.

 
Airflow sensor? My 97 used to run like that when I had unplugged the MAF and forgot ... then I couldn't figure out what was wrong
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IT would start, run for a few seconds, then die out unless I kept on the gas.

 
this might be somewhat temp related. if i let it sit for 10 minutes, it will stay on longer than if i let it sit for 2 minutes.

looks like i'll be getting it looked it. problem is, the only place nearby that i can get it towed to is VIP.. what do i do...

 
I highly doubt its the alternator, otherwise your battery would be dead after it stalled and you wouldn't be able to start it back up. Try unplugging the airflow sensor and starting it and see if it's any different.

 
ruled out alternator, radio/headlights stayed on for 10 minutes after without dimming.

moving on to fuel issues i think. is there a fuel filter else where besides attached to the fuel pump?

 
i'd be checking the maf sensor cause i fuel filter wouldn't let you rev it if its plugged its plugged

 
k, changed the fuel filter anyway, it was only 13 bucks.

good news, it ran 10 minutes with MAF unplugged without issue (still a rough idle but always has had one).

plugged in MAF again it ran for 3 minutes then sputtered out

 
anything to worry about except atrocious gas mileage limping the car home with the MAF unplugged?

 
cliff notes:

New fuel filter

While in idle, car runs for 3-4 minutes then sputters out. it might catch itself once but it dies within the 3-4 minutes everytime.

Starts back up fine, but has same issue, same 3-4 minutes

Unplug MAF and it runs in limp very rich and doesn't shut off. Idle is rough but a) it's in limp mode and
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it's always had a rough idle

I somewhat understand what the MAF situation means but not enough to draw definite conclusions

 
Borrow a MAF from someone and see if it makes a difference. That will tell you if the MAF is the problem or not.

 
i cleaned it out a bit, gonna do it with maf cleaner today. it made it home fine last night with maf plugged in. i need a stock air box asap. i think the cheap cone filter is letting too much crap thru

 
k, still need help.

used some MAF/elec parts cleaner on the MAF directly. Welp, still stalls out after 3-4 minutes. The stall out is random too. Sometimes it sputters out and tries to catch itself, like it's a fuel starvation issue, and then this morning, it was just a clean cut off, like someone turned the key. i'm going to hopefully get the codes read today. i limped it into work, it runs "fine" with the MAF unplugged. Obviously it still runs like ****, but it's expected without the MAF.

 
not at the moment, but given that it has continued to work in limp mode wouldn't this point more to an electrical issue with fuel delivery, and less with the mechanical side of fuel delivery?

 
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