Randomly stopping (engine dies), gettin' mad Options

[kavo]

Well its been a long time since ive been on these forums (since I was a young dumb teenager looking to do sick mods )

anyway so my 6gc has been cutting out randomly with no warning. I will be driving along then the engine light comes on simultaneously as the engine cuts (all the other lights come on too) and I have to very quickly clutch to maintain as much momentum as possible and pull off the road. This has happened numerous places, on the way to gym, peak hour traffic and not even at the end of my driveway. THen I cannot start the car.

Sometimes I have just left it and came back several hours later and it starts fine, other times wriggle wires and itll run for 30 sec then wont for a few hours. Very frustrating as it has been a couple of weeks since it happened last, and when the car is running me and my dad (motor mech and diesel fitter by trade) cannot diagnose the problem.


Today when i was wriggling wires I pulled this plug, which has now disintegrated except for the actual connection. I will try and start it later but is this plug needed for the car to actually run?



anybody had similar problems with their car stopping like this? or knows what it is?

[Special_Edy]

I wonder if autozone can test the ignitor, they check most ignition modules. As for the voltage regulator, it shouldnt affect him at an idle. The engine needs to rev up to get above 15-16 volts. You can chack for voltage across the battery terminals and watch if it goes past 15 volts DC with the engine revved. Or just take it to the parts store and have them test the voltage regulator and the ripple.

I would be leaning towards a coil or the fuel pump

[hatchy_gt-s]

^ You need to chill BUT you are also correct a year & model would be helpful.

I wonder if autozone can test the ignitor, they check most ignition modules. As for the voltage regulator, it shouldnt affect him at an idle. The engine needs to rev up to get above 15-16 volts. You can chack for voltage across the battery terminals and watch if it goes past 15 volts DC with the engine revved. Or just take it to the parts store and have them test the voltage regulator and the ripple.

I would be leaning towards a coil or the fuel pump

Actually yes the voltage regulator will affect it, because if the volt reg is going bad it will stop flow from the alt. to the battery. I have seen this on many of cars as I work on them for a living, BUT that was me diading the ticking as I thought he was talking about the tick you get from a "dead" battery. Then again i've never heard an engine tick when its cranking except for bent valves or worn bearing.
Once again its not going to be the module itself that would cause an intermediate issue, but a wire causing a short to ground.
ALSO you have yet to check the fuel system.

An engine needs 3 things fuel, air, and compression to run.

1: Spark- First you want 2 start by checking that you have spark to the wires, an easy way is a screwdriver(sparkplug) at the end of the plug. If you dont have spark there you move to the coil plug, disconnect it and leave it just off the prong to allow the spark to jump. If no spark is there. Then you check the module, specs can be found in a chilton/haynes manual. If you dont have acces to one of these I would be more then happy to supply you with the info you need strait from toyota. P.S. If you have spark from coil but not 2 wires it's the cap/rotor

2: Fuel- Turn the key into the on possession, does the fuel pump turn on(it's a faint winding noise), If it does not go to the fuse box check to see if the fuse is blown, if not take your multi meter and check for 12v. If you have 12v move on to the fuel pump relay and check it for voltage. If 12v is there then you move on to the pump, does the pump have 12v. If the pump is in order then move on to you fuel rail. Crank the motor and use a fuel pressure gauge to check for fuel pressure(can be found in chilton/haynes). If it is LOW this can cause an inop of you injectors ability to pump fuel, if fuel pressure is correct move on to the injectors. Take a test light(noid light) and plug it into the injector and check for pulse width modulation by cranking the motor, if the light flashes repetitively then you Injectors are working.

3: Compression- Use a compression gauge to check for adequate psi.

If you have a bad or shorting sensor this will only affect spark, the fuel system is its own system and will only be affected by it own parts.
BTW I hade the same issue and fried 3 modules until I found out that my wiring loom was touching my egr tube causing the mod to short out. Thats the difference of thinking it and KNOWING IT

This post has been edited by hatchy_gt-s: Apr 26, 2012 - 1:08 PM