HELP! Car shuts off when driving!
 

I'm really pissed right now so I'm rage posting rather then rationally researching. I need help.

My car has been sitting for a few days and I've already been having issues with the battery but w/e it starts if I park it in the garage and always runs fine.

Last night I tided some wiring and installed my new HID kit.

I drove the car this morning(probably 2 miles total), no issues. Even ran with the headlights on to see them in reflections. The car has been parked for probably 8 hours or so in a garage so only around 45 degrees (Fahrenheit).

I go to leave it fires up. Sweet. I'm driving down the street and its really jerky. I notice if I'm not aggressively on the throttle the wideband shows full lean. "Weird maybe it will clear up when it warms up", I think. It doesn't.

I get like half a mile from my house and it shuts off. Drop the clutch, nothing. Try to crank, nothing. It's making the clicking noises like when you try to start a car with a dead battery.

I just moved some vvt wires last night and if one came loose that could explain the not firing. climb under dash, everything in order. Get under hood, no visible damage. Check battery, no shorts. Ok….maybe the HID's. Pull the fuse that powers them. No luck.

Now I'm pissed. I've called my dad and he gets there. We jump the car, starts right up. I get almost home, car dies. Jump it again, get to my driveway (less then 100yards) dies again.

Now I'm furious, the battery is less then 2 months old. Unless my alternator is bad I have no idea whats causing this. I checked the voltage on the battery and its only 12.36v. I'd take my car to get the alternator tested but I'm afraid I won't make it. I don't feel like jumping it anymore tonight to see if the voltage changes when its running.

So any suggestions other then alternator? Blown fuse? I f*cked up some wiring somewhere?

Thanks
Patrick

Last time a thread like this popped up it was intermittent shorts to ground from a worn wiring harness. All those wires running around the back and through the intake manifold are succeptible. Time for a good, hard look with a strong light.

I have a list of shit that either caused this on my car or was suspect.
Not being able to start again sounds like a main power wire or heavy ground is loose. Battery terminals, starter terminal, etc

Less likely because of the no start condition
main relay
cps wires kind of loose in connector
coil terminals loose in connector
sensor ground loose
dead cam sensor, they're heat sensitive will work fine until hot then shit

If it restarts again after sitting for 2 minutes fine
fuel pump relay ate itself and nuked the connector

But it sounds like a loose main power connection.

Thanks for the replies. I've had intermittent issues before. Like I'll be driving all the gauges would drop but immediately turn back on.

I'm ripping the car apart and re-wiring everything tomorrow. No more sh*tty wiring for me.

Had an intermittent similar instance happen to me years ago. I found that it would only cut out on left turns for some reason. Happened one time and everything completely died, and instead of coming back on within a few seconds, it just stayed dead. Somehow the electrical shorted pre-fuse block. Thank God it didn't cause a fire. It instantly fried the battery. It was probably a very bad idea to open the trunk, but I knew the battery had carpet over it. when I touched the battery through the carpet, it was hot. That battery no workey after that.

I never found an actual short, traced the power wire as well as I could through the chassis to the fuse block. Never had the problem again though.

Maybe it wasn't the wiring; maybe the battery had an internal issue? I'll never know. It's been probably 8 years since I've had the problem with this car.

I had something similar to this happen.

It turned out to just be a good amount of oil on the grounds near the brake booster. Since cleaning it up thoroughly, my car hasn't had any issues.

Went through all the wiring. Tidied, soldered, etc. Everything seemed in order and I had the battery on a charger for a day. Fired it up, seemed alright. Later I fired it up again to take it around the block. Immediately dies. Turns out it was the relays I installed to power the HID's they aren't necessary. I removed them and its fine now. However the car is running rich at idle now so I have to look into that.

I think your car is upset that you spent money on HIDs when you could have applied the money to real go-faster parts. ;)

These eyes..(ba da, bup buh ba), are cryin...(ba da, bup buh ba), these eyes have seen another car, but they've never seen another one with as many problems as youuuu...(woo woo woo woooo), these eyes...arrr-rrr cryin...

They were a gift from my sister. I may or may not have just received and placed orders for more go fast parts…

Thirdgen, I was raging so hard. Was going to text you but instead I just threw stuff around my garage.