My car quit... but only temporarily?
 

On my way out this morning, the Miata just up and died not far from my house. There was no sputtering, no hesitation, it just went dead (the tach went dead too, not sure if that's an important clue). I tried in vain to start it, and it spun over just fine, but it wouldn't catch. Checked under the hood and couldn't find anything obviously loose. Didn't have any tools, and I was just stuck beside the road. Luckily, a nice old dude showed up with a rope and towed me back to the house. When we got back, I tried to start the car again... it fired right up and I drove it back into the garage. WTF???

I haven't had a chance to look into this yet, but are there any preliminary theories out there? Do I have a CAS going bad? Seems to be running fine now, so I can't very well fix it if ain't broke... dammit.

I think that would be a good place to start the diagnosis.

Is there a way to test it or do I just "prug and pray" with a known good one?

Running megasquirt? The composite logger might help next time it stops working. Otherwise I believe solution is to 'plug n pray'.

Yep I'm on MS1... I'll keep that in mind but in the meantime I'll try and Easter-egg it if I can find another CAS. Worth it to keep the thing on the road while the weather's nice.

Next time it happens, check if you can hear the fuel pump relay when you first switch the ignition on.

If you can hear it click, then the ECU has power etc.

Then crank. If you can't hear the fuel pump relay click again, then more likely than not, its the CAS.

I think I have like 5 CASs in a box in my garage. I will trade you one CAS and a blue WB gauge for a red gauge.

I need to learn how to read a composite logger.

I always carry a fuse to jump the fuel pump relay. This saved me at the track once.

Deal. Name the time and place and I'll buy you a beer and a pork belly sammich.

IAT. Sounds like a sensor is getting to hot, my guess is intake air temp if you are running one.

Come to Lewisville, or meet me at that bar off Coit in Plano where I met up with you gays a few months ago.

miataturbo.grindr.com