House Party 4

My 00' Tiburon is pretty much being a jerk. No backyard mechanics have been able to fix it, and man I really don't want to take it to the dealer for a couple of reasons.

It stalls totally at random; without warning and without a trend so I can predict when it's coming. It's just the same as if you turned the key to "off". I can be doing 100 on the highway, or pulling out of my driveway. It doesn't discriminate. I can usually smell a rotten fuel odour every time it fails, and there is no sputtering or shaking.

The weirder part is, sometimes it doesn't just outright stall. Sometimes it will act like I have zero control over the engine. RPMs begin to fall and the engine goes quiet, but stays running. Depending on what gear I'm in, it can bring the car to an abrupt halt. Then it snaps out of it, and I'm thrown back in my seat as the car remembers what the f*** it's supposed to be doing...DRIVING.

So far, these shenanigans have led me to;

-install new plugs
-install new plug wires
-install new ignition coil
-install new throttle position sensor
-install new crank position sensor
-inspect the fuel pump for issues, none found
-swear a lot and damn near cause accidents

The last thing on this f***ing list is to get a new ECU. I'm at my f***ing wit's end. Is this even the direction I should be going in? Could it be an ignition switch issue or something else? Has anyone been here before?

Thanks...

Bullfrog

Is your MAF sensor on the correct direction?

radu_rd2

^ lol, yeah that must be it nana.gif

Sounds like an electrical problem to me.. either some power wire to the ecu, or perhaps a spark wire from the ecu, or as you said the ECU itself.

You can try using an OBD2 reader: keep it connected while you're driving. If when the engine stops the ECU disconnects from the reader, it's probably a power/ignition wire to the ecu. If it doesn't it's probably a wire that controls the sparking (since you smell fuel). You can still read sensor data with OBD2 and see if anything looks off..

It could be a bad ECU either way though. Pretty strange and hard to diagnose problem.. i would try to drive as little as possible until it's fixed though

REDZMAN

First, you shouldn't be doing 100 on the highway.

Second, see if you can reproduce it. Does it happen when cold, or when warm? Does it happen when you shift?

Sounds familiar to the problem we had with my old RD1. The gas pedal arm, at the top, was hitting the ECU wiring harness and had ate through a few wires. This lead to them getting touched together and shorting out, killing the engine. I'd get an intermittant code for CKP sensor, because the wiring affected went to that. After a friend fixed the wiring, and moved it away with some zip ties, problem went away for good.

bass_killz

Do you have an aftermarket fuel pump? I have a 255lph fuel pump , and the little filter at the end of it sits a little higher then the stock one. Because of this its not picking up the fuel at the bottom on the tank which I think is a good thing, but on the other hand if im low on gas and try to go around a corner or something Ill loose pressure and stall. Then some times when I go to restart it it will build up to much pressure and I have to drain the line before it will start. I also get a bad fuel smell when this happens.

House Party 4

Sorry, I should have welcomed you to Canada, where we measure speed in KPH and meat by the kilogram. smile.gif

And the problem is totally random. Wet weather, cold weather, hot dry weather; it happens with the same frequency and at no particular stage of driving. Like I said, it doesn't limit itself to shifting, breaking, reversing, declutching, turning... No aftermarket parts at all.

I'll look into the chaffed wires problem. I'll also see if I can weasel my way into getting an ODB reader. Thanks so far!

Jmans

My money is going on the intermittent wiring issue. The one time my car would randomly die was when my secondary 02 sensor wire had melted and was shorting against the exhaust. Took me forever to figure that out. I'm betting something fishy is going on with your wiring. Is it possible to get the car sitting at idle and jiggle wires around till it dies?

House Party 4

Nothing obviously fishy going on overhead the pedals for wire chaffing at least. I guess I start the process of jiggling engine bay wires... Thanks!

Should I get a bucket of salt water and stand in it while I'm doing this?

Jmans

That's the preferred method, but standard distilled water works just as well.

REDZMAN

Did you actually get under the dash looking up, and actuate all of the pedals through their entire range of motion?

Just checking mang.