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Forum namePerformance/Engine
Topic subjectCar dying randomly, advice appreciated.
Topic URLhttps://forums.2gnt.com/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=i5&topic_id=132623
132623, Car dying randomly, advice appreciated.
Posted by Midniteblack, Dec-10-10 02:49 PM
So here's the deal. When I bought my car about 3 years ago I had a problem with my car dying on me a few times while driving. I would still have power to all of my accessories and the car would eventually start back up and be fine. At the time I had an Intermittent loss of Camshaft Position Sensor or Crankshaft Position Sensor code.

I haven't had this problem at all with my car again till about a few weeks ago after I changed my head gasket (new plugs and wire were installed)and timing belt on my car. After I did my HG I have been having this problem with my car dying on me about every day. I checked my codes again and this time it was giving me a po340 (camshaft position sensor a- bank 1 circuit malfunction). I checked the harness with an ohm meter and it checked out ok but that obviously doesn't really mean it is. I changed the cam sensor and checked the codes again and now i'm back at the p1391(manufacturer control ignition system or misfire) code.

My guess is that somewhere in the harness there is a weak wire that I agitated by moving it around when I did my HG. I was just wondering if there is anything else I should look for or if you guys think it's probably just a wire in the harness? Thanks in advance guys!
132624, RE: Car dying randomly, advice appreciated.
Posted by Slo2g, Dec-10-10 03:19 PM
I had this problem too, changed the harness and it went away for a bit, but eventually came back. I ended up doing away with it from MSnS, so far so good.
132625, RE: Car dying randomly, advice appreciated.
Posted by Midniteblack, Dec-10-10 03:23 PM
excuse my #### question, but what is msns?
132626, RE: Car dying randomly, advice appreciated.
Posted by Slo2g, Dec-10-10 03:31 PM
Megasquirt and spark
132627, RE: Car dying randomly, advice appreciated.
Posted by RoninEclipse2G, Dec-10-10 05:33 PM
Megasquirt, it's a DIY standalone engine management system.

As far as your issue goes, double check the harness where it runs by the EGR pipe. Sometimes the pipe can get too hot and melt part of the harness causing odd intermittant shorts. If you didn't loctite the bolt holding the harness in place after doing the headgasket then the harness may have rubbed up against the hot EGR pipe.
132628, RE: Car dying randomly, advice appreciated.
Posted by doughboy23, Dec-10-10 06:01 PM
Originally posted by RoninEclipse2G
Megasquirt, it's a DIY standalone engine management system. As far as your issue goes, double check the harness where it runs by the EGR pipe. Sometimes the pipe can get too hot and melt part of the harness causing odd intermittant shorts. If you didn't loctite the bolt holding the harness in place after doing the headgasket then the harness may have rubbed up against the hot EGR pipe.



I too had this problem, Tracked it down to the wires running beside the egr valve melted it to bare wire. I replaced the section of melted wire and heat wrapped that whole section beside the pipe and no problem since then.
132629, RE: Car dying randomly, advice appreciated.
Posted by bullettdsm, Dec-11-10 02:17 AM
Originally posted by Midniteblack
My guess is that somewhere in the harness there is a weak wire that I agitated by moving it around when I did my HG. I was just wondering if there is anything else I should look for or if you guys think it's probably just a wire in the harness? Thanks in advance guys!

This^^ was my first inclination as well.

For "funnzies" you can pull the plug on the crank sensor and clean out any oil/crap that may have gotten in the plug. Then look at the wiring by the plug to see if any of that is cracked.
132633, RE: Car dying randomly, advice appreciated.
Posted by Midniteblack, Dec-11-10 01:18 PM
Thanks guys, i'll check the wires out and let you know how it turns out.
132634, RE: Car dying randomly, advice appreciated.
Posted by Slo2g, Dec-11-10 03:41 PM
Yeah, normally its the EGR tube melting the wires, the thing was with mine is that the egr tube had been off the car for over 2 years when my problem popped up. I still to this day don't have it narrowed down as to what exactly it was.
132649, RE: Car dying randomly, advice appreciated.
Posted by Midniteblack, Dec-11-10 10:49 PM
I haven't gone over my wires yet but I have been noticing a trend with my car dying though. It will die on me most of the time when I go to drive my car in the beginning of the day and typically within the first 10-15 minutes of running the car. Then after a while of driving my car I can feel pretty confident it won't die on me. Any ideas of why this may be? Maybe something to do with the resistance in the wires changing with the heat of the egr tube? I'm kinda stumped.