Well I have a 99 elcipse rs and I am having a huge problem with the car. I had the head removed to install my crower springs,retainers and cams. I also had installed my aem tru time gears but I had a problem with my compression. I had to remove the cams due to the fact that my valves need to be redone. The car ran great after I installed the oem cams back in with the tru time gears and springs and retainers.

About two months later, I was driving down the road and the car just lost all power as if I turned the key off. I coasted into a parking lot and i could not get the car started at all. I replaced the crank sensor and the cam sensor as well as the map sensor. I even replaced my coil pack and plugs. I still could not figure it out. Then I found that the car had lost some timing some how. Fixed the timing and I got it to run but it ran horrible. I got it to the dealership and they told me that my ECU was dead. They wanted to replace my ecu and then my IAC (idle air control) as well, they said it would directly cause the ECU to go bad.

well I had got those replaced and the car ran fine afterward.

I drove the car for about a month then I was backing down my driveway and I made a left turn and the car died again. I could not get it started for the life of me. I trailered it to a shop and he started by looking at all my grounds on my harness. He cleaned them and told me they are all good. He didnt understand why I get good voltage from my sensors one second and then I get 0 the next. So he started shaking the engine harness and he could not find a problem. He sugessted to me that I get a used engine harness and try replacing it. I talked with a guy on DSMTUNERS.com and he has one he can get me. So when it comes in i plan on replacing it. I hope this works becuase I have no other options.

I'm open to suggestions

Did your temp gauge needle go all the way up. Our cars does shut down automatice when water pump or timing goes. It happend to me with both and I was very lucky valves where good it just skipped a tooth.

The timing did skip a tooth and made it run like crap, but i had fixed that. The car never shut off when the timing was off. also it wouldn't run for awhile then just automatically shut off while driving. Then I would not be able to start it for days if not months. So i would get tired of dealing with it and I would put it on a trailer and take it to a garage. As soon as I push it off the trailer and show the guy that it wont start, it starts right up. I dont get it. I do have bad motor mounts and I think its pulling the harness stretching the wires causing a possible broken wire.

It only dies when im in reverse turning left. than i would have to push it back into my driveway and then it will not start.

I'm sure the timing is spot on now.

Btw How does the timing belt skip a tooth when i had installed it correctly?

best guess is you have an electrical short somewhere. Try and log it while going into reverse and turning left, see what dies first (0 volts)

I think what im going to do is replace this harness first and if I still have issues I will end up looking into it more. I will keep you posted.

Ok guys, here is an update on whats going on now. We inspected wire harness on the car and found nothing shorting or any broken wires. We never installed the new/used wire harness I bought. I got the car stated but it ran like shit. We exhuasted all our options that we could do in that shop. Everything pointed to an ECU. I broke down and called a scrap yard about picking up an ECU. I got an ECU from a 98 eclipse and I installed it on the car.

I tried starting the car and I got nothing. Come to find out that I had a bad battery. I replaced that and started the car. It started like nothing was wrong with it. I took the car for a ride and everything worked great no problems.

I was driving it and allowing the torque to pull me up to speed and the RPM dropped off. It was at 2,000 RPM. Once I saw it drop off I let out of the pedal, then RPM's resumed normally. I got back to the parking lot and started to back into my spot. Then the car completely died with out having the wheel turned. The car started back up just fine and then I put it into reverse, stared backing up again and it died. I repeated this process one more time before I was completely in the spot.


I think maybe something is shorting in the trans causing me to burn out my ECU. Yes I do mean ECU not TCU. The reason I suspect my ECU is frying becuase I have replaced it twice with known good ECU's. They go bad shortly after install.


So tomorrow with a still good ECU I plan on taking it to the dealership to get it looked at again. This is becoming a huge pain in my ass. I'm welcome to suggestions.

I had the same issue with the car just shutting off. I went through countless sensors and a couple ECU's. iGot sick of it so i went with megasquirt lol

One thing you can check if you havent..replace ALL the fuses. I found out my car was stalling randomly back in the day from a faulty fuse. The fuel pump fuse was cracked and would sometime not make a good connection causing the fuel pump to cut off sometimes.

I could understand stalling but my car electricaly dies. It only happens when I start moving in reverse.

Over twenty years ago I had a similar problem and it was related to a bad switch in the transmission shorting out when I put the car in reverse. Different car, similar problem. I was pretty ticked off since it happened as I was backing out of my parking place at the dealer after having the car serviced. It seemed too coincidental but that is how it is with parts failures sometimes.

I did drop the car off at a transmission place. They are going to take a look at it and give me a call. I will keep you updated.

Was the wire harness, near the EGR valve piping checked?

Originally posted by EAGLE192
Was the wire harness, near the EGR valve piping checked?

Very good call, any of the wiring from the coil, cam sensor, egr, all loom into a bunch right near the burning hot EGR pipe. Scope them out extra good.

Jeff.

That great information. I know that I had the shop who was looking at it before inspect the wire harness for damage. He told me he didn't find anything "smoking gun". The only thing I dont understand is why it would only affect reverse. That why I decided to take the car to the trans shop. They told me they would look at the entire car not just the transmission. I will inform them about the EGR wire harness. The problem didn't start until I removed my EGR and installed a block off kit.


Along time ago, I took the car to the same trans shop becuase the car was stuck in "limp mode". I could not get it out of second gear. they found a short in the wire harness and repaired it. I didn't have the problem since. Thats why I decided to take it to them.

Thank you all for your get experiance and insight on this issue. I will keep you all posted on what is going on next.