Alright guys I'm getting worried here, my Cara seems to just turn off randomly when I start driving it. I get power when it turns off, my radio is still playing. But it just now turned off while getting out of work and it would just crank so I went ahead and disconnected the battery and reconnected so I went to try and turn it on. It struggled to turn on and eventually did since I was pressing the gas at the same same time. So I need help in what areas to look for, I am a amateur mechanic so I can only do the work but I do not know how to identify issues. Can someone point me in the right direction??

 

My WAGs include coil wire- any chance the insulation could be chaffed causing it to ground out? And ignition switch, though I'm not sure whether that would take out accessories as well if faulty. Is the harness/clip to the ignition 'puter firmly attached?

 

You say it turns off randomly when you start driving it...does this mean it only does this when you first start out from a cold start situation? And then it is fine for a while or for the rest of the ride, after you get it started again. Or does this happen randomly even when it is warmed up?

 

See if you can limp her over to the meeting in the AM and we can all look it and help.

 

What year is your car ????? have you changed any relays ?

 

It could be a worn out ignition switch like a Chevy

But in all seriousness, have you checked your green wire to see if it is still good? That could make it run worse but not shut it down randomly.

As others recommend check your ignition wires as they can short when they are old.

A good way to check for this is the run the car in the dark with the lights off and hood up and look for sparks on the plenum.

 

Yes so far its turns off when i ts a cold start, it turns off at least twice almost every time I use it. I have lost power only once while the car being hot but I think that may just be a random one. But none the less I will be looking at those wires you guys tell me, hopefully that's the culprit:-)

I will keep you guys updated, and the car is an 1984 model:-)

 

I would carefully be checking the resistors mounted next to the radiator on the inner fender....an open circuit will shut off the power to the coil killing the engine in an instant.

 

I used the poke it with a stick method to solve this for me:
Pull your PS floor board and expose the fuse panel and connector panel. Get a wooden dowel rod, and gently push on each connector, and see if you can make it stall. If you do, you have found a bad connection.
Next advice is relay, relay, relay...
Good luck,
Dave

 

Texan Kitchen - Euless
415 North Main Street
Euless, TX 76039

8am Saturday morning (tomorrow)

 

When I reassembled my engine last year my and was timing the distributor the car would always just cut out, but still have the ignition lights on the same as you are describing. The culprit was the green wire. Assuming your motor mounts aren't totally collapsed the engine should buck a little when it is revved, and I must've had a crack in the wire which would separate when the engine moved, thus cutting the ignition. Swapping with a new wire fixed the problem completely. Not saying that this is your problem, but if you know of anyone with a spare green wire lying around it's easy to install and test.

 

Let me say that I have no idea what is really going on here because you didn't really tell us much.

Please clarify exactly what you mean - it can make a huge difference to diagnosis...

"turns off randomly" what does this mean? be very specific. you also say "lost power" what does this mean - again very specifically?

Does the car die instantly, sputter out or gradually lose power & stall? what happens to the instrument panel? all light come on when it dies - Or none?

Will it always crank the engine over after it dies? does it restart & die or nothing but cranking? How long do you have to wait before it restarts OK?

Very specific questions get quick and more specific answers - usually leading to resolution.

Ambiguous questions lead to rampant speculation that derails the diagnosis at least - and sometimes costs real money in investigating things that in hindsight could not have been a possible cause. This trying to help jump start this diagnosis. We need to determine if its a global electrical issue, local equipment failure, fuel, exhaust, warm up enrichment or vacuum failure - there are likely more options - closing down to just a few makes a big difference.

Alan