another stalling thread...
 

3 weeks ago my car kept stalling when at a stop sign or red light, i have read many post about it and finally got to the conclusion that the maf was fault ...."i could temporarly fix the problem by beating the crap out of it with my punch" it was stopping stalling they coming back 2 or 3 days later, finally i changed the maf "took it from my old wrecked svx" it fixed the problem.

but the last week i have noticed that when i was starting the car the rpm would go near 1700-2000 then slowly get to 900-1000 which would take about 2-5 minutes "giving me the time to smoke a cigarette"...in park position.putting it in drive would put her down around 500-700.

today i started her the rpm got to 2000km and stalled right after "2 seconds" i've restarted her about 5 times , then i had a big smell of gas. finally i started her and kept pressing the gas pedal to keep her alive, if i was releasing the pedal it was dying so i waited 5 minutes with the gas pressed around 1500-2000rpm .after that it was fine, i drove her 1 hour then i shut it off and it started well without any problem

p.s i have no c.e.l.,flashing power light no nothing it just shut off,240 000 km's . oil is 5w-30 gold clean....and i always full it with 94 octane

considering that the spark plug is right by the cam cover and i got leaks that begins to be MAJOR leaks from both of them , could it be the spark plugs that begin to be drowned with oil ? plugged gas filter ? i have no clue where to begin....i didn't find anything on this forum that has the same problem as i do

any help would be very gratefull....thank you

Re: another stalling thread...
 

Maybe try a new MAF. How many miles did the other one (off the wrecked SVX) have on it? It might be junk from just from sitting.
My 2 cents
Will

Re: another stalling thread...
 

well its not doing the same stalling issue than the first one....this time i couldn't even put it in drive without having it stalling again.

Re: another stalling thread...
 

Try cleaning the MAF... The same thing happened to my jetta about a month ago.... there was a dead spider stuck to the plate on the sensor.... Got a can of CRC MAF sensor cleaner at autozone $6, use the whole thing and give it a day to dry out.... could save you the cost of a whole sensor which from what I've found is at least $75.... plus you'd still have to clean it....

On that note.... did you clean the one you put in from the other car?? How long has it been sitting?

Re: another stalling thread...
 

no i didn't clean it , i'll maybe give it a try...i'm still sure it isn't the maf , i have the feeling that i had to leave the car run a little bit to warm it up..i'll do this tomorrow

Re: another stalling thread...
 

I'm having an intermittent problem myself, but no smoke...I cleaned my MAF and since then it only stalled once after sitting most of the day at work.

I have a good question if someone can look at the plug itself on the wire harness...is it supposed to have all metal prongs on the plastic little terminals? Mine is missing one on the end and I want to know if that is normal.

Thanks

Re: another stalling thread...
 

Sounds like the harness has a broken wire they do become brittle.Have someone start the car while you wiggle the harness.

Re: another stalling thread...
 

Car drove fine today with no issues...I'm really curious if all 5 terminal ends on the female harness are supposed to have metal connectors on it. I'm thinking they don't or else my vehicle would throw a code and act all funky.

Re: another stalling thread...
 

Just had a picture taken from another member for me and the female end only has 4 gold pins out of the 5 terminals present. That's what I needed to know.

Re: another stalling thread...
 

Ive had 4 SVX in my shop in the last two months.
All have had the same problem. That being works fine
when its cold and after driving it for a while or it gets
warm, it would stall and die.
Wait about 10 -15 min and the car would start again and
drive fine for a while.
Every car had over 100k on it plus being in Az its still
pretty warm here which made things worse.
All 4 cars had a faulty ignition switch.
First pic is of the NEW part from the dealer $50

Re: another stalling thread...
 

the switch location basically
pretty easy to get to.

Re: another stalling thread...
 

chance are you ll find the one way on bolts loose
already or have fallen out..

We went to ACE and got two new ones
had to grind the heads off a little and grind a little off
the tip to make them fit correctly...
You can use blue locktite if you want on the new ones.

Re: another stalling thread...
 

the bolts after I modded them on a grinder
bolt back in , zip tie out of the way, and put plastic
back on and you should be good for another 100k miles :)

Re: another stalling thread...
 

hey just read your replies. thanks for the help. but i solved my problem , i took my older maf on my scrap car and now it works fine.

Re: another stalling thread...
 

I'm experiencing the same issue now, but it's got 1 more symptom...

Car will only start with a jump, even though the battery is new and voltage is good. When I turn to "on" everything goes dead immediately (interior lights, radio, etc). As soon as I move back to "acc" the lights begin to flicker back to life. If I hook up to another car and jump it, starts right up.

So, could the same part be at fault?

Re: another stalling thread...
 

I am sure you cleaned the battery cables before you put them on the new battery. Am I right?

Keith:cool:

Re: another stalling thread...
 

yea, I cleaned everything. I just went out to do some diagnostics and now it won't even start with a jump. I took voltage readings at the battery with and without jump. Without jump I have 13 or 14v. With jump it's up at 15v. This is using a cheap analog meter.

Anyway, now it won't start even with a jump. The starter won't engage. All the other stuff works, but the starter won't do anything.

Re: another stalling thread...
 

I would make a fused jumper wire with a spade connector on the end, unplug the small wire from the starter (spade connector) and fasten the end of the jumper to the spade connector on the starter. Touch the other end of the jumper to the battery + terminal. Do this with the key in the off position and shifter in park.

If the starter fails to turn the engine over, the starter is bad.

Re: another stalling thread...
 

Thanks. I may try that in the future. For now, I'm just getting a new ignition switch. Mine had some issues unrelated to this latest problem so I'm just going to get a new one and see if that helps anything. If not, I'll start looking into the starter.

The car has done some really odd stuff I'll summarize real quick.

1. IN the past, I've been able to start the car and drive it with a key from my parents' Legacy
2. Can take the key out of the ignition in the ON position with the engine running.

Just between today and yesterday here's what happened.

Yesterday I installed the new battery and when I turned the key to "ON" everything went dead. Interior lights, audio, everything. I wasn't even trying to crank. Every time I would click over to the on position, everything would die. When I'd turn back to "ACC", everything would slowly flicker back to life.

So, not really knowing what was going on, I hooked it up for a jump start. It started right away. I drove it around the block and it was fine. Ran smoothly, sounded good, all that. I got back home and parked it but left it idling just for the heck of it. After a minute or so of idling it started sputtering then stalled.

So, I got back in to start the car. When I turned it to "ON" it no longer died. But, when I turned it to "START" nothing happened. No click from the starter...nothing.

Today I went out to jump start it. I got it all hooked up and turned the key, and again nothing at all. No click from the starter. But, it's still working in the "ON" position, which it wasn't earlier yesterday.

So, does that sound like an ignition switch? Does that sound like a starter?

The one that really baffles me was the phase when it would die every time I went to "ON" even though I wasn't trying to start.

Re: another stalling thread...
 

A jumper is a heck of a lot easier to make than it is to change the ignition switch. Might not be a bad idea to at least start there.

Keith:cool:

Re: another stalling thread...
 

I hear ya but I already have the ignition switch out. It really wasn't that hard to get to.

I tried your jumper suggestion and got the starter to engage, but not crank. Not sure why it won't crank, but it engaged every time I touched the jumper cable to the battery. So, something may be wrong with the starter causing it to not crank, but it should at least be engaging when I turn the key.

Re: another stalling thread...
 

could be a bad battery cable of sorts
with too high of resistance causing the starting problem
esp if the cable is getting hot or warm from repeat
starting

Re: another stalling thread...
 

So does the starter click when you turn the key as well? You said it kicks out when u jump it, just doesnt crank. If you are 100% positive your battery cable is clean on both the battery end and the starter end, and your connections are also clean and shiny on the battery posts and terminals, then pull the starter and have it bench tested. If the starter does nothing when u turn the key, then get that new switch.

Re: another stalling thread...
 

1st my battery cable were loose making boosting not easy ,cable were overheeating and shorting.i burnt my 100A fuse done with alternator mod:eek:
2nd my battery was dead so i bought a new one !! red top optima . no more problems.

maybe you shorted something ?...it'd go with the alternator. boost it , start it unplug negative terminal

Re: another stalling thread...
 

Use a good jump battery system and then connect the small jumper wire to the spade connector on the starter so you know the voltage is good and then if it doesn't turn the engine over the starter is bad...

Keith:cool:

Re: another stalling thread...
 

A loose battery cable on your car battery will not affect the jumping process because the voltage source is only on the big clamp on cables to the electrical system... However a lo charged battery in your car could and will sap some energy from the jumping source.

Keith:cool:

Re: another stalling thread...
 

I'll give all the contacts for the battery and starter a good cleaning then try again. Thanks for the input. It'd be nice if it was something simple like that.

Francis mentioned burning a 100A fuse with the alternator mod. Does that mean something was wrong with your alternator mod? I have the alternator grounding mod...should I disconnect that for now and see how everything works?

Re: another stalling thread...
 

OK...here's the latest...

Cleaned the termials, the connectors @ the termials, the black/yellow wire connector on top of starter, connector to starter solenoid, + terminal of alternator, and alternator mod grounding cables (terminal to bolt on DS of AC Compressor, terminal to body, + terminal alternator to + terminal battery). I think all the critical cables and grounds are clean.

After cleaning I tried starting normally

ACC - OK
ON - OK
Start - clock and interior lights dim, but nothing from the starter

So, I then tried jump starting

ACC - OK
ON - OK
Start - clock and interior lights dim, but nothing from the starter

So, then I checked the starter again by using a 12v battery charger @ 50A and connecting it directly to the starter. The starter clicked, but did not crank. Perhaps the 50A is not enough to crank, or perhaps the starter is bad too.

My main question right now is this:
Besides a faulty ignition switch, what could/would prevent the starter from engaging using the key when it will readily engage with a direct jump to the battery?

Next tests before the ignition switch arrives:

Check voltage @ starter with key in "Start" position
Check current draw from battery with key in "start" position
Check voltage @ battery with key in "start" position

Man...this stupid little no-start is annoying.

Re: another stalling thread...
 

New info.

Put the new ignition switch and relay in. No change.

So, I tested a few things.

1. I'm only getting 18mV @ the starter spade connector in the "START" position. When I turn the key to "START", the lead to the spade goes from 0V to 18mV. I'm assuming that's nowhere near enough to engage the starter.
2. The starter cranks the engine with a direct jump to battery @ 12.8V. The engine will sputter, but not start and run.
3. This is the interesting part. I disconnected a wire in my alternator wiring mod...the one from the Alternator + to the battery +. When I disconnected that, no power to the vehicle at all. Anybody have any ideas why that would be? My alternator wiring mod has no fuses. Stupid, I know, but I did it when I was young and stupid and never addressed it.

Also, I have a 5MT. I noticed the starter inhibitor switch is on the AT shift lever. could that be an issue?

I appreciate your continued support and hope this new info will clear some stuff up.

Re: another stalling thread...
 

Wow...it's always something simple.

Clutch position switch was not closing, so car thought clutch was out and not allowing it to start. I closed the switch and she started right up!

I'm glad to have it running and glad it was something simple.

Still confused about the above alternator comment. I checked voltage from the alternator + @ idle and it was 14.4. Isn't that too high? Can anybody still help me with the above alternator issue?

Thanks for your help up to this point. you guys are a great resource and I hope I can help one of y'all one day!

Re: another stalling thread...
 

ive done the alternator wiring mod too...and im in these ranges. hope you feel recomforted:)

Re: another stalling thread...
 

Normal alternator output for any car should be around 14.4-14.6 volts:)

Re: another stalling thread...
 

Anybody have any idea why the whole car goes dead when I disconnect the alternator + to battery + wire in the alternator wiring mod? Must mean that the smaller white wire from the alternator to battery isn't doing anything :confused: