Engine died on the way to work
 

So I wake up this morning, get in my car, and head to work. about 6 miles down the road, the engine warmed up, heat blowing as it's 56 degrees out, radio going, i'm heading up a slight grade hill. All of a sudden i'm slowing down, though my foot is on the gas. I push in the clutch, and the tachometer drops to 0rpm, so i quickly pull over to the side of the road and put on my 4-way flashers.

Soon as i pull over and make sure i'm clear of traffic, i turn the key. Car starts, then dies again immediately after. I start it, really goosing the gas, and it revs up, and goes long as i have a hefty amount of gas going in, but i let off, and it dies. So i start it again, give it gas, shift to first, and take off, making sure to keep the engine at 2500+rpm.

I come to a stop light, press the clutch, and watch the needle drop to zero rpm. Light turns green, i start it up, and away i go. I head down a hill, coasting, and touch the gas every once in a while to make sure the engine is still running, and it is. I come to a stop, pressing in the clutch, and it returns strait to 500-600rpm, and sits there nicely.

The rest of the drive in is without incident. I get to work, pop the hood, check all fluid levels, and everything is fine. I check the connections to the battery, nothing loose, everything where it's supposed to be. Everything appears as it should.

Now, this is different than the 5mt stall, where cruising at 2500+ rpm, suddenly you press in the clutch and the engine speed drops to fast for the thing to keep giving it gas, and it stalls. This was, with clutch engaged, a full on no more combustion in the engine. What was odd was that with the clutch engaged, it should have fired back up with fuel, as it's virtually the same as bump-starting.

My theories: I have plenty of gas, and of the 94 octane variety, so i know it's not that. Temporarily clogged fuel filter perhaps? Distributor cap going bad? I wouldn't think the tps because, when checked a few weeks ago, it was almost dead on, plus it always finds a happy rpm, never idles over 700rpm when warm, around 1100-1400 when cold.

Any insite on this would be greatly appriciated. If this is to be something serious, i'd rather catch it in earlier stages as opposed to the later stages. Thanks much.

Check for any codes.

My first thought is you'll get a MAF code.

No codes, no CEL.

My Legacy didn't throw a MAF code when the MAF was shot either. It just started driving like crap.

I second what Hocrest says.

I'll third the MAF. See the How To documents on how to clean the MAF (its under the Engine section). Cleaning and resoldering helped in my case.

UUhh, Your SVX has a distributor cap?????:WTF::pics::p

Check the connection on your MAF and also on your idle control valve.

Ok, i'm going home during lunch today to install a MAF on my svx, and pray that it fixes it. I want to go when the traffic is light, because if it dies while i'm rolling, i have momentum to keep with traffic until i can get it started again. if it dies while i'm in traffic, it won't be fun. Plus i want to spend as little time on the road as possible iwth it in it's current condition.

Fixed! 20min home, 20min to get tools out, both MAF's out of the cars, both MAF's installed in oposite car, put tools away, wash up, and 20min back to work. Total time, one hour, now i have to spoil her as she saw some serious abuse when that thing was failing.

What can go wrong with it? I looked inside, it looked nice and tidy, and looked like there really wasn't anything that could fail. Unless i ahve a bad connection somewhere.

It's a really small sensor...something could have been messed up on the surface of it or inside the wiring of the sensor...