Car Just died.
 

I was on the highway going through a toll. I went to accelerate out of the toll and there was no power, all the lights came on on the dash and I lost power steering.

Luckily there was a place to pull off so I did and contemplated calling a flatbed. I tried to restart it and it started back up so i went into a nearby truckstop, drove it around a couple of times and went home.

It drove fine after, no lights on the dash. Only my rough idle. I have no clue what happened. I need the car tonight but I'm afraid it will die in a worse place. Any Ideas?

Re: Car Just died.
 

All the lights on the dash means an alternator problem usually. Have a look at the alternator and all the wires around/connected to it.

Re: Car Just died.
 

He is the member who won the Maniac Electric 160A high-output alternator at Reading. I know that would not have failed. he probably has not installed it yet and is running with the old one. But this does not sound like an alternator issue.


If you have access to a voltmeter, check the voltage at the battery while running. 11.5V or less means the alternator is not charging and you are running on battery power alone.
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Re: Car Just died.
 

The car died, which will also cause the lights to come on, the fact that is started back makes me doubt it's the alt....maybe just stumbled enough to kill it when you pulled out, as you did say you have a rough idle.

Re: Car Just died.
 

I also doubt that it is the alternator. if the alternator went out, causing the dash lights to come on, they would have stayed on when the car was restarted.

Even if the alternator died earlier, and he was running on battery power alone until it died, it would not have started up again.

Could have been something momentarily in the fuel line or a MAF issue.

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Re: Car Just died.
 

No idea what it was, drive it and it is fine now, never happened before. Maybe it was bad gas.

Re: Car Just died.
 

Almost everytime I have had stalling it has been related to a malfunctioning MAF. You may want to spray it with MAF cleaner.

Re: Car Just died.
 

I'd agree in telling you to check the MAF. The alternator is a non issue IMO.

Re: Car Just died.
 

What are you running for an air cleaner?

Re: Car Just died.
 

Do you remember where the car was idling at before it died? Did it just blog out when you step on the gas? If it was blogging, I agree with the other guy saying its your MAF acting up.

Re: Car Just died.
 

good news about the maf is that you can just unplug it if it's making your car stall out, so at least you can know you will get home
bad news is it's not cheap

Re: Car Just died.
 

??????:confused::confused::confused:

Unplugged MAF=Engine no run

Re: Car Just died.
 

If you unplug it after the car's already on. If you unplug it and then start the car, it will run surprisingly well.

Re: Car Just died.
 

That is not my experience at all.

I was at Reading a couple of years ago with my hood up and a member had asked me to start my car so they could hear my new exhaust system.

I started it up and it immediately died; some warning lights on the dash. Tried starting it again and it fired up and immediately died once again.

Confused and concerned, I looked carefully under my hood, everything looked perfectly normal. No evidence of anything wrong

While still confused, YT came over, gave me a knowing smile, went straight to the MAF and gave the connector a "click" and told me to start the car.

Quite a few chuckles when it fired right up and ran perfectly.


Seems that YT had unplugged my MAF when I wasn't looking and reconnected it to look normal, but it plug was not clipped positively into place was not making a solid connection.


Punk'd again. :lol:


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Re: Car Just died.
 

if the maf isn't all the way plugged in it can cause a lot of problems but if the computer doesn't see anything from the maf it substitutes an inferred value based on rpm