Died on me....will start but chugs and dies....

[Missouri T]

I drove my T to work today and to pick up my daughter at school.
It ran perfect until about 1/2 mile from her school where it just quit.
Like I shut off the ignition.

I coasted to a side road and parked it.
Walked to her school and called a tow truck.

It will start BUT:
1. It does not idle smooth, it chugs hard....no kidding...like an old tractor.
2. It doesn't want to rev at all....if it does, it continues that odd chugging and stalls.

Any ideas?

Feel free to e-mail me.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

 

[jdpolzin]

Check a bad MAF sensor, make sure the Intercooler hoses are not loose, if you have a spare coil pack + ignition module try changing that. What are your Scanmaster readings?

 

[Missouri T]

Check a bad MAF sensor, make sure the Intercooler hoses are not loose, if you have a spare coil pack + ignition module try changing that. What are your Scanmaster readings?

Thanks for the response.

I just replaced the MAF sensor-it has MAYBE 30 miles on it.
I have one of the new-fangled Full Throttle 4" intakes and the original sensor from the kit failed after about 20 miles......I sure hope it's not THAT again!
When it failed the last time, the car started, ran and drove (not great but did) but wouldn't fuel as you gave it gas or under boost.

Intercooler hoses are tight.

No spare coil pack laying around.

What about the cam sensor?
Can it go out of phase? I see RJC sells a kit that repairs an internal disk that fails.

Thanks again for the response.

 

[garyk1970]

another bad maf opinion....simply unplug at start/idle........

 

[Missouri T]

Oh man, not another Mass Air.
I just replaced mine, the last one lasted less than 20 miles.
This one? MAYBE 30.

I know where to buy them but I can't be replacing them every week or less.
Gotta figure out what's "eating" them. The Translator?

 

[Missouri T]

I JUST UNPLUGGED THE TRANSLATOR/MASS AIR FROM THE CAR........

And it runs exactly as described above.

I take it that means the Mass Air is bad again?

 

[garyk1970]

if you unplugged the maf and car ran better then maf is bad.

if you unplugged the maf and the car ran the same,theres another problem...FWIW ive seen translaters ruin mafs

 

[dougie]

Your car is doing EXACTLY what mine did shortly after buying it last fall. After that, I did quite a few mods over the winter, but the only things that would fixed the problem were a new MAF (LS1 with translator) and a remanufactured ECM. Ran perfect after replacing both, so I don't know which was bad. BUT, after it stopped running, I used a scan tool and in addition to it telling me it was in "limp home mode", it also gave crazy raedings like coolant temp -40 degrees. I figured the ECM gave up the ghost and I still think that's what it was. Remanufactured ECM is pretty cheap. After all the computers in these cars are over 20 years old. How many of you have PC's at home that still work after 20 years?

 

[TurboBob]

if you unplugged the maf and car ran better then maf is bad.

if you unplugged the maf and the car ran the same,theres another problem...

Agreed.

FWIW ive seen translaters ruin mafs

Hmmmmm? Do tell.............

Bob

 

[Dreamcar86]

Oh man, not another Mass Air.
I just replaced mine, the last one lasted less than 20 miles.
This one? MAYBE 30.

I know where to buy them but I can't be replacing them every week or less.
Gotta figure out what's "eating" them. The Translator?

One of my buddies always tells me to never trust a new part simply for the fact that it is new. They can be no better than an old one sometimes. I am like you getting tired of the MAF problems. I keep looking at going MAFless. Just gotta stop spending the $ at some point.

 

[Alaskabuick]

Cam sensor....

Mine did this and it was the cam sensor.... the leg breaks off the rotor and it spins..

pull the cap on the cam sensor and see if you can spin the rotor.. if you can then it is bad..

Jason Cramer at RJC makes a part that will fix this without spending a bunch of money..

Just my o2 and hope it helps..

Den

 

[garyk1970]

Agreed.




Hmmmmm? Do tell.............

Bob

ive seen two different cars that the translaters " go bad " and short out the ign #1 circit. theres some kind of defect in them involving an internal short.havent busted one open....wouldnt help me anyway,circit board designers are smarter than I anyway

 

[TurboBuRick]

I don't know about that

Very doubtfull that a bad Translator would short anything out.

 

[jdpolzin]

If the MAF is unplugged and it ran the same as it did when it was plugged in, sounds like a bad MAF to me. It should run even worse if the MAF is good and you unplug it. Or am I just dumb?

 

[TurboBob]

the backup calculation in the chip is pretty good.

A standard way to diagnose a bad MAF is to unplug it. If the car runs better, then it was the MAF.

If it runs the same, something else is happening.

 

[Missouri T]

Here's the latest:

Got the car to start and started pulling injector plugs to see if there was a dead cylinder:
Numbers 3 and 6 made NO change in how the car idled when I unplugged them.
Whereas unplugging the other four caused the idle to drop.

I pulled all the plugs:
ALL BUT 3 and 6 were thick with black (a dry black, not oily).
3 and 6 were clean but wet with fuel.
Replaced all the plugs with new R43TS.

Checked the ohm's on the coil pack:
Pass to driver side readings-13.3K, 13K, 13.4K (out of range per gnttype.org).
Unplugged the battery, thus resetting the ECM and replaced the coil pack (new AC/Delco).
New one reads in the 12.4K range.

Now the car will not start at all.

Checked the Cam Sensor:
The "rotor" appears solid, no play or movement at all.
I will test the hall effect pick up when I get back from vacation (leaving this morning 8/10).

I printed out the "No Start" diagnosis and schematics from gnttype.org and plan to attack the car with that info when I return.

Any ideas are appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

[excobraguy]

Here's the latest:

Got the car to start and started pulling injector plugs to see if there was a dead cylinder:
Numbers 3 and 6 made NO change in how the car idled when I unplugged them.
Whereas unplugging the other four caused the idle to drop.

I pulled all the plugs:
ALL BUT 3 and 6 were thick with black (a dry black, not oily).
3 and 6 were clean but wet with fuel.
Replaced all the plugs with new R43TS.

Checked the ohm's on the coil pack:
Pass to driver side readings-13.3K, 13K, 13.4K (out of range per gnttype.org).
Unplugged the battery, thus resetting the ECM and replaced the coil pack (new AC/Delco).
New one reads in the 12.4K range.

Now the car will not start at all.

Checked the Cam Sensor:
The "rotor" appears solid, no play or movement at all.
I will test the hall effect pick up when I get back from vacation (leaving this morning 8/10).

I printed out the "No Start" diagnosis and schematics from gnttype.org and plan to attack the car with that info when I return.

Any ideas are appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

What about resetting the chip? My car did the same thing, eventually threw a code 51 "PROM Error". Had to clean the contacts on the chip and reinstalled, ran great as new........

 

[TurboBuRick]

Crank sensor.

 

[RUQWKNF27]

Would the crank sensor not throw a code if it is bad?

 

[hrhoward]

Would the crank sensor not throw a code if it is bad?

I haven't had one go bad on a TR but I just replaced one on a '92 Olds with a 3800. The only code I pulled from it was 42, C3I ELECTRONIC SPARK TIMING (EST) FAILURE. I changed it out but no difference. I looked at a couple of other things and noticed the crank sensor was loose and just rattling around. Replaced and all was dandy.