Random Stalling and check engine light after getting my car back

[87GNattyKid]

To make an extremely long story short, i got my car repaired at a body shop after an accident and it took over a month and a half to get my car back. There were lots of headaches dealing with this shop and along with the body work they also put in a new starter motor.

I picked my car up yesterday and they seemed to have done good work but then on my way home the check engine light kept flashing on and the car would lose power until it stalled. When i turned it back on it would stall unless i gave the gas pedal some pressure. I thought maybe they put bad gas in it and i was able to get it to a station and fill it up with premium. When i got hom i popped the hood and noticed there was no coolant in the resovoir and the cap was also missing. I called the shop and they told me the cap was in the back seat, which it was, along with a big grease stain that wasnt there before...

Anyway, i filled the coolant, added the quart of oil that was missing from when he changed the oil filter which was damaged in the accident. After this i turned the car on and let it idle. I took it out for a short drive and everything seemed to run good. A few hours later i took the car out and it ran god unless i hit a hard bump the engine light would come on and it would lose power for a split second and then run fine (assuming it didnt stall because my foot is on the gas)

I was curious what could cause a problem like this? Could it be bad gas? Or do you think they did something to the car? I dont know why the engine light would only come on and lose power when i hit a hard bump...Could something be loose? Or could it just be from sitting for over a month in an auto body shop?

Im at a loss for what could be wrong and im weary of bringing the car back to this shop that i had lots of problems with.

 

[turbotroy]

I would start with checking all your grounds.

 

[GullsGN]

To make an extremely long story short, i got my car repaired at a body shop after an accident and it took over a month and a half to get my car back. There were lots of headaches dealing with this shop and along with the body work they also put in a new starter motor.

I picked my car up yesterday and they seemed to have done good work but then on my way home the check engine light kept flashing on and the car would lose power until it stalled. When i turned it back on it would stall unless i gave the gas pedal some pressure. I thought maybe they put bad gas in it and i was able to get it to a station and fill it up with premium. When i got hom i popped the hood and noticed there was no coolant in the resovoir and the cap was also missing. I called the shop and they told me the cap was in the back seat, which it was, along with a big grease stain that wasnt there before...

Anyway, i filled the coolant, added the quart of oil that was missing from when he changed the oil filter which was damaged in the accident. After this i turned the car on and let it idle. I took it out for a short drive and everything seemed to run good. A few hours later i took the car out and it ran god unless i hit a hard bump the engine light would come on and it would lose power for a split second and then run fine (assuming it didnt stall because my foot is on the gas)

I was curious what could cause a problem like this? Could it be bad gas? Or do you think they did something to the car? I dont know why the engine light would only come on and lose power when i hit a hard bump...Could something be loose? Or could it just be from sitting for over a month in an auto body shop?

Im at a loss for what could be wrong and im weary of bringing the car back to this shop that i had lots of problems with.

Loose battery cable. Possibly at the starter they replaced.

 

[mgmshar]

I recently got my car back from a paint shop. They left the negative battery cable a little loose at the battery. Had problems similar to yours. Took me a while to figure it out. Felt stupid when I found it, because it was so simple.

Check both battery cables at all of their connections (battery, starter, bolt on front of engine). If they messed with the alternator, check the wires on it as well. Any loose wire in one of these locations will cause problems like yours.

Good luck,

 

[dennisL]

Its unfortunate but you'll have to take a close look at each part of the car they worked on. Make sure all electrical connections are tight. Start at the battery then on to the starter. Check the ground wires behind the coil pack. Most of the time when the SES light comes on, a code is stored which will point you to a particular sensor. Check for any stored codes before you disconnect the battery or orange wire at the battery.

I had a similar experience years ago and found loose bolts and broken wires just twisted together and wrapped with tape. Good luck.

 

[scgnx2]

Does sound like a bad electrical connection i.e battery or ground. But not sure the SES light would luminate in that scenerio.
Last year my car did the exact same thing as yours...it was intermittent at first then got progressively worse. I thought it was electical too. It turned out to be the MAF sensor going bad.

 

[87GNattyKid]

Thanks for all the replies. Today when i took my car out i purposefully drove down some bumpy roads to see if id experience the same problem. And of course i did not...Now it seems to just happen randomly so i guess the last few times when it happened was just by chance over a bump. Another problem that started today was that when i sit in idle the rpm's would randomly drop down to the 400 range and the car would feel to be losing power. Similar to the random loss of power when driving but without the SES light coming on. Also this only happens when im in drive, if i idle in park it seems to idle fine. Every time it started to idle slow i gave it some gas which brought it back to normal. Im heading out to check the electrical connections now.

 

[Blazer406]

I'd check the positive cable going to the starter.... it is really close to the header and if they didn't put it exactly back right when they installed the new starter..... it will short to the underside of the header eventually causing issues similar to what you describe.

 

[mgmshar]

My car did the exact same thing when the negative battery cable was loose. While just sitting in the driveway idling, every once in a while, I could hear the fuel pump slow down, see voltage drop on my directscan, and the engine would stumble for a second. Then it would recover and be fine. Actually thought it was a bad fuel pump or hot wire relay. After a long period of poking around, found the loose negative cable. The engine shakes the car just enough at idle to sometimes cause the negative cable to loose contact. Tightened the cable, problem solved.

Sure sounds like you have a loose wire somewhere.

 

[87GNattyKid]

i found that the negative connection on the battery was loose so i tightened that up. My battery is mounted in the trunk so i also checked the positive wire that runs to the engine compartment and branches to all the wiring. I guess they didnt tie that wire in place because i noticed it was laying loose against the exhaust pipe. The wire had melted through and was exposing the copper. I was thinking maybe the copper would hit the metal exhaust pipe randomly and short out the battery for a split second. After tightening the negative lead and moving the wire off the exhaust pipe, taping it up and securing away from anything that would melt it, the problem seems to have stopped.

However, last night when i turned the car on, the SES light came on and stayed on for about 45 seconds and then shut off. Today i took the car out for a half hour and had no problems. Hopefully i fixed the issue but the SES light worried me last night. Ill have to hook it up to a scanner next time i take it out.

Thanks for all the help, the problem seems to have been fixed for now ><

 

[dennisL]

Bend a paperclip so you can short pins A & B of the ALDL connector. These are the top right two pins. Turn ignition to On but don't start the engine. The SES light will blink the stored trouble code, after it blinks a "12" three times. Post the number and we'll help you fix it.

 

[87GNattyKid]

just did that and got a code 13

 

[dennisL]

Good, now that code says the oxygen sensor is not connected. Check the single purple wire that connects just above the cam sensor.