1990 240sx died this morning

[lbrowne]

After running in front of the house for about 15-20 minutes (we had mucho frost last night and wife takes car in the morning). I started the car when I left to warm it up because she takes the kids.

She comes out the car is toasty, windows defrosted. Straps the kids in and procedes to back up. The car stalls. Lights and everything are on, and come back on when she flicks the key off and on. Theres a brand new battery in this car.

Shes says, now I haven't looked at it myself, that when she tries to start the car it appears to be dead. Despite the lights on in the dash etc, the car doesn't even try to turn over.

car has 166k miles.

Any ideas? Starter? What gets me is the car stalled when she tried to back up, and she said it didn't stall because she was careless with the clutch or anything like that.

[180fan]

did the starter relay even click?

[lbrowne]

I'm going to troubleshoot this evening, try tapping the starter after checking the fuse and relay.

She said she doesn't remember if it clicked or not, and I think the whole car stalling was coincedence - (maybe she slipped the pedal too quick)

I know the fuse is in the kick panel, the relay is under the hood somewhere I would imagine.

[lbrowne]

Got home, got the kids inside.

Went to the 240, she started first try. Tried a few sequences of turning her off and on - passed with flying colours.

Drove her around a bit, turned off/on no sweat.

Filled her up tonight, brought her home. shut her off and then not one minute later restarted however I admit that one was a bit laboured.

Turned off and on a couple more times, not silky smooth, but started nonetheless. I would think that maybe the starter is showing signs of going out?

[justdrift]

at the moment i'm also having this problem. i have a starter to replace my old one so i'm hoping that this will do the trick *crosses fingers*

[nissan_blood]

Does your fuel pump stay running? Sometimes old fuel pumps cut off when they get hot. Correct me if im wrong here.......

[lbrowne]

The car wasn't turning over at all according to the wife - even with a completely dead pump the car would still be trying to turn over with all other things working.

Plus its a new fuel pump

[lbrowne]

ARGH.

I get into work today. I get a call from the wife. Car stalled and won't start again. This time it appears to have hardly any battery power.

Last night I twice took the car for a boot. Later in the evening at one time to fill up, which was 10 clicks one way. Headlights on, cdplayer going.

She gets int he car this morning and starts it, takes the kids AROUND the corner to the daycare. Comes out to the car, she notices its kinda sputtering, like its not going to stay running.

Puts the car in reverse - car stalls. Won't start again.

Could this be the alternator? Why I don;t know because of how I took the car last night....she had the car idle 5-10 minutes tops before she left and it was sitting in front of the daycare place no longer that 3-5 minutes. Doesn't sound long enough for the battery to drain if it was just running off the battery alone.

Getting very frustrated, very fast. Its almost like the car only wants me to drive it. lol

[ricebike]

I,

it can be...

don't you have a multi-meter?

put the leads on the battery terminals & gimme a Voltage reading

then, remove leads, try to start the vehicle (if it's over 12 V, deeee deeeee deeeeee)

put leads back on to see if it's a tad over 14V... if not, you've found that the alternator circuit is bad...

u can either goto your local auto parts supplier to see if they can test this easily on the parking lot like autozone/advance autoparts down here in the good ole corrupted NJ

[lbrowne]

I think it’s the alternator.

The one thing that’s different the past couple of morning is the blower has been put on full – a major drain on the battery.

I got home today, she wouldn’t turn over, battery was too low. She started immediately once connected with booster cables.

Let her run for about 10 minutes – turned her off – she wouldn’t start again.

Going to get a voltmeter since my buddy blew mine a while ago.

[lbrowne]

put leads back on to see if it's a tad over 14V... if not, you've found that the alternator circuit is bad...

u can either goto your local auto parts supplier to see if they can test this easily on the parking lot like autozone/advance autoparts down here in the good ole corrupted NJ

Car not running, 11.XXCar running, 11.xx

Start turning on accesories - this number starts ticking down.If I rev the car and hold it at a higher rpm, to the point I'm getting concerned the neighbours would be pissed, it gets to 12.xx

Needless to say I think I found my prob.

Differences/changed variables:

Only now the car uses its headlights and blower on high while going to work, its colder now and dark in the morning. More drain on the car whereas not long ago neither the lights or the blower was used at all during this trip.

When I drove home it was daylight, and warm... neither of these power draws were used. Plus the fact that I have a nice heavy duty new battery just delayed the symptoms I guess.

[Florida240sx]

Check your grounds as well..... That was a problem on mine......

[lbrowne]

Check your grounds as well..... That was a problem on mine......

L'll check ground wires as well, but I think my main prob right now is definitely that alternator.

edit: fixed my engrish lol
Modified by lbrowne at 10:51 AM 9/20/2006

[ricebike]

L'll check ground wires as well, but I think my main prob right it definitely that alternator.

get to work!

now, since you've abused your battery those many nights; bring it to the part store/ have them load test it to see if it's still in good shape

hope you have a charger;charge it up... easy for them to test it/ or they can "quick charge" it for ya

i did mine's a month ago, so i know...

[i2ice4m3]

check your positive cable too. There's some wires/harnesses that connect to the positive terminal. If that corrodes and is yanked around a bit, it can fatigue, giving you a bad connection. That happened to one of my cars before - i had the same symptoms you did.

[lbrowne]

New alternator in. Everything is perfect. Heck my dash lights are way brighter now, as are my headlights etc. (its only now getting dark earlier for me to notice.)

Now my volts are 13.9-14 steady.