Help Quick please!

[xTearsFallForeverx]

Ok guys here's the problem. A few weeks ago, a buddy of mine started having startup issues. When he tried to start the car.. it wouldnt it would crank and all.. but no fuel. so he changes, what he thought, was his fuel pump relay.. well it started. after a couple of hours he tried to start it again. nothing. we messed with it and messed with it. he finally installed a new walbro fp... well it started. he turned it off to check if it would start again.. nothing. now we are getting stumped.. he cleans the connectors on the plug in the back of the hatch. it starts. he turns it off again.. tries to start it.. guess what.. NOTHING. so we narrow it down to the ecu? right? well.. the light wasnt coming on on his ecu. so we try one out of a friends car.. guess what... NOTHING. Today he redid the wires that he ran under his fender well. he soldiered them this time. well.. finally it starts everytime.. then tonight we went to the NICO Meet in Louisville, KY and on the way back.. the car shuts off and wont start again. we had to have it towed home. now we are stumped. any suggestions please? BTW its a redtop.
Modified by xTearsFallForeverx at 1:10 PM 1/30/2005

[The Mic]

wtf are you talking about?

[spider_slayer]

yea......i havn't a ****ing clue eathier. i have never really heard of anyhting like that happening. i would guess that its a wiring issue....not sure what kinda if you say they were all sodered......good luck to you and when you get if fixed let us know in case this happens again

[xTearsFallForeverx]

sorry let me clarify.. for some reason the ecu is failing to come on all the time. sometimes it will just shut off for no apparent reason. like driving down the road and stuff. if we pull the negative battery cable then put it back the ecu will come on and the car will start. then eventually it will shut off and the car will stall. we checked the ecu to see if its throwing any codes.. and it isnt. we've checked just about everything there is to check. i have no clue what the problem is. neither do most of the guys around here. they say they have never heard of a problem like this before. so.. if anyone can help it would be appreciated... im kinda figuring it is a ground somewhere... anyway, sorry for the rambling on the last post it was 4am and i was cold and mad.

[Nismo_Freak]

The next time it does this you need to not fix the problem, you should pull out a voltmeter and test for where the power is getting cut off to the ECU.

Basically test for...:

- Battery voltage to ECU relay- Voltage out of ECU relay- Voltage to the ECU relay (signal side from ignition)- Proper grounding of ECU relay (trace black wire back)- Voltage at ECU backup wire pinout- Voltage at ECU fuse- Check fuse for possible overheating / overcharging / correct amperage

See where you are getting power and aren't. That should narrow down the issue.

Also...

- Clean the battery terminals very well - Clean the battery connectors very well - Take a piece of sandpaper to the neg. cables grounding points so that it has a clean connection.- Tighten down the terminals very well so they can't twist or move- Tie down the battery

I have seen problems with the neg. battery cable becoming encrusted and causing intermittant grounding.

No offense but it sounds like some of the wiring might be out of wack, you should re-evaluate it.

[Hijacker]

to me it sounds like a grounding issue. I would double check that all grounds are properly soldered, and grounded to the chassis or block.

Also, i have had the negative terminal give out on me too. I took a terminal brush to it, and the car came back on immediately.

[RMiller]

My car is doing the same exact thing. I have a CA. See if your injectors are staying open and just dumping fuel, that's what happens for me. You will smell fuel when you crank it coming from the exhaust.

So far I have sanded stock grounds, added grounds, changed my battery, I have 2 ecu's, and I've gone over all my wiring several times. I think nismofreak has the solution. Get yourself a multimeter. If you figure it out, will you be sure and post what the problem was? I'll do the same.

[xTearsFallForeverx]

after some retracing of the ecu wiring my friend found that 2 wires had pulled loose from just behind the ecu. he soldered all the rest of his connections and retraced everything possible. he called me this morning and told me that it was starting every time now. he said he started it 10 times in a row and no shut off. so im crossing my fingers. thank you for your advice guys. really appreciate it.

[RMiller]

Did the wires come out right at the ecu plug or farther back where it's covered?

[xTearsFallForeverx]

im not really sure id have to ask him again. but either they came out of the plug or right behind where the harness goes into the firewall where you have to splice those wires in. he used butt connectors there initially so im thinking it was those. i cant remember seeing any loose wires from the ecu plug.

[xTearsFallForeverx]

***UPDATE***

After almost a complete rewiring of the e-harness, added grounds, ect... it is doing the same thing. we tried to take the plugs off of the injectors to see if it would let the eco come on.. it didnt. dont know if its supposed to or not, but it was worth a try. So.. we threw it on another rollback and sent it to a buddy's house.. hopefully he can figure out what we couldnt. But im fairly confident.. after all he's working on a nasty skyline/240 hybrid. just waiting on the drive shaft. cant to see that rolling around on the road.

[eliterit]

i remember when i had fuel pump relay issues, i ended up switching to a walbro since i had one laying around anyway, and then shortly after my car would just stall and would not start. It was that one of the battery terminals was not 100% clamped down on the battery post. I now am sure to bang the posts all the way down and clamp the F*** out of them.

but i never checked to see if my ecu was getting power though.

[xTearsFallForeverx]

it isnt his terminals. they are nice and tight, we cleaned them real good. We even took the battery to Autozone to get tested. It tested good, just low charge at the time from cranking. when we finally got the car started we pulled one of the battery terminals off to check if the alternator was working. it was fine also. we thought maybe the alternator wasnt charging the battery enough to run the ecu and start up tasks. we tested it with a mutlimeter and got like.. 14.3 or something. i really dont think it is a wiring issue. at least not in the harness itself.. because it has ran fine for the past 2 years that he's had his SR. This just started happening over the past month. Im still waiting on word from the nissan mechanic we sent it to. I hope its not something too expensive.. at least for his sake.