instantly died, need help asap

[budweiser0072002]

so i'm driving to work this morning, just comin off a green light, and all the sudden the car dies. all my gagues went to zero, car died. pulled into a parking lot, tried to figure it out. its not my battery, or alternator. my lights still flip up and on, and there was no hesitation when it died. literally less than a second. tried to turn it over, nothing. no sounds, nothing. dead silence. i was thinking starter, but that wouldn't make the car just die in the road like that. fuel pump maybe? i dont know, any ideas?

[Hughretro]

popped a fuse maybe.

[Chukidori]

Its not out of the realm of possibility that the fuel pump fuse did pop....

Check the easiest/cheapest stuff first ^_^

The fuel pump fuse is in the relay box right behind the battery.

Its a 10 amp fuse in the middle of the last small fuse row.

[positron1]

so i'm driving to work this morning, just comin off a green light, and all the sudden the car dies. all my gagues went to zero, car died. pulled into a parking lot, tried to figure it out. its not my battery, or alternator. my lights still flip up and on, and there was no hesitation when it died. literally less than a second. tried to turn it over, nothing. no sounds, nothing. dead silence. i was thinking starter, but that wouldn't make the car just die in the road like that. fuel pump maybe? i dont know, any ideas?

Something similiar has been happening to me for a few weeks now. I think we may have narrowed it down to my fuel pump as well. Can't wait to get one in and see if that fixes the problem.

[Hughretro]

Well let us know if that is it because I would like to know also Good thing is replacing fuel pumps in this cars a a piece of cake(on the up side of things)

[gumby74]

When my car instantly died, it turned out the timing gear broke in 2 pieces.While driving up from visiting my mom

180 miles away

on a SundayEver try to find a U Haul in the middle of Gods nowhere TX on a Sunday, with a tow dolly available for rent?

[UNVMY240]

Guys he said silence no sound, which I intrupet to be not turning over, Fuel pumps will not cause a car to not turn over. Lost gauges, car just died. Sounds to be a loose connection of the main power or ground. Loose connections will allow you to have power to lights and things but as soon as you put more of a load to it you loose everything. So question then, do you loose hedlights if you try and start the car? If so its more than likely a connection issue, if not then you have something else happening. But always check the obvious first, fuses, connections.

[lbrowne]

Guys he said silence no sound, which I intrupet to be not turning over, Fuel pumps will not cause a car to not turn over. Lost gauges, car just died. Sounds to be a loose connection of the main power or ground. Loose connections will allow you to have power to lights and things but as soon as you put more of a load to it you loose everything. So question then, do you loose hedlights if you try and start the car? If so its more than likely a connection issue, if not then you have something else happening. But always check the obvious first, fuses, connections.

What this guy said... even with no fuel pump in the car you can still turn the key and it will try to turn over, that is of course, everything else working. If you have dead silence, and you are getting power to everything else.... it could be a couple of things.

A bad alternator could also be the problem. This happened to my wife when she drove my 240sx in the morning to work. It would be very early AM and when she got in, started the car, flipped on the lights and turned on the blower motor on high... the car would die within minutes of driving. Everything dead except for the radio and lights - basically what the battery had enough for. The brand new battery the car had allowed it to run for a bit.

I would run the car fine because it was during the warmer part of the day, plus there was sunlight. Less accessories being used. The car sat all day and when I came home it would have enough juice to fire up and off I went. Then I would look at her like she had 7 heads. Also, she was quite frustrated! lol

That at first led me down the path that the starter was on its way out. She said she would stop to drop the kids off, then come out and the car would stall when she tried to back up. Then it would want to start, however the lights would flip up and down with light and the radio worked.....

So yes, despite your best efforts - it could very well be your alternator. Give the car a good boost - provided your battery it good it should fire up. Then take a reading of your volts when running and that will tell you if your alternator is toast or not.

Sorry for the novel, but I'll try to find my frustrated post when I had this problem....

[lbrowne]

Here we go... hope this helps, maybe its not the problem but just to show you I didn't think the alternator was the problem initially either. Cheers.

zerothread/198392

zerothread?id=198623

[budweiser0072002]

its not the alternator tho, just put in a new battery. well, here is the thing. we got it started this morning. i got about a mile down the road and it cut out, same exact way. cleaned out some ****. wires, starter, sensors. i'm thinkin it might be the neutral safety switch.

[gthammers]

NSS won't make it cut out. It only allows the starter relay to engage.

[lbrowne]

Nothing you've indicated so far says for certain its not the alternator. You put in a brand new battery - as mine had. It won't take long to drain the battery. Even if its new.

Hook up a volt meter, NSS is more than likely not your problem.

Do you have a voltmeter? Its in my thread link above on what to do. Its so easy to check.

[budweiser0072002]

but heres the thing. when i put the new battery in it didn't start. i had to tow it back to my house, do a coupla things before it started. all i did was clean the starter, make sure the wires weren't burned off anywhere, fixed two sensors that were in the transmition and that was it. it could be one of the sensors in the transmission is going bad. any ideas about that?

[budweiser0072002]

the two sensors i fixed had the wires burnt off them, so nothing was reading for it. i just hooked up some wires to them.