Engine cuts out.

[VaShelby]

My engine seems to loose power while running at steady speed and cuts out when i apply more gas . Any thoughts on this would be helpfull.

[turbovanman²]

What car?

Any codes? Fuel pressure? Tune-up items? Boost? Mods?

[VaShelby]

Wow all that would be helpfull wouldnt. Well its 5 am right now. will post all info after work. :p

[supercrackerbox]

I spent most of today (and periodically the last three years) chasing these demons on my Daytona. Here's what I've found:


Today specifically, at least the first time, the fuel pump finally gave up just shy of 180K miles. I suspect that it had been dying slowly for some time, and today it finally flatlined. That's usually pretty easy to diagnose.

The second time today, one of the prongs had broken off the HEP module in the distributor, although I didn't notice it at first. I had swapped in a spare (when the fuel pump died) just to check, and moved on when the car didn't start. Finally on the way home, that piece got caught by the shutter wheel just right, and took out another HEP and twisted the windowed tab of the shutter wheel too. I managed to straighten the tab enough to get the car running (after walking 4 miles to and from the shop to get tools and another HEP), but I'm still going to change the distributor.

Last weekend, the contacts in the ignition coil pigtail (later model solid-state coil) corroded to the point of losing contact intermittently. Naturally this would almost never happen with an older canister style coil.

A month ago, the coil itself died, being I believe the fourth one to do so since I've owned the car. People will say to opt for a factory Mopar one from a junkyard over any aftermarket one, but screw that. The factory coils are approaching 20 years or older, and in my experience, once that plastic casing starts cracking, that coil has a very short time. Both my Daytona and Charger now have Hypertech ones, which sell for forty-some bucks with free shipping from Summit. Again, the old oil-filled coils will be much less prone to this problem.

HEP modules: This has been the case with both the Daytona and the Charger. SECURE THOSE WIRES. The factory installed clips and straps to keep the wires from just flopping around, be sure that you do the same. If you've ever taken one of these modules apart, you've seen that the wires are incredibly thin. Years of vibration will eventually break the copper, and letting the wires just flop around will accelerate this process greatly. Why do you think this is always the first thing so many people suggest for ignition problems? Because they're a crappy design. Great idea on paper, but they just weren't built to endure. And again, people will say find some original Mopar ones rather than an aftermarket, and again I say screw that. Think of the age and mileage of the used factory ones, and ask yourself if you're really better off. Take what you can get, Mopar or not.

[VaShelby]

Well what I found was a bad tps plug a bad cas and plug.40532

[cordes]

Wow, that is really bad.

[turbovanman²]

Damn, worst I've seen it.

[black86glhs]

Not in this case, but now everyone knows why I tell people to look at the terminals in connectors damn near every time someone has a running issue.

[RoadWarrior222]

Preaching to the choir here :D

I almost forget consciously how important it is though, I'm troubleshooting under the hood and my fingers are just plucking things apart, give it an eyeball, squirt it with cleaner, cinch it up tight, wiggle this, check that's secure, just second nature I guess... I think it's why some of the relatives think I have a magic touch "My car was acting up for months, then RW looked at it for 15 mins and it's been perfect since... " :D ... though then they bring you it months later with major and expensive problems and think it's gonna go away in 15mins for free. :(

[zin]

And I thought a WeatherPak connector was supposed to keep the water OUT...

Mike