Car dies randomly

[rawavr4]

Hello, it's me again. Long annoying embarrassing story about my drive home from work. 92 vr4, maft gen2 w/ gm maf, 9bs, 360cc inj, wideband, afpr, 5 gauges, fmic & hotwired walbro.

My car recently just started completely dying at random times. For instance, this morning driving to class, I turned onto a street and the engine just cut out completely, rpms dropped and everything. Then it caught itself and rpms came back up and I continued my drive. Again after work when I let it warm up, about a minute after letting it idle, the rpms cut out, idle dropped very low very fast, then it caught itself and it idled just fine. Driving home is where it started getting bad. I was getting on the highway in 3rd then the engine cut out. The rpms dropped to 0 but i was still trying to gas it to see if i could get it to keep going, then i got a huge backfire from under the car, then it died. This happened about 10 more times within a mile of my house, but only backfired twice. I got to a light and the car kept dying over and over, but started up everytime. I'd drive and get about 50ft then it would die again. I finally got into my driveway and the car died again. I kept restarting it and running to the hood, and checking the wiring but nothing I found could replicate the dying, it was completely random. About the 3rd or 4th time it died, it wouldnt restart. Just cranked forever until I let it set for a few minutes, then it would start and die within seconds everytime I tried to get it to idle.

This is just an anytime problem not just during idle, cruise, or boost.

This all started happening this morning so I'm just trying to find out where to start with this. I noticed it began when I was low on gas this morning, and got a little better after filling up. The way the rpms drop randomly and the car would just crank, I'm leaning towards a fuel pump, cam/crank sensorr, IAC right now. The car runs perfect other than this problem.

[Roybatty]

Hate the no idle. Isc/iac check 4 sure...I had the no idle. Maf tested fine per manual. After changing coil,ptu,& doing other maintainenance, that was good, but unrelated to problem; finally changed out maf which solved issue.

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[rawavr4]

I forgot to mention it started happening when I was low on gas too. I just remembered I filled up this morning. Hotwired Walbro. The isc is about a year old but I'll check it anyway. No idle is embarrassing espcially with a loud exhaust so everybody thinks I stalled it.

[rawavr4]

Ok I couldnt deal with sitting here thinking about what it could be so I went out to the car barefoot with a multimeter to check batt voltage and lo and behold, loose ground terminal Car should be good now hopefully. I have no problem fixing customer cars, but I never think logically with my own. Then again, most customer cars don't spin bearings and lock up transfer cases.

[rawavr4]

Well started it uo this morning and the rpms still drop during during start but it didn't die yet. I'll see how far I get.

[rawavr4]

The car died down the road.rpms fell to 0 for a few seconds then the car came back to life.

[rawavr4]

Bump. I tightened and cleaned the battery terminals and the car died this morning driving to class. A few minutes ago I tested the ISC and it tested fine since its basically brand new. But the car is still stalling out very calmly like the ignition is being turned off. When it dies the radio and lights still work and it usually will start back up then die again, or just crank. The ecu is also a rebuilt from oreillys, not even a year old. I havent checked the ptu or CAS yet so does anyone know the procedure to test the CAS?

[rawavr4]

Bump for help

[rawavr4]

I'm pretty sure I found the problem. One of the female plugs on the harness side of the coil pack was broken. The little tab on the inside of the ground wire (harness plug) that's supposed to be bent inward to contact the male prong was broken. The male prong on the coil pack was basically going into a hollow tube and not making good contact with any sides of that plug. I was able to control the car shutting off by wiggling the plug up or down. I'll solder in a new plug when I get one, but im 100% sure this is the problem. I'll check back in case this doesnt fix it. But check your plugs out every now and then.

[Roybatty]

If you are still having issues after fixing coil, try trading out your GM MAF with a known good one.