Scary problem, Car shuts off but keeps running....
#1
Lead Lap
Thread Starter
Scary problem, Car shuts off but keeps running....
Hello all,
For anyone that has an idea this is what recently happened. The car still runs and only does this when i hit a big bump.
I was driving my car, and accelerating, in the middle of it i hit a bump and the entire car shut off (Lights, sound and engine) It came RIGHT back on and the engine was still running, all this happened within 1 second.
ive looked around and from what ive read, it might be the battery, alternator or grounding wires. I wiggled the grounding wires to see if anything would happen, nothing. The only other thing i can think of is the possibly the battery juice being tossed around (very unlikely but idk, someone know about this?) or the wires in or going to the alternator.
Thanks for any help.
For anyone that has an idea this is what recently happened. The car still runs and only does this when i hit a big bump.
I was driving my car, and accelerating, in the middle of it i hit a bump and the entire car shut off (Lights, sound and engine) It came RIGHT back on and the engine was still running, all this happened within 1 second.
ive looked around and from what ive read, it might be the battery, alternator or grounding wires. I wiggled the grounding wires to see if anything would happen, nothing. The only other thing i can think of is the possibly the battery juice being tossed around (very unlikely but idk, someone know about this?) or the wires in or going to the alternator.
Thanks for any help.
#2
Instructor
Hello all,
For anyone that has an idea this is what recently happened. The car still runs and only does this when i hit a big bump.
I was driving my car, and accelerating, in the middle of it i hit a bump and the entire car shut off (Lights, sound and engine) It came RIGHT back on and the engine was still running, all this happened within 1 second.
ive looked around and from what ive read, it might be the battery, alternator or grounding wires. I wiggled the grounding wires to see if anything would happen, nothing. The only other thing i can think of is the possibly the battery juice being tossed around (very unlikely but idk, someone know about this?) or the wires in or going to the alternator.
Thanks for any help.
For anyone that has an idea this is what recently happened. The car still runs and only does this when i hit a big bump.
I was driving my car, and accelerating, in the middle of it i hit a bump and the entire car shut off (Lights, sound and engine) It came RIGHT back on and the engine was still running, all this happened within 1 second.
ive looked around and from what ive read, it might be the battery, alternator or grounding wires. I wiggled the grounding wires to see if anything would happen, nothing. The only other thing i can think of is the possibly the battery juice being tossed around (very unlikely but idk, someone know about this?) or the wires in or going to the alternator.
Thanks for any help.
My inclination is to suspect a loose battery cable, a bad terminal, or loose fuse
#5
Lead Lap
Thread Starter
phew...
found out what it was..
came back from a car show (Show and Go VW/Audi @ Englishtown, NJ with a VW friend!! i didnt bring the Lex down there) and i was lookin in my engine bay. I heard buzzing around the fuel filter area and i thought it was the sound of electricity arcing. but i didnt see or smell anything. kept looking and i finally shook the battery to find it was pretty darn loose. I checked the battery hold down bracket and found that the bolt holding it to the top radiator support bar was rusted and wore the threads out.
Looking at the pictures you can see that the angle iron piece holding the rear of the battery swung over and tapped the positive terminal twice, which checks out because it happened to me two times (once by accident, and another trying to reproduce the situation later)
So, i drilled and tapped a bigger bolt into the rusted hole and remounted it
i will test soon whether or not i can cause the car to do it again.
edit: THANK YOU ALL FOR REPLYING AND GIVING ME IDEAS!!!
came back from a car show (Show and Go VW/Audi @ Englishtown, NJ with a VW friend!! i didnt bring the Lex down there) and i was lookin in my engine bay. I heard buzzing around the fuel filter area and i thought it was the sound of electricity arcing. but i didnt see or smell anything. kept looking and i finally shook the battery to find it was pretty darn loose. I checked the battery hold down bracket and found that the bolt holding it to the top radiator support bar was rusted and wore the threads out.
Looking at the pictures you can see that the angle iron piece holding the rear of the battery swung over and tapped the positive terminal twice, which checks out because it happened to me two times (once by accident, and another trying to reproduce the situation later)
So, i drilled and tapped a bigger bolt into the rusted hole and remounted it
i will test soon whether or not i can cause the car to do it again.
edit: THANK YOU ALL FOR REPLYING AND GIVING ME IDEAS!!!
Last edited by ES3_Ray; 10-19-08 at 04:08 PM. Reason: forgot to say thank you to everyone.
#6
Lead Lap
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