I had posted this issue before. I wanted to ask again if anyone has any thoughts on what's happening now that I've been running the van for a while.

I usually see the engine cut out when I'm on the freeway and it's more likely to happen when I'm accelerating. Every once and a while it cuts out when I'm going into work doing 35. Once the engine died at a stop sign. I'm not getting any sputtering just a momentarily cut out on the engine, 1/2 - 1 second at the most. One time I was doing a U-turn and giving it some gas at the same time and it cut out and came back to quickly that I "slammed" the gears in the rear differential hard enough that I got out of the vehicle as I thought someone had rear ended me. This is why I'm thinking it's electrical versus a fuel issue, no sputtering. Having said that there are times when I first start the engine and it sputters for a half minute or so and then settles down.

Is ti possible for something in the distributor to go out? Again, I'm getting no engine light coming on. I had done some work where I had to pull the transmission back from the engine and when I bolted it back up it wouldn't start. I noticed that I had pinched two of the four wires of the four conductor ribbon cable/wire going into the distributor in between the engine block and the transmission. I got it out and then the engine would start. I wiggled the wire but didn't get any reaction so I wrapped some Gorilla tape around it and called it quits.

With no engine light coming on this is hard to diagnose. I suppose it's possible the coil I bought is flaky (BorgWarner) but it's fairly new. Is there a way to test coils?

Thanks in advance,
M. Wagner

 

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Seems like several of us are having similar cutting out issues. I thought I had it solved, because when I changed the coil it ran great for about 2 weeks, then started again, same when I changed the crank sensor.

If you figure out what is causing your engine to quit, please post about it. I think you have 2 threads going about the same issue?

Jim

 

FYI - That part only controls the fuel injectors not spark. The crank sensor controls the spark.

 

Would it be accurate to say that the cam sensor sends a signal to the PCM who then in turn signals the injectors to fire? And in a similar fashion the crank sensor sends a signal to the pcm who then in turn sends a signal to the coil to fire? The common denominator being the pcm?

 

Absolutely.

 

The PCM. I had purchased one due to another issue I had and it turned out that it wasn't the problem. I haven't returned it yet so I could try it. Just need to get the milage reset on it. Not sure who can do that though (and how much). Or I can replace the cam pickup first.

 

I'm new to pcm's, so please excuse my ignorance, but why does the mileage need to be reset before you can try it?

 

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Thank you.
Jim