Mr. Scotty,
I'm losing my mind I swear it. I had a bad voltage regulator inside my PCM and had to replace the PCM in its entirety. I did everything I could before that to diagnose the problem. Replaced battery, alternator, fused lead, checked all wires and fuses, PCM wasn't charging battery so I had to bite the bullet. Last night I just put the new PCM in and the vehicle drove perfect for about 15 miles. Then all of a sudden in the middle of driving to work this morning, the vehicle died. I still had power from the battery (which now charges correctly) but the engine had shut off and I had no acceleration or power steering. I pulled over to the side of the road, checked my pants... Then tried to restart it. It cranked continously without staring so I let it sit. Then after about a minute at rest, the vehicle started back up again. I drove it for about another mile and then it happened again with the same issues. This repeated multiple times until I got to work to begin internet sleuthing. I checked for codes with OBDII and found none, and I checked cables and found no issues. I'm finding it hard to believe it's the new PCM and thinking it's the camshaft position sensor. I'm hoping it is something that simple. I'm a DIY mechanic with no training but I'm about to lose my mind if I can't figure this out. Please help
Team,
Thank you all for the assist today. After some poking around I found the ASD relay had lost a post. I replaced it and everything seems to run fine. Ive never messed with the ASD relay so I'm lost as to how the hell that happened. Anyway. All good here. Thnks again.
Do you have a CEL? How, exactly, did you scan it for codes?
I don't have a CEL I just did a Bluetooth OBD scan tool. I'm going to have to take it to AA or AZ for that, but no dash light indicating an issue
That's a good idea. Their free scan will probably bring up some code(s) that will get you going in the right direction.
I'll make a run there as soon as possible. Thank you
In my experience, there was one condition which would let the car die out suddently without any codes, and then start after a while, and then die out again and again. It was the ECU power problem: the ECU just stalled (suffered some sort of a blue screen of death, just without a screen) due to its input voltage often being way off. In my case, it was due to a positive battery terminal shorting against the car body intermittently, but I guess that various other ECU power problems could render similar results: the ECU hangs up too fast to be able to save codes. Since you wrote you just replaced your PCM, and had had voltage-related problems before, that (I mean, adequate power supply of the ECM module) would be the direction in which I would first start "digging" in search for a solution.
Sorry for the PCM vs ECU terminology mess. Some cars (like mine) have ECUs, some have PCMs. Above, I used the two terms interchangeably.
@DontKnowler I appreciate the suggestion. Newest development, after sitting in the parking lot, now the car won't start at all. It just turns and turns but doesn't start. It's sounding more and more like a camshaft or crankshaft position sensor. 🤷 Thoughts?
In my world both camshaft or crankshaft position sensors, when failing, generate high priority error messages which can be read even using a 7-USD bluetooth scanner. I mean, on both of my cars, of different makes, this was the case.
Anyway you are actually lucky that your car is now not starting at all. This gives hope that, when having been towed to a workshop, a car mechanic will be able to actually find the problem. Cause only few of them are as good as Scotty and are able to diagnose even intermittent failures. Normal mechanics usually cannot. So it is good that the problem went into active phase.
Well I threw a little but if starter fluid in the throttle body and then turned it over. It started and stayed started. I hear the fuel pump engage when the key is turned to power. Maybe a wire is getting too hot and cutting something off? I'm losing hair... I'm going to take it to AA and see if they can see something my scanner isn't picking up.