So here's the deal...

A few weeks ago, I was driving around town, and the motor started stumbling a little on acceleration. Strange. Then I was sitting at a red light, and the idle dropped real low, and the check engine light flashed on, then it died. !%^#$$#. Cranked it back up, had to rev the piss out of it to keep it running. Died again. Cranked it up once more, it died, and that was the end of it. Luckily I was able to push it to a shell station about 100ft away (thanks to the only person who helped me and didn't honk their horn while flipping me the bird), where after an hour of tinkering, it still would not start. So I left it there for the mechanic to work on the next day.

As luck would have it, I was charged ~$40 for him to be able to crank it the next morning, and diagnose the problem as a dead battery.

Now its been running fine since then, but I know it didn't magically fix itself overnight, so whatever was wrong is bound to happen again. And I'm taking it on a 200 mile ski trip next weekend, so I need to figure this thing out.

Here's what I've done to it:
The temperature started reading lower all of a sudden about a month ago, so I put a new thermostat in it. No change. I don't know if that has anything to do with it. I do know the wire connected to the sensor for the guage is jimmy-rigged, so that may be the reason for the weird reading.

When we first got it (6 months ago), the idle was about 1500 rpm. Adjusted the screw where the air intake tube attatches to get it back to normal. Still jumped up to 1500 w/AC on, so we turned the plastic screw with the spring on it (on top of the engine), and that fixed the AC idle up. I assume that's the purpose of that screw, because it worked.

On some occassions, the idle would still be 1500, but I finally figured out the butterfly valve was sticking. Cleaned the throttle bottle with TB cleaner, and it seems to have helped, though it still does it some. If you pop the hood and manually push on the butterfly valve, idle returns to normal. TB is clean, so could this be a dashpot problem? I know sometimes the TPS can get messed up when you clean the throttle body, think that has anything to do with why it died?

The engine is the 22RE, with headers, a Borla exhaust, a little bit of a cam, and fuel injection system that has been hopped up a little bit (all done by previous owner). I don't think any of these mods have anything to do with it.

Like I said, its been running perfect since then, but I hate sitting at stop lights wondering if this is the day its gonna do it again. Thanks for any help!

 

This is a longshot, but I had a similar experience with the fuel injection on an old datsun 280Z. The short story is that whenever the battery cables were dirty, the fuel injection would mess up. It seems that the ECU doesn't like it when the battery is not working properly.

 

bttt...

 

You got the battery replaced, right?

I had the same exact symptoms happen with my dads '01 Dodge Ram 2500. Once the battery got replaced, the problem never came back.

Food for thought.

 

Didn't have the battery replaced. Only reason it was dead is because I ground on it for about an hour. I know its probably weak, but it still holds its charge and turns the motor over fine. I wouldn't think a bad battery would cause it to die unless the alternator wasn't charging and the motor was running solely off the battery. Anyone have anything else? She's still running perfect, but I know it will come back to bite me in the a$$. And I probably won't end up near a shop this time...