Cruising along, car shut down. Known issue?

Andrew Vanis · Post by **Andrew Vanis** » 23 Jul 2024, 18:27

Cruising along, car shut down. Known issue?

Cruising along on the highway at 75. Nothing weird happening. Check engine light went on and gauges went to 0. Pulled to the side nothing obvious. Started right back up and continued cruising.

First time that's ever happened since I've owned the car may be hundred thousand miles.

Is this a known issue I should keep an eye out for?

I wouldn't know how to reproduce it or have any clue what might have caused it.

Thoughts?

Thanks

Post by **scot850** » 23 Jul 2024, 19:48

Fuel pump relay? I'm sure you guys down there are baking. The relay may be getting to that point in life where some of the solder connections are starting to open up and with heat it could tip it over the edge. There is a whole thread on that with Mr. Al investigating, probably in the last 3-6 months. How full is your fuel tank? With your high temperatures I would recommend keeping it no less than a 1/4 full to try and keep the pump submersed and cooler.

How is the battery and battery cables?

From there you are then looking into things like the crank and cam sensors failing in heat, ignition key electrical portion.

Basically you have a lot of potential heat related issues and old electrical parts.

I'm assuming no codes were thrown?

Neil.

Andrew Vanis · Post by **Andrew Vanis** » 23 Jul 2024, 19:59

scot850 wrote: ↑23 Jul 2024, 19:48 Fuel pump relay? I'm sure you guys down there are baking. The relay may be getting to that point in life where some of the solder connections are starting to open up and with heat it could tip it over the edge. There is a whole thread on that with Mr. Al investigating, probably in the last 3-6 months. How full is your fuel tank? With your high temperatures I would recommend keeping it no less than a 1/4 full to try and keep the pump submersed and cooler.

How is the battery and battery cables?

From there you are then looking into things like the crank and cam sensors failing in heat, ignition key electrical portion.

Basically you have a lot of potential heat related issues and old electrical parts.

I'm assuming no codes were thrown?

Neil.

Do you have a link for that thread or at least title suggestions to search?

Fuel level was about 1/4

Batter and cables, good I think.

Just saw it only the check engine light for a bit before all the gauges went to 0 and the rest of the car is off instrument lights coming on .....after restart, no check engine light.

I didn't think fuel starvation, though a real possibility. My sense was maybe an ECU drop out maybe from a ground but I have to data for that hunch.

It wasn't particularly hot out

Post by **scot850** » 23 Jul 2024, 20:03

This is the thread:

viewtopic.php?p=649163&hilit=Fuel+pump+relay#p649163

Neil.

Andrew Vanis · Post by **Andrew Vanis** » 23 Jul 2024, 22:00

scot850 wrote: ↑23 Jul 2024, 20:03 This is the thread:

viewtopic.php?p=649163&hilit=Fuel+pump+relay#p649163

Neil.

That's super cool and super complicated . Rock Auto has a Rostra fuel pump relay for $25 if it does it again.

Post by **erikv11** » 24 Jul 2024, 00:31

Electrical portion of the ignition switch would be my first thought.

You can try to reproduce it (or variants of it) by turning the key slightly fore or aft.

Basically these all fail. If the one on your car hasn't yet then it may be time.

Post by **jreed** » 24 Jul 2024, 05:54

Our car shut off last week while pulling into a parking spot. The engine was running normally at low rpm's when the engine suddenly stopped, lights on the dashboard lit up. Restarting got it running again and home. I took out the old fuel pump relay and replaced it. The old one had many cracked solder joints -- I added a few photos to the link listed above. The car is back up and running again with no issues noted yet.