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Engine restarting randomly

I

iBrent

Veteran CEG'er
Joined
Oct 13, 2005
Messages
565
Location
Northborough, MA
So here's the deal. I'll be driving down the interstate and all of a sudden the RPM's go to 0, the car bucks, then right back to normal. The PATS light comes on for about 5 seconds then goes off. Then it drives like normal. It feels like the car dies, then because its still in gear and the key is still in the "on" position, it restarts itself. It'll do this randomly and at any given speed. Sometimes it starts back up immediately and the only reason I notice it is because of the PATS light and the sudden jolt. However, sometimes it'll die completely and won't restart. This happened four or five times today on the way home from work. I had to pull over, swear at it, then it would start up just fine.

I looked through the old forums and they said it was a possible bad battery connection. So yesterday (this has been happeneing for a week, getting progressively worse) I removed the battery connectors, took a terminal cleaning brush to both terminals and it still happens. Worse now in fact.

Any other ideas? The battery seems fine since it starts up on its own just fine. I have an amp hooked up but today I didn't turn the stereo on at all and it still stalled on me.

2000 CSVT ~50k miles
 
Dude this is freaky... I am having a HUGE problem like this, and have been for about 2 months. It is getting progressively worse, and is now to the point where WHEN it is messing up, I can't drive at all.. It "hiccups" so fast and repetitively that you just start coasting.

Tach dives towards 0.
CEL flickers
Fuel delivery shuts off
PATS lights comes on for one half of a second (performing a PATS proveout)

This could happen once.. and then be fine..

OR it (more recently) happens MULTIPLE TIMES, often so fast that the pats light doesn't get a chance to come on except for the last "hiccup", however the CEL is flickering SO FAST that you can barely tell its on.

I've pulled the entire engine fuse box, check all connections, ohmed the power and ground supply for the PCM, pulled the PCM and checked connections for corrosion, or arcing/burning evidence. Tightened all grounds I can find, and now I am freakin out of ideas.
 
iBrent said:
As in take it to a place that has those wheely battery/charging testers?
Click to expand...

you dont even have to do that, but if you cnat find a problem with what these steps then i would suggest taking it to some place that tests them.

1: check both DC and AC volts at the battery while the car is idleing.
DC should be between about 13 and 14 volts
AC should be less than .5 volts (the lower the better)

2: if you have less than 13 volts at the battery check the voltage drops of the negative side ( - post to ground) and the positive side ( + post to alternator). You should have less than .2 volts. if you do than replace the alternator or take it for more testing.

3: if you have more than .5 AC volts replace the alternator.


there are a few other checks but they require an amp clamp and you probably dont have one of those. If you have any questions on the tests just ask and please post your results.
 
Check Cable Clamps

Check Cable Clamps

Check where the pos/neg battery cables are connected to the battery clamps. Mine was intermittently not making a good connection..
 
striker2 said:
1: check both DC and AC volts at the battery while the car is idleing.
DC should be between about 13 and 14 volts
AC should be less than .5 volts (the lower the better)
Click to expand...

Vdc = 14.3-14.5
Vac = .043

Any other thoughts? I took the cleaner brush and this time I went to town on the terminals. I also removed both positive amp wires and their respective fuses to isolate the problem. Then I tightened the crap out of their clamps. The one thing I could see was the thick positive wire going into the terminal is crimped, but the exposed wire is black at the end, the other side with the insulation looks fine. But I did all of my voltage readings from that exposed wire. I'm not sure if that is coming from the alternator (in which case my readings are meaningless with respect to the battery's connections) or going out to the car.
 
Those numbers look great. theres gotta be a loose connection somewhere that while your driving intermitantly looses contact. the trick os finding it.

Im assuming you could let it sit and idle all day and it wouldnt shut down on itself?
 
iBrent said:
Vdc = 14.3-14.5
Vac = .043

Any other thoughts? I took the cleaner brush and this time I went to town on the terminals. I also removed both positive amp wires and their respective fuses to isolate the problem. Then I tightened the crap out of their clamps. The one thing I could see was the thick positive wire going into the terminal is crimped, but the exposed wire is black at the end, the other side with the insulation looks fine. But I did all of my voltage readings from that exposed wire. I'm not sure if that is coming from the alternator (in which case my readings are meaningless with respect to the battery's connections) or going out to the car.
Click to expand...

Can you hook up the voltmeter and then go for a drive?

When the car exhibits the same symptoms, check your voltage. If the brushes in your alternator are having problems, chances are they won't show any signs of problems at idle. You have to get into the rpm range where you were experiencing problems.
 
striker2 said:
Those numbers look great. theres gotta be a loose connection somewhere that while your driving intermitantly looses contact. the trick os finding it.

Im assuming you could let it sit and idle all day and it wouldnt shut down on itself?
Click to expand...

Correct. Great, now for a wire hunt!

muntus said:
Can you hook up the voltmeter and then go for a drive?
Click to expand...

I wish I could, but all I have is a handheld multimeter.


I do appreciate all the input fellas! Thanks a bunch.
 
iBrent said:
I wish I could, but all I have is a handheld multimeter.
Click to expand...

Hook it up to your cigarette lighter(not so good) or get some speaker wire and wrap it around your test wires, attatch the wires to the battery, run the wires into your car, and put the voltmeter on the dash so you can see it(better).
 
While that IS correct for YOU, it is a variation for me.

Seems to happen MORE when hot, though I can't verify/prove that as its happened when cold(6-8 mins from first start up)

It also happens to ME at IDLE, and from there to redline, though none are "worse" than others. Its as though when it gets in "the mood" to start doing it.. it just starts doing it, and for how long is only known by the car itself. Changing speeds, loads on the FEAD, accel, decel, idle, or electrical draw doesn't seem to affect it in the slightest.
 
Ray said:
While that IS correct for YOU, it is a variation for me.

Seems to happen MORE when hot, though I can't verify/prove that as its happened when cold(6-8 mins from first start up)

It also happens to ME at IDLE, and from there to redline, though none are "worse" than others. Its as though when it gets in "the mood" to start doing it.. it just starts doing it, and for how long is only known by the car itself. Changing speeds, loads on the FEAD, accel, decel, idle, or electrical draw doesn't seem to affect it in the slightest.
Click to expand...

Ray, I'd still recommend you put the voltmeter in your car and see if you can't totally eliminate the alternater as the culprit. Not all alternators exhibit the same symptoms as they start to fail, but with the Contour, it seems that they do fail. And then they are a pain in the rear to change. :mad:
 
muntus said:
but with the Contour, it seems that they do fail. And then they are a pain in the rear to change. :mad:
Click to expand...

Trust me.. I believe you..

:D :D

I've done it at the PCM connections and there were no fluctuations in voltage, but I can hook it up to the terminals again, just for S's and G's. Maybe I'll get lucky.
 
Had kinda the same problem. Try cleaning the battery terminals and the such. Replace whatever seems corroded. It worked for me.:cool:
 
jd2-98s said:
Check all your grounding points in the engine bay also. Just to rule it out.
Click to expand...

Wow, I feel like an idiot now. So there are three smaller wires that attach via criped ring terminals to the negative terminal clamp. I wiggled one of them and it popped right out. All three came out with no effort. So I bought some new ring terminals and crimped the crap out of them.

100 miles later, no problems. Thanks guys!
 
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