Car shut off @ 110 MPH!?!?!?!

While racing an Eagle Talon last night and barely
beating him, my car shut off at 110MPH.

Check Engine light turned on, Oil light turned on, etc.
I pulled over to side of the road, pulling on the E-brake light a Mudafuka. I waited about 5 seconds then started it back up again like nothing happened.

The car is a stock 96 Contour.

A friend said it could be vapor blow-off with the fuel line getting hot and the engine getting fuel-starved. Another thing is with older cars exist that are programmed by the governor to shut off at a certain speed.

Needless to say, I was scared s.h.i.t.less when I had NO brakes going 110!!!!

You guys know any reasons for what happened to me??
Should this be a cause for concern??

thanks!

Originally posted by kjb219:

Needless to say, I was scared s.h.i.t.less when I had NO brakes going 110!!!!

Zoinks!!!

Weird, just had the SAME thing happen to me at about 70mph. I re-started it and drove it to work no problem, checked for codes and got none. First time for me and quite odd.

Check you OIL Level.

IIRC, if the Oil Light turns on, it sends a signal to your PCM, and the PCM will shut down the motor to prevent damage.

Remember, you should have at least 5.8 - 6.3 quarts of oil
in the pan, according to Rousch Racing.

Originally posted by RoadRunner:
IIRC, if the Oil Light turns on, it sends a signal to your PCM, and the PCM will shut down the motor to prevent damage.

I've never heard this before.

What I would check is your battery connections. Might have jarred one loose when you hit the speed limiter. The speed limiter certainly won't shut your car down like that on purpose - that's not safe.

But then again, I bet the "officials" at the "track" didn't think it was safe for you to shut down like that either.

A loose battery terminal would cause ALL POWER to fluctuate and possible burn out the alternator.
It wouldn't cause a CEL and Oil light to light.

Check with Bill or Jim on this one.

CEL and Oil light did go off, but I believe they turn on when you turn the key to the start position.

I doubt those lights turning on mean anything.

A friend at work says her Cougar shut off after hitting a "rev limiter".

As far as oil, I have the 4 cyl. so I only need about 4.5 quarts. I can't remember what Haynes recommends.

OFF-Topic, does anyone know if I can do better then $540 for set of Koni shocks?

Thanks!!

Originally posted by kjb219:
CEL and Oil light did go off, but I believe they turn on when you turn the key to the start position.

You said they turned on when you were running at 110 mph, didn't you ?
Just as the engine died ?

Lets stay focused on the topic please.

This gives new meaning to the old phase "running out of breath"

sorry Paul

a great reason to *NOT* drive that F'n fast unless you were on a racetrack...

My battery had a loose connection issue, some time ago and I go the occasional occurrence, similar to this. What happens is that a surge or power cut hits the system then it returns. The car dies but because the key is still on, you get the light show. I got it because I had to reset my computer a hundred times due to a lean code on my MAF. It really confused and scared me, as I thought it was a computer problem.
A non-SVT Tour has a Rev-Limiter @ 110. It probably hit and the car lurched due to the fuel cut. It then jarred the battery and interupted power temporarily. When power return (milliseconds later)car was dead but all of your lights were on. This is my impression of the issue. It happened to me on a powershift from 2nd to 3rd. Scared the piss out of me!

Originally posted by PA 3L SVT:

Originally posted by RoadRunner:
IIRC, if the Oil Light turns on, it sends a signal to your PCM, and the PCM will shut down the motor to prevent damage.

I've never heard this before.

It is quite true. A significant loss of oil pressure will cause the PCM to kill the engine. (or the engine to kill itself, but that's another story)
It will also throw a CEL. Yes there is a code for low oil pressure.

YES - the lights went on as the engine died.
But so did all the other lights that go on when key is in start position prior to starting engine.

TedS - not drive 110MPH on highway.... agreed, except when no one except some a.sshole with a piece of shite Talon with his ugly girlfriend pisses me off and gets on my ass. Also, only 1 other car was on the road.

In reply to:

Lets stay focused on the topic please.

Ok, just curious about another topic which someone can email me with answers.

have a good weekend all...

That's what I thought may have happened, but a quick look said everything's fine - will just be cognizant of this for the next little while.

First of all, everyone stop preaching, like you never tested the speed limiter on the road... As for the question, I believe from what you say that the lights all came on after the engine died, which is what it looks like when you turn on the key without starting the car (so you can check the bulbs in the dashboard) If the lights came on after the engine died then thats probably the reason they came on. Now, the question would be why the car died when it hit the speed limiter, that I unfortunately have no clue about, but this might give you a place to start... -Nick

Even if it did shut off the motor, wouldn't it be spinning anyway from the car moving that fast and being in gear? And even if it were a battery problem wouldn't the motor continue to run? Seems to me once the car is started it should keep going without the battery...

And WHY in moses' name wouldn't your brakes work? THey work regardless of whether or not the engine is running.

No, the battery is part of the "circuit" of power going to the spark plugs. So no battery = no spark. The brakes dont work as well without the engine on, so he might have had brakes, but they wouldnt work good with the engine not on. -Nick

hey, who was in the lead b4 your car cut off?

Originally posted by TheGreatOne:
Even if it did shut off the motor, wouldn't it be spinning anyway from the car moving that fast and being in gear? And even if it were a battery problem wouldn't the motor continue to run? Seems to me once the car is started it should keep going without the battery...

And WHY in moses' name wouldn't your brakes work? THey work regardless of whether or not the engine is running.

the brakes would work,but since they are power brakes,they only work right with the engine running..it is very,very hard to push the pedal down w/o the engine running..i think that's what he meant..

In reply to:

hey, who was in the lead b4 your car cut off?

I was barely!!!

In reply to:

the brakes would work,but since they are power brakes,they only work right with the engine running..it is very,very hard to push the pedal down w/o the engine running..i think that's what he meant..

I do think the brakes would have worked if I would have put all my weight on them. this is going to sound dumb so start chuckling now.......
I didnt push on brake pedal FULL force because I was affraid of fcuking up something else.

Well, now that i've finally graduated school and got some $$$ in the bank, time to go buy Koni's, Eibachs, intake, and exhaust. Woohoooo!!!!

Originally posted by TheGreatOne:
Even if it did shut off the motor, wouldn't it be spinning anyway from the car moving that fast and being in gear? And even if it were a battery problem wouldn't the motor continue to run? Seems to me once the car is started it should keep going without the battery...

And WHY in moses' name wouldn't your brakes work? THey work regardless of whether or not the engine is running.

hes right the engine will continue to run if the battery did mine blew up and the car ran, got in it next mourning nothing. i jump started it and it worked no problem. although the battery was blown. didnt know this until i wanted to get home from school.

The thing that most likly "killed" your car is the govenor(sp?) This little pain in the @$$ is what caused me to lose my 1 and only race, i had my @$$ handed to me by a 95 regal coupe as for the other problems associated with that i'm not sure.

First I am not preachin, I am just sayin geez how dumb can it be.. the VERY reason I think it is stupid to drive that fast on a public street happens and people still can't see how stupid it is.

IF you wanna die, there are ways you can do it without killing ME, you don't have to drive like a f'n a-hole because some dumb@SS pissed you off.

second

real mature to drive like that when provoked is childish.

I have *NEVER* tested my speed limiter on the highway. If I want to drive that fast there are places to do that. AutoX, race tracks whatever.

now for the engine problem

Do you have some sort of rigged induction system? Ram-Air or Cold Air?

When the speed limiter kicks in you coulda been running way lean and stalled the engine.

Try this.

Go to a race track during the day and do a few laps to see.

This series of posts contain an amazing amount of pure speculation.

I assume that you haven't chipped your PCM since the first thing most people do when they go down that foolish road is remove or bump up the governor or rev limiter.

A few facts from a Powertrain engineer:

1) The PCM will NEVER intentionally command the engine to stop. This would not be safe under most circumstances, even to protect the vehicle from damage by abusive driving (it is in Ford's interests to allow the vehicle to be damgaged in preference to the driver since the vehicle damage results in lower liability). The PCM may prevent the engine from starting due to the anti-theft strategy, but it will not intentionally cause the engine to stop. It is possible that the PCM reset under these driving conditions. Generally, the engine has enough inertia to continue running through a reset sequence, but if the reset was caused by a KAM corruption, the engine may stall before the it has a chance to adapt to the unusual driving conditions.

2) The circuit that drives the low oil pressure light is NOT a PCM input. The PCM in a Contour does not know the oil pressure or even the status of this light.

3) The various lights came on because the engine stalled. The CEL/MIL only reports emissions concerns, not driveability concerns (e.g. engine stalls, which actually reduce emissions). The PCM may log some driveability DTCs, but they will not light the CEL/MIL by themselves. Also, it is unlikely that your PCM is designed to detect any driveability concerns during abusive driving conditions. The PCM strategists and calibrators have better things to do with their time.

4) Assuming that you are driving a manual transmission vehicle and left it in gear, a briefly intermittent battery connection will not cause an engine stall, especially at those speeds. The inertia of the engine is enough to make such a concern, if present, appear as a misfire or hessitation. The same is probably true of an automatic, but the transmission might briefly downshift to second and I'm not sure what would happen then.

5) Power brakes rely on manifold vaccuum to power the brake booster. If the engine stalls, you will only have power brakes for a fairly brief period, especially if you are speeding. After that, you will still have brakes, but without the boost, so you'll have to stand on the pedal and hope you have a long straightaway for stopping the vehicle.