Help! My Car is died today. It is an electrical gremlin

[89ARIES]

Please help. Your club president, who built your club around his car, may be forced to make his car a lawn ornament. His car has become an electrical gremlin. Here is the major problem (minor if you guys can point me in the right direction):

The STUPID car died on the way home today! It seems that possible ongoing electrical problem just reared its ugly head and turned the engine off while I was driving. Fortunately, I happened to be just rounding a street corner into my quiet neighborhood. Here is the scenario. Any help or speculation would be appreciated.

Good News: Engine did not overheat. It seems it was a bad temperature sending unit. No blown headgasket. No leaks. There was too much coolant in the system though.

BAD News. Here is what happened which I think lead to the car stalling today. For over a YEAR, I have had intermittent surging, chugging at idle, and random stall out while driving. Of course, these symptoms were never always present and the car continued to perform well. Also, check engine light on constantly with three or four codes.

First time: Got ripped off $1000. Car began in March 2007 doing the intermittent chugging at idle, surging or bucking on the freeway, and flashing check engine light. At the same time, fuel pump failed and this caused a nightmare of maladies for me and the incompetent mechanics. Many sensors and other things were replaced. Check engine light codes were first a 31, then a 37, and then a 25. After the car randomly died while driving with myself and other mechanics 4 times, I had the throttle body rebuilt. This was December 2007. It seemed the car was cured as all these symptoms went away and barely reared their ugly heads once in a blue moon.

Second time: The car finally died while I was driving today. All the symptoms I just mentioned above have returned in the exact same way. First, the check engine light began throwing codes in a certain exact same order again. First a 31, then a 37, then a 25, and now a 23. All these codes are pointing to selenoid circuits and stuff related to the throttle body. The car made the Sacaramento trip. However, today while I was driving at 35mph, I felt a two violent surges or bucks while driving. As I rounded the corner of my neighborhood, the car just shut off. I had to tug at the wheel to coast into a parking spot. Not fun.

Symptoms of engine quitting: You are just driving when suddenly your steering wheel gets stiff. All becomes quiet. You have very little control of the car. You just realized your engine was killed by something electrical. You manage to pull over by tugging the steering wheel and jamming hard on the brakes which now seem to work less efficiently. In vain, you try to restart your engine. The engine always inevitably restarts whether it is after a half minute or up to ten minutes. When it does not restart, it always turns over while you are turning the key. Today, after a few trys, the engine barely chugged to life as I vigorously pumped the gas petal and I got the car to start. I drove home too suprised to really be upset as I have now experienced the engine quit thing at least 8 times I have had this electrical gremlin.

This is all very upsetting as I have a good motor, great gas mileage, but some real problem with my electrical system. Help! Your fellow K car member may not have a K car anymore unless he can fix this stupid electrical problem once and for all. I have been very patient. I hope this problem can be fixed and I will have a more years of trouble free service.

[85TurboAries]

did u try a new distributor? thats what happended to our old lancer

[89ARIES]

Thanks 85Turbo Aries. Glad to see you are still here. Actually, I just got some good news about my car. It is up and running again with no more stalling. The fuel injector began to fail 14 months ago and it took this long for it to fail completely. Basically, it was dumping to much gas to the engine which choked it and caused it to stall every couple of seconds. This all happened after I successfully completed the 1200 mile drive last week with the K car. Surprisingly, the gas mileage was unaffected throughout the year. The last hurdle is to figure out why the temperature gauge rises to overheat mode in a minute when the engine is not overheating. I think the car should be about as good as new very soon. Whew! Knock wood. I think the car will be fine. As for the electrical, I should still probably do a full inspection for any shorts or corroded wiring. Hard to believe these K cars are now over 20 years old.

[85TurboAries]

i hard wired alot of my car and by passed the original.....like before when my subs hit the motor stalled and everything shut off LOL but its all wired strait to the battery...my alarm is directly wired and the rest is ok as far as i kno..i gotta get insurance now tho i dont have a job...or money lol....so my restoration is on hold for now..my new seats and dash are sitting in canada waiting lol