ohniki78

Hey everyone I'm new here. I thought you guys might be able to assist me.

I have a 2001 S2K Spa Yellow. The only mods I have done to the car are Eiback sport line springs, x-drilled brakes, K&N Filter and radiator cover. I don't think any of these mods is causing my car to cut off so I need your assistance.

I started my car this morning and the car shuddered for a few seconds after I pushed the engine start button. I thought that was kinda weird since it never did that before.

I drove it for a few minutes and everytime I slow down the car starts to shudder (shuddering for about 3-8 seconds) When I started to accelerate the shuddering went away. It also happens when I put the clutch in 1st gear.

The car was doing this for a little while, I drove up a hill and I was sitting in rush hour traffic. Then as soon as traffic started to move my car just cut off on me. All the lights on the dash came on minus the RPM Guage. Then everything went quiet. I rolled to the side of the road and started the car and it started up fine. Drove it for about 30 feet and it cut off again. It did that over and over until I finally got back home.

I checked the battery and it said I have 100% charge on it. I started the car and let it run and disconnected the negative cable and the car was still running which rules out the alternator.

My car is really well kept, I only put Mobile 10W30 Synthetic Oil every 1500 miles and change my tranny fluid and diff fluid every 5K miles. (Mobile for diff and OEM for Tranny)

The last thing I did to the car was fill it up with 93 Octane gas at the Exxon station. The car ran for an entire day just fine without problems. This morning everything went down hill.

Hope this is enough information for you guys. I would really appreciate some assistance. I don't want to take it to Honda since I'm a chick they are always trying to screw me over.


Thanks guys.

CaptainMike

That is a new one on me, Look up in the FAQ's for the 'MAP' sensor, it sometimes causes somewhat similar symptoms but I haven't heard of any that extreme, I can't believe you aren't getting a CEL (Check engine light) with this serious of a problem. Another thing it 'MIGHT' be is that your ECU is adapting to a recent major change in weather (Temp/humdity) if that is the case the problem will go away by itself in a few days, but the engine shouldn't be stalling out completely over and over. Hopefully someone more knowledgable than me will chime in here shortly.
Good luck!
Mike
MAP WHACK link
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=209708

And BTW, there is no reason in the world unless you are running a dedicated track car to change synthetic oil or even dino oil every 1500 miles.. there is TONS of great info in 'The Oil Journals' and the other FAQ's in this section and in the 'TECHNICAL' sub forum to this forum.
Best of luck to you.

phillys2k

ASk xVIPER

nibble

has ambient temperature dropped in your area?

xviper

Looks like you guys have it covered pretty well.

Although this is unrelated to what's going on, this frequency of fluid changes is waaaaaaaaaaaaay overkill, but it's your money.

ohniki78

Thanks for the reply guys. The temp has not changed in my area. I have about 50K miles on the car. I tried tapping the MAP sensor and it didn't work. I disconnected the battery waited 10 minutes and reconnected and still not working.

I also disconnected the MAP and reconnected it and it still stalls after a little bit of driving. It only stalls in 1st or 2nd gear when I'm around 5 to 10MPH.

Could it be the gas station put in the wrong type of fuel. I know I selected 93 Octane when filling up. I also noticed that I filled up on Sunday around 4pm and drove for about 2 hours straight. I noticed that the tank is almost empty. That seems weird, could I have a hole in the tank or is my gas leaking. I checked my gas cap and retightned it. Could I be losing gas pressure?


PS> I know changing my oil every 1500 miles is over kill, but I used to do it to my 97 Integra GS-R and that car has been running since I bought it new. It also runs faster now than when I first bought it. I can afford to keep changing the oils but I cannot afford to rebuild or buy a new motor/ tranny.

Thanks for all your help everyone. I hope I someone can figure this one out.

xviper

Have you owned it this whole time? Just trying to figure out if this car is new to you.

Please describe exactly what you are doing with the clutch, throttle, brakes, shifter when this happens. I'm trying to determine (in conjunction with my first query) whether it's possible that you are simply stalling out the car.

How were you driving during those 2 hours straight? If you were revving it up through every gear and "blasting off" from every stop, then you could go through a tank of gas in 2 hours. If you had a significant leak, you would smell it when the car is parked and you would see evidence of it on the ground. Your gas cap would have nothing to do with this situation. If anything, if the cap was loose, you'd get a CEL but it wouldn't affect the way the car drove. You fuel pump makes the "gas pressure" (aka. fuel pressure). The gas cap affects the way the recovery tank works and won't have much affect on how the engine works.

ohniki78

I actually bought the car with 10k miles on it about 2 years ago. I have a new Optima Yellow Top battery and ACT Clutch both about a 4 months old now.

I was sitting in traffic and as the cars in front of me started to move I poped into 1st gear and accelerated. Got up to 15mph and then everything cut off. I was still in 1st gear when it cut off.

The clutch is still pretty new so if I were to come off the clutch to early the car would cut off with a strong kick and cut off.

When the car cut off it did it very smoothly. Like if I didn't pay attention to the dash or the noise from the engine I wouldn't even know the car was cut off.

Since my car was acting funny I turned off the radio after my first stall. I listened for any weird noise but nothing out of the ordinary. The car would just quietly cut off and the light on the dash would all turn on and then shut off.

When I got home after checking my battery I turned my radio on and headlights on. Everything was bright as if they had full power going to it.

When I was driving down hill the car was going about 20MPH and then it just cut off and I was just rolling with the momentum. I didn't even know it shut off on me again.

I put about 40K miles on the car in 2 years. I think the gas drained because I was flooring it on the beltway going 95MPH. There was a 360 Modena that was playing freeway tag with me that I blame But when I was on Sunday the car was driving better than it ever did. It accelrated faster than before, turned better than before, idle'd better than before. I told myself, "this car rocks, I've never seen it ride so smoothly" I guess I cursed myself.

xviper

Thanks for the better description. Based this, for the engine to just shut off like that, one of 2 things is happening.
1. The ignition is shutting off for some reason and you are getting no spark.
2. The fuel is shutting off and you are getting no fuel.

"1" can be caused by ECU issues, poor ground issues, or bad wiring in the ignition anywhere from the ignition switch to the power that feeds the coil packs.

"2" can be caused by an intermittent fault in the fuel deliver system (fuel pump or its wiring) or the electronics that run the injectors.

A couple more questions:
Do you have some sort of alarm system on the car? (I'm thinking you might have a malfunctioning alarm system that is interfering with the running of the car.)
When it shuts down, is this exactly like if you turned the key to off? (I'm thinking that your immobilzer might be having a brain fart and not recognizing the key.)

So, to get it started up and running again, do you turn the key off and back on and try again?

ohniki78

I do have an alarm system. Its a factory installed unit. It came with the car. I haven't done any work to the electronics.

Is it normal for the wiring to just go bad for no reason? Could it be a bad O2 Sensor?

I actually didn't have to turn the key to get it to start again. When I was driving and the car cut off I just pushed down on the clutch pedal, put the shifter to neutral and just pushed the engine start and it started running again. The car was already moving so when the car started up again I just put in in gear and drove.


This is the first time this has happened to me. I've driven this car for 2 years and I've never ran into any issues. This is the first time. Could it be that something got fried or just blew like a sensor?

Thanks for your help in this XVIPER. I do appreciate all your advice.