I drove my car today and less than a mile later I make a right turn and it starts sputtering and it started losing power. I would push down on the gas but nothing it would just lag on trying to TRY TO revive and just pulled over and all the power was dead. Not completely but ended up dying all the way.

1) I just removed aftermarket turbo today.
2)removed wiring from gauges that were all hacked up in fuse box
3)Needs timing done.
I am thinking it is something to do with me removing the gauges because before that i had the car on for a while and nothing happened. Could be wrong tho?

Battery dead completely.

Any guesses ?



(1998 Accord LX 5 spd.)

 

I forgot to mention there is a wire purple wire from the "ricer narrow band meter" it had running to one of the connectors under the hood near the distributor. The wire is currently just chilling not plugged into anything since i took the gauge out.

 

from your description this sounds like what i would call "hacked up." that usually makes troubleshooting more difficult. could be wrong...

common "died while driving" causes i've seen:

-bad coil and/or igniter in the distributor
-bad alternator (usually radio, headlights, gages will quit working prior to the car cutting off)
-broken timing belt (did this at 4k rpm, sounded like a muffled whip crack when it broke..)

could be more. i always try to rule those out first.

 

I'm betting on

-bad coil and/or igniter in the distributor

If you can find a buddy that will let you borrow his for a quick test, that would answer one of the questions.

These cars are known for that problem.


If it's just the ignitor sometimes the car will start after it's cooled.

It's recommended to buy a rebuilt dizzy. I learned the expensive way that changing just one piece in there is not the cheap way to go. A few months later the coil went and took my 4 month old ignitor with it. Those two pieces cost almost as much as the rebuilt dizzy.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I am going to go test the battery at autozone right now to see if it could have been that since I had not driven the car for about 3 weeks. Hopefully it is that and not those things :/

Ill keep you guys posted.

 

Turns out the battery was really low. Im getting it charged then give ti another go. Right down my street this time so I dont have to be pulled home haha.

 

generally a bad battery won't cause the car to cut off while driving. i expect your alternator will be the real root cause. did you have that checked too?

 

I thought about that because as long as the car is rolling it should have power right? Since that is a way to jump start a manual trans. No, I will get it checked tomorrow, ima take it for a quick run right now to see if it dies again. If it does ill just park it on the street over since I live on a main street.

If it still had that problem wouldnt it repeat if i left the car on? Or would it only repeat if i drove it down the street again?

 

It should repeat with the car running, sitting still if it's the alternator... but that's not really good for the new battery.

 

With the car idling measure the volts. 14v bad battery but that doesn't explain why it died running. 12v dead alternator

 

Okay, turns out it was the alternator.

I took it to autozone today and RIGHT when im going up the bump into the parking lot my car dies -____- just my luck half street half curb.

Took the battery to get charged waited there an hour till i could drive it across the lot for them to check the alternator. The guy told me it in fact was the alternator.

So being the DIY'er that I am I came home and as I was about to begin the process of removing it I see the wires that connected to it werent in right because of melting/ breaking (Due to turbo heat, removed turbo already.)

So anyway I toss the cap since it was useless and I plug in the wires correct, turn the car on then unplug the battery + and - and car is still ON! , that being said ALTERNATOR WORKS!

...Just one problem now, I decided to unplug the wires like a dumb@$$$$ and lost the order of how they connected so now I need to figure out what order 4 wires go in.

Can someone please help me figuring this out?