Help, car just quit!?!?!?!?

[jrzygrl]

Anyone else have trouble with the car just shutting down for no reason? Mine went completely dead yesterday. Only six weeks old and don't even drive every day. Had premium gas (plenty) and all stock engine. Dealership can't find anything wrong. Any ideas?

[looking97233]

Mabye she was jelous of you driving another car? Seriously, I have no idea.

[jrzygrl]

Thanks, maybe you're right, but, she won't be worth much if I put a ton of miles on her. I clean and detail her every other week, am I "anal"? I like to take care of my vehicles. I had a
Navigator before this and it was showroom clean when I traded it in.

[jgc61sr2002]

Originally posted by jrzygrl
Anyone else have trouble with the car just shutting down for no reason? Mine went completely dead yesterday. Only six weeks old and don't even drive every day. Had premium gas (plenty) and all stock engine. Dealership can't find anything wrong. Any ideas? When it shuts down does it restart immeadiately and is this at highway speeds. John

[WolfeBros]

Need a little more info.
When it shuts down.....is this at speed ? You are already driving the car when it stops? and does it restart ?
or did you just climb in it and it would not start to begin with?

I ask because we have had some 'no start' problems with one or two cars that I can remember. I do not remember any dying after they have been running.

I know this is frustrating......they will get it fixed and you DO have a great car. And welcome to our little site.......the best on the Net.
Please keep us updated on your car and come back often. We have a good group of folks here and one of us can usually help with your questions. :D

[jrzygrl]

I turned off the key and it restarted right away. It was after highway driving, but, only doing 25-30 at the time of shutdown, thank God didn't happen on the highway.

[JamesHecker]

Does anyone think this could have anything to do with the wiring chafing against a braket under the hood? I think it was Fourth Horseman that had this problem sometime ago.

My memory could be faulty on this, but just thought I would bring it up.

[jefferson-mo]

What my car did was I drove home one day everything fine........and when I went to pull it in the garage 2 hours later........nothing----no crank no start nothing.....2000 miles, only time it did anything wrong.
Had it towed in and had to have the PCM replaced.......

been fine since

[jrzygrl]

Thanks, I'll talk to the service guys today and see. I'll mention these things to them and hope it will be solved. Hate driving the
sable they gave me for a loner. They told me the computer did not record the incident, so they're keeping it another day.

[UncleLar]

Tell them to at least give you a GM as a loaner,or a Town Car,save the Sable for the Villager crowd,you bought a big car 'cause you wanted to drive a big car!

[jgc61sr2002]

Originally posted by jrzygrl
I turned off the key and it restarted right away. It was after highway driving, but, only doing 25-30 at the time of shutdown, thank God didn't happen on the highway. jrzygrl - Sounds like an intermitant problem, they are a little more difficult to find. I am sure the dealer will be able to resolve the problem. John :(

[jrzygrl]

Dealer is "pissin' me off. I called them at 5 today, said it was ready to go, didn't find anything. Told me someone took my car home to test it out last night! Then 5 minutes later he calls back and says want to keep til noon tomorrow, want to make sure of the drivability issue, which means someone's out tooling around in my car again! And I'm driving a Sable!

[Bigdogjim]

jrzygrl: Your dealer sounds like mine.......
How could they turn this into a nightmare....
And a Sable to boot..................
Good luck
Big Dog

[cruzer]

jrzygrl, do you have traction assist (300B series) and did the engine completely shut down or did it just not respond to the accelerator and drop to about idle ??? I had this happen to me a few times--turned out to be the traction-assist sensors were sensing a greater differential between the rpms of the front and rear wheels than was set as the limits that cause engine shut-down. This was on a GM with Perf & handling package. Continental-Teves of Germany manufactures the units and will help you trouble-shoot the system--if this is your problem, I have e-mail addresses, Maury

[schuvwj]

Hey jrzygrl there was a post about two weeks ago which talked about the wiring harness near the firewall on the passenger side which was rubbing against a sharp edge on the engine cylinder head which was causing similar problems!
Right next to the Trany dip-stick.
If I remember correctly the person even posted a picture.
Mite be worth a look.

[jrzygrl]

I do have traction assist, in dry weather should I always turn it off? Never even thought about it, haven't had a vehicle equipped
with it before. It just shut down completely. I think it's for old ladies who can't drive in the snow anyway. Anyone know if you can get a bumper sticker made that says, "this ain't your Grandma's car!!!" ?

[jrzygrl]

I will keep all of this in mind when I go to the dealership tomorrow, thanks everyone...hey where do you get the Bob White
decals everyone keeps talking about?

[jefferson-mo]

http://www.bobwhitedecals.com/



:uzi:


go get 'em

[Fourth Horseman]

Originally posted by JamesHecker
Does anyone think this could have anything to do with the wiring chafing against a braket under the hood? I think it was Fourth Horseman that had this problem sometime ago.

My memory could be faulty on this, but just thought I would bring it up.

No, wasn't me, though the dealership replaced the bracket for the non-abrasive one for me when I had my stuck throttle cable fixed.

You folks think jrzygrl's problem could be a faulty ignition switch? I've seen that before. *shrug*

[SergntMac]

Originally posted by WolfeBros
...we have had some 'no start' problems with one or two cars that I can remember. I do not remember any dying after they have been running.

The very first run of MMs had bad ECM programs, most were caught before shipping, but a few got out and had new ECM modules waiting for them at the dealers, but that was a long time ago, and surely not 300B editions.


Originally posted by jrzygrl
They told me the computer did not record the incident, so they're keeping it another day.

Just for clarity here, there is no "black box" like device on the MM. Wrenches cannot read your "driving history," or habits. When the ECM catches an error code from one of the monitored systems, it trips a light that will stay tripped until reset, or, corrected. The absence of an error code only means that the problem is not detected in one of the monitored systems and the hunt for cause continues. FYI.

[mad man]

After talking with sarge a few time's .I think you should take your car to his dealer .Sound's like he and his dealer know more about this car than mercury does. I am 25 miles from there and may go there for oil changes. Talk with sarge he can hook you up:help: P/s don/t know if you can make it may 17th but alot of us are going to the track that day. You may be the only blue one:D

[LincMercLover]

I dunno Sarge... I know that Ford was letting employee's drive the Aviator before they were released to make sure they could stand up to abuse and mileage. One guy blew one up. Dropped first on the highway. Guy said he didn't do anything. People took it all apart, read the computer, and found what he did.

[jrzygrl]

Hopefully I'll get the car back today and it was just a freak thing.
Like the car a lot, don't want dependability issues though. Thanks for all the input everyone. May 17th will be in Missouri for the National Enduro (bike) series. Maybe next time though....

[Constable]

I'm new to the site, but maybe i can she d a bit of light on some of this. I haven't had the pleasure of my new Merc stalling yet, but I have been operating a 2003 Police Interceptor for about 8.5 months now. I've racked up close to 38,000 miles on it and have had it stall at least 4 times in that period. It was always after highway-style driving or short bursts of SERIOUS speed. I would be in the midst of bringing the car to a hault and it would stall. It would also happen if the car was operated in reverse at a high rpm and then brought to a quick stop. My mechanics have ruled out everything but the transmission. We're looking into the torque converter staying locked up a bit too long. Possibly electrical?? Dunno. Good luck everybody.

[Constable]

by the way ---- the reason i slammed that up on the board is because my PI shares a great deal in common with my Marauder.
From what I understand --- same rear, trans/torque converter, etc...

[RF Overlord]

Welcome, Constable...

Interesting info...even though they're different motors, I think the CV and the MM use the same transmission...you may be on to something...

I wonder if this only happens on un-chipped cars...Dennis's chip does modify the shift schedule and the converter lock-up, maybe it "fixes" this issue, too?

[merc406]

T. P. Sensor??

[RF Overlord]

Originally posted by merc406
T. P. Sensor??

Is that the Charmin one or the Kleenex one?

:lol:

[merc406]

I figured something like that, Oh don't use Charmin, clogs pipes!!!!

[Constable]

yea... i only have a single cam in my PI... but that thing doesn't act like it. She books, but my marauders faster (determined by a side-by-side drag down one of the major highways in town). Anyway... the stall hasn't happened to me in about a month, so i'm due for another real soon. If it happens I'll let u guys know. If it doesn't I'll tell u what my CV guys in the motorpool did to fix the bastard. (and for anyone wondering, the MM only took the 03 PI by about 1/2 a car length)

[chrtra1]

Originally posted by SergntMac



Just for clarity here, there is no "black box" like device on the MM. Wrenches cannot read your "driving history," or habits. When the ECM catches an error code from one of the monitored systems, it trips a light that will stay tripped until reset, or, corrected. The absence of an error code only means that the problem is not detected in one of the monitored systems and the hunt for cause continues. FYI.

That's not entirely true Sarge. Some codes will also record what is called freeze frame data. Freeze frame data will tell us thing like what the vehicle speed, engine rpm, gear the trans is in, fuel trim, and what few other things were when the code was set. It help us in diagnosing the problem.

I had one customer bring his car in for "engine feels like it has a miss a freeway speeds." hooked up the scan and ran self test on the pcm. There was a code set for the speed limiter. freeze frame data showed that he was bouncing the car off the speed limiter at 118 mph I think it was.

[jrzygrl]

Constable..where on the Jersey shore?
Anyway, got the car back, seems fine so far. The dealership put almost 200 miles on it!!!!! And left me with a bone dry gas tank. Won't be going back there, that's for sure. Where's Sarge's
dealership?

[Seneca]

jrzgrl...I feel your pain.. How was the weather when you were driving.. hot? I was out about a week or so ago.. I guess it was around 75 that day.. I went to pull away from a light and it was dead.. started right back up.. took it to the shop they ran a test didnt find anything wrong.. with the car.Accept the temp shut down was screwed up so they said anyways.. time will tell.. Seems to be running fine now though.. It was 80 a few days ago.. I ran it hard.. no problems.. :)

[jrzygrl]

Not a hot day at all. Very cool as a matter of fact. Who knows. Drove it pretty hard today, the dealership is at least 60 miles from home and did a lot of driving afterwards, a.o.k. so far.