TMaxxTim

I have a 1992 SC 300 5spd with 141k on it. Alright so I start my car this morning, its been raining and its cold outside, starts up fine. Pull up the driveway notice it seems like I'm going to stall but I'm also wearing my shoes so I just think I'm working the clutch a little weird or something. Then I continue to drive out of my neighborhood and seem to notice that my car doesn't have much power to it so I kinda figure its just cold out and the engine needs to warm up a bit. So I pull into a neighborhood because its still weird and I pop it in neutral and try to rev and it revs up very slowly. I figure whatever I'll make it to school and I'll worry about it later. About halfway there my car just loses all power and when I try to start it, it just stays at 200-300rpm, vibrates a lot and then dies.

The clock reset itself once on this trip and I'm thinking it might have something to do with the battery. I installed my amp last night (yes, I put in the turn off switch) and during that the positive battery connection wasn't the best because the car would have power until I started it, then I fiddled around with the cable connection and it was fine. Now my car starts fine with full power, but doesn't stay started.

Any suggestions/ideas at all. I'm hoping its just the battery but it could be the headgasket or something I guess. Would I have seen smoke out my exhaust if something like that had happened? Thx a lot, my car's sitting in a church parking lot right now. I've had it less than 2 weeks and its already stranded me. My accord never did!!! But I still love this car more.

TMaxxTim

Just doing some quick searching, I supposed it could be related to the fuel pump or fuel filter. When I hit the gas it doesn't rev up any higher and it would just barley keep the engine idling at 200-300.

mkorsu

I would also check and make sure one or both your Cats didn't go bad. If the honeycomb material breaks up it can leave the cat and clog the muffler which can cause similiar things to what your experiencing.

SPORTcoupe

iTrader: (2)

EDIT: After writing the stuff below I just remembered an incident I had a few weeks ago. I was having starter problems and had to disconnect the battery. I fixed the starter problem but having the battery disconnected for more than a minute results in the reset of your ECU. Since I have a Walbro fuel pump (therefore higher fuel pressure) my ECU was having problems at first. I stalled a few times.....etc.
Before you start reading/doing any of what I said below, try disconnecting the amps positive line from the battery, then disconnecting the negative from the battery for 5 minutes, reconnecting the negative battery cable, and starting the car.
It's expected to idle low because the ECU was just reset, but feather the throttle for a minute or two and then see if if it can idle by itself.
Even if the idle seems low to you, if it can idle by itself, the rest it will learn in a couple of hours of driving.

If this does not work, start troubleshooting.

Good luck,
~Alan
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Hmmmm......CAT.....muffler.....?
You installed your amp last night...your problem is electrical.
Either you popped a fuse somewhere, or one of your connections is loose.
Locate your fusebox under the hood.
Check you main (60 amp) fuse and all the big ones around it.

It's a good idea to disconnect your amp before doing anything.
I've seen broken amps put a short in the system.
You did use a fuse on the positive wire within 18 inches of the battery right?
If not, than i'm 99% sure that's your problem.
Disconnect the amp positive wire from the battery immediately and pray you didn't fry your ECU.

I'm sorry if I make this sound frightening but an unfused positive wire running through your car is a disaster waiting to happen.

So once again: Disconnect your amp positive from battery, check fuses, try starting, then come back and report your findings.

Good luck,
~Alan

TMaxxTim

I do have a fuse on it. I'll try a larger fuse as I had bought a replacement fuse from when I transferred my cables over (lost the original fuse) and it wasn't as powerful as the original one buy the guy at the audio shop assured me for what I was pushing it was fine. I'll try that. Also last night it was driving fine as I took it for a cruise around my neighborhood after I had installed everything and it drove fine. It was just this morning, and the suprising part is I drove it with minor loss of power until I got halfway to school.

SPORTcoupe

iTrader: (2)

Hmmm......weird.
You have a trustworthy mechanic?

TMaxxTim

No...not really. I'm going to try your fixes right now, I'll come back in a little bit and see if I get anywhere...

TMaxxTim

Alright, reset was a no go. I'm paying ot have it towed to a local mechanic. I remember seeing a puff of white smoke (not sure if white could have been gray or bluish) as I tried to start it up again for the first time after it died. This was out the exhaust. It really seems like its just not getting fuel, and if my car was at home I'd probably try to replace the fuel pump...but its not so I figured I'd just pay ot have it towed there. Any other ideas would still be greatly appreciated! I'm so pissed, I've had this car for a week and its alread stranded me. Hopefully once I get this fixed it will go for awhile longer, it gave no signs of loss of power or anything before this.

RacingLexusBoi

I had this whole stalling engine issue some time ago. Engine was fine when driving and such but at some points when I idle at stops, the engine sometimes vibrates then dies.

When you searched around like I did, fuel pump, fuel ecu, and tune up should have came up. The problem is that after I looked at and replaced some of these things the problem still occurred. My solution after looking at the manual and many other sources (minus stealership, they couldnt find nething wrong) is that my pcv was faulty. These things are known to cause idling. Hopes this helps.

TMaxxTim

Stupid towing company coulnd't find it in the parking lot last night and I sw it still there when I went past it this morning. Called them and they said they'd get there asap. Hopefully it will get there this morning so they can look at it.

I really think its something to do with fuel delivery because otherwise I don't think it would have started from the beginning.

TMaxxTim

Called back, there was water in the spark-plug holes, so he replaced them and filled the coolant back up and now its running fine. It was raining that morning. Anybody have any ideas how water could have gotten into the spark plug holes and how to prevent that? I don't want this happening again.

SPORTcoupe

iTrader: (2)

You mean the water was on the outside or in the cylinders?
If you lost coolant and it's in the cylinders, it's a blown head gasket.
If the coolant is on the outside (surrounding the plugs where the wires connect) you might watn to look at the intake gasket.
Try to dry off the area as much as possible and go for a ride, then check where the leak occurs.
I've had this happen on my 98 Camaro.
A replacement of the intake manifold gasket fixed the problem.

Good luck,
~Alan

TMaxxTim

I talked to them more, he said it wasn't coolant, it was water. Probably from powerwashing the engine bay when I got the car. He said it was only in the 2 spark plug holes below the intake manifold. The others were fouled from fuel from trying to start it. He said there was a good amount of water in there though, but he assured me it wasn't coolant. Any ideas on how to keep this from happening?

wmulli

Water in the plug wells is a pretty common occurance for these engines (the one major screwup in the design ). The common solution is just don't wash the engine. Detail it by hand!

THE_CEO

I had that problem....after it rained...i just kept driving it for a while..i killed on me 3 times....but that was about it...i sounded horrible..but she was fine later.

CEO