Possibly the timing?

[nrmskate]

Well, today I was driving from the airport back to my house, which is about an hour and 30min drive. On my way home from the airport, I had to stop on the side of the road maybe 15-20 times.

Im going to try and explain this the best I can.

I will be going 70mph down the highway, and all of a sudden it feels like someone cut my throttle cable. My acceleration stops randomly, and I will press the gas pedal all the way to the floor, and nothing, just keeps decelerating. No response at all. But, If I keep my foot on the gas when it cuts offs randomly, about 15 seconds later, it lets me accelerate again, than 5 seconds later, it will cut off again. It will do this until I go on the side of the road, shut it off, then start it back up. And about 1min after I start it up, it will all start over again.

I took it to autozone to get my CEL cleared/checked, and he said he can smell pre-ignition. I just replaced the plugs and plug wires today.

Anyone have any insight on what they think it is? Please share, because im stumped.

Thanks in advance.

[nrmskate]

Anyone? Im completely stumped.

Ill pull the ECU Codes today and report back.

[FRoSt415]

Check your fuel pressure, see if you can maintain fuel pressure should stay constant for about 15 mins. If it doesnt there is a leak somewhere. Possible fuel pump, leaky injector, rip or tear in the fuel lines. Sometimes it has to do with kill switches if you have some installed check the wiring and make sure nothing is shorting out.
What he meant by smelling preignition is that there is gas not being burned and this can be due to timing being off. Spark, fuel, ignition check these then work your way to eliminate the others. Let us know what you find.

FYI The Ecu will not let u know if your timing is off, it checks to see if certain sensors are in working order. and records Freeze Frame Data on the functionality of the car as in air/fuel mixtures and map/maf functions. This data is useful to determine what is working and not working but it doesn't have a reference to compare to, this u can find out and compare your numbers too. Also this data can be seen by certain types or scanners, most generic scanners will not allow you to view this data.

[DataXUnknown]

Make sure there is no bare wires touching anywhere, such as by your ECU (from previous installations maybe) or if you are riding low on coilovers and the harness is rubbing maybe it rubbed through.

[nrmskate]

It's a stock S14, and I checked all the wires, everything looks great.

I mean, is it possible that just daily driving it, it can just jump timing randomly?

[GSXRJJordan]

It's a stock S14, and I checked all the wires, everything looks great.

I mean, is it possible that just daily driving it, it can just jump timing randomly?

Not unless your distributor cap is really loose.

More likely a fuel pressure issue.

[undesiredshoe]

Air flow sensor malfunction

[aziankingz]

is it at a certain rpm?

[nrmskate]

It's normally at 3k rpm and up.

The guy also thought it could be a bad MAF, but in that case, the car wouldn't even start. right?

I checked my dist., it's on really tight.

[spooled240]

couldn't be timing, the computer advances/retards the timing only a few degrees. It could be a bad fuel pump but if you're cars smells rich then it could be an ignition or possibly a super rich condition from a bad o-ring on the injectors.

[Bigsyke]

What about the knock sensor harness shorting to ground? It may only retard a few degrees, but it will richen your fuel mixture giving those symtoms

[aziankingz]

check your injectors by wiggling the connectors on them while the car is running.. the one that doesnt change your idle is the problem - i experienced the same thing and changed the injector and running fine again.. no more cutting out on higher rpms.

[nrmskate]

Ill throw this in there as well.

Usually when it was running good, the temp. gauge would be about half.

Now, it's about 1/4.

That give you any more clues?

[aziankingz]

could just be a stuck thermostat.. but see if the injectors are all good by wiggling the connectors one at a time to see if the idle changes..

[nrmskate]

The idle bounces around as it is.

It will do like a wave effect from 500-900rpm.

[nrmskate]

Alright boys (and gals), I have pulled the codes.

Came up with:

12 MAF
34 Detonation (Knock) Sensor

So, do I replace both or what?

I know the KS is no easy task, do you think it's most likely a ground?

[KiLLeR2001]

Replace MAF with a known working MAF, then pull codes again and go from there.

[Bigsyke]

umm, the maf could be alot more than the maf sensor, code 34 could be 100,001 things.

Maf code will be stored for 45 cycles (IIRC) if you have a intake leak, or unplug your intake tube while running.
KS code could be tripped just because. Usually unless you have over heated the engine the sensor is fine, the harness' sheilded wiring has shorted to the fuel rail. Just splice a 1m ohm resistor into the ECU.