Motor died while driving

[Chrisq0904]

I was driving my car a while back and in the middle of me driving the motor just died, all electrical was still working. I tried to start it back up and it wouldnt turn over so I started to looking around for the problem, saw i was getting no fuel pressure and long story short I hardwired it to the battery with a relay. After that the car seemed to start up fine all I did for a week was start it up and let it idle in the driveway to make sure it kept starting. After a week of good starts I decided to drive it today and not even 5minutes into driving after letting the motor warm up it died again. I normally waited 5 minutes and it would start up again but not today, today after it died it didnt want to start at all. Once towing it back to my driveway I thought I would give it another try and now it doesnt even want to try and turn over. Only things that happens when I turn the key is all the electrical components come on (gauges, radio, windows go up/down, can hear the fuel pump, etc.) I was thinking it was the starter but have no idea how to check it and wanted to get some input before i went and bought a part.

[Killa_D]

take the starter off and take it to any auto parts store and have it tested. Also make sure the battery is still good and make sure your alternator is also good and is your fuel pump even turning on? make sure your pump still working. Check all grounds and make sure they are tight and make sure the power cable is also tight. i can go on and on and on but yeah just do the first 3 things i said.

[Chrisq0904]

Ya battery is good, I bought it 2months ago and the alternator I dont know i havent checked it and yes the fuel pump turns on.

[fliprayzin240sx]

You checked all your fuses yet?

[Chrisq0904]

which ones?

EDIT: Ya I checked all the fuses all of them are fine. Just need to make time to go and take the starter out.

[Rabboni]

Well lets take this one problem at a time and just begin with your no crank problem. It is a no crank right? Anyways, to test your starter control circuit just put a voltmeter on the small stud of the starter solenoid and have someone turn the key to crank. If you read 12 volts your starter control circuit is good. Now do a voltage drop across the positive batt terminal to the starter positive terminal. Anymore than .5 volts is too much. Do that and get back with your results.

[skyview]

^^If only all people were this willing to help, we'd be flying around in cars instead of burning rubber.

[Chrisq0904]

Checked to see if I got power to the starter and I get 12v so I took it out and stopped by the autoparts store to test it and they said that it was fine...

[Silviaracer1988]

i had the same problem a few years ago. same thing driving my car 1 night and out of nowhere the car dies. for me i put it in neutral and fired it up again but only lasted about 5 mins. all the electric stuff work. got it towed home. list in order of what i did to the end.

1.battery (wasnt the problem)
2. starter (wasnt the problem)

discovered that the fuel pump was dying. replaced it and never had a problem with it again after that. if you replace the pump make sure you replace the fuel filter and put fuel cleaner after you install everything just in case.

but to me thats what it sounds like. good luck to you. let me know

[Chrisq0904]

i had the same problem a few years ago. same thing driving my car 1 night and out of nowhere the car dies. for me i put it in neutral and fired it up again but only lasted about 5 mins. all the electric stuff work. got it towed home. list in order of what i did to the end.

1.battery (wasnt the problem)
2. starter (wasnt the problem)

discovered that the fuel pump was dying. replaced it and never had a problem with it again after that. if you replace the pump make sure you replace the fuel filter and put fuel cleaner after you install everything just in case.

but to me thats what it sounds like. good luck to you. let me know

I don't think it's the fuel pump because I just replaced it with a wlabro and just hardwired it to the battery the other day and hear it humming when I turn the car on and also my fuel pressure is fine.

[Chaw wee]

Have you ever replaced the fuel filter? Is it getting spark?

[Silviaracer1988]

on top of that, i hate to ask but how long ago did you put the pump in? because if you installed it the same time this happened, chances are you have the wiring backwards (even when you hardwired it) or you have the pump backwards. i'm not saying that it is those but i just did that 2 weeks ago on a universal pump. just make sure is all

[Chrisq0904]

I put the pump in around the time I went Ka-t in the end of august. But the car was running fine without this problem for about a month

[Chrisq0904]

Rabboni: No voltage drop on the starter and starter tested ok
By starter control circuit do you mean the stud for the power? If so that has 12V

Chaw wee: No I never replaced the fuel filter and no I am not getting spark.

[klits562]

Rabboni: No voltage drop on the starter and starter tested ok
By starter control circuit do you mean the stud for the power? If so that has 12V

Chaw wee: No I never replaced the fuel filter and no I am not getting spark.

Well there you go, no spark. now trace your ignition system from the plugs-wires-dizzy-ignition coil-wiring to ignition coil-ign coil and so on.

Also you said the starter wont even engage anymore, but has 12v?
Have you tried to "jump start" the starter but directly applying 12v to it to get it started? If so did it work?

Might as well replace the fuel filter and while your at it just get the 96 300zx n/a filter, direct swap with bigger flow and filteration.

[Pirate_Freder]

Double check your fuses because it sounds exactly like a hairline crack in a fuse. I've ran into this myself and a friend had it just like u where it would work for so long then stop, and after a little while it would work again. On those square tall fuses take the plastic cover off the top to inspect(thats how i missed mine). Also if u have a multimeter check key fuses for resistance, it should read ol(open lead) or 0 ohms, otherwise the fuse is bad.

[LB 180SX]

i had sort of a similar problem looong time ago. car just died one time on the highway, started up a couple days later drove it and left me stranded again..and after much trying to figure out wtf was the problem, turns out my harness under my driver side front fender was shaved off and cut from the tire scraping alot. . just some input u could check out.

[Pirate_Freder]

That's true on the harness, thats actually when I had the hairline crack in a fuse(ignition if I recall Correctly). Although mine wouldn't start again.

[DataXUnknown]

^Second that, if your car is low and your harness isn't tucked correctly, it will screw everything up.

Also make sure your coil wire is plugged in all the way. Mine fell out a few times in the past.

Try push starting the car?

[Chrisq0904]

Checked my harness in the fender and it doesnt even looked touched...Double no triple checked all my fuses with a meter they are check ok....I tried jump starting the starter but not sure if i did it right, what i did was just take a clip and connect the + post on starter to + post on batter when i was turning the ignition.... if thats the correct way then no that didnt work either.

[Chrisq0904]

OK i tried to push start the car and it turn on and i drove it a few feet and stayed on, didnt want to drive too far...but i still cant get it to turn on when i turn the key...

[Pirate_Freder]

Hmm, sounds more like its the starter or solenoid. Have someone turn the key and hold it for a several seconds in the start position while u hold the positive lead of ur multimeter on the signal wire post(the skinny wire) and the negative on the neg batt terminal. U should get a 12v signal, if u do then its the solenoid or starter, EDIT: but first check resistance between the starter body and the neg batt terminal, shouldn't be more than a few ohms. If not u have a bad ground.

[Chrisq0904]

Hmm, sounds more like its the starter or solenoid. Have someone turn the key and hold it for a several seconds in the start position while u hold the positive lead of ur multimeter on the signal wire post(the skinny wire) and the negative on the neg batt terminal. U should get a 12v signal, if u do then its the solenoid or starter, EDIT: but first check resistance between the starter body and the neg batt terminal, shouldn't be more than a few ohms. If not u have a bad ground.

Checked that and I get 12V when I have the ignition turned, didnt check to see if I have a good ground to the body though. Took the starter to a different auto parts store and they told me that it was working but when it engaged it sounded like crap and that it was probably starting to die. He also told me that the teeth looked worn out and that im most likely missing teeth on the flywheel, I havent checked to see if anything is missing but I will check it today if it isnt raining when I get back home.