Car stalled last week, but now fine
 

So I wanted to research the forum and see how my car reacted over the last week before posting, as I know the solution is out there somewhere, but it has been hard for me to pin point. I have a 2004 Man with 117K miles. I switched out my coils, plugs and wires at 105K and I had my cat checked at the same time and it was okay then.

I lives in Southern California and last week, was driving around a lot during the day and on the way home in 95-100 degree heat and the AC on, my car stalled two times on surface streets. I was accelerating on 2nd gear the first time, and at around 40 mph, engine shut off. Lucky to pull into a parking lot and rested for about 20 minutes and started it up again. It was find, idle good. 5 miles later, same thing, but on 3rd gear and around the 40-45mph acceleration mark. Checked under to look at the cat and it was not glowing. Started it up again after 20 min of rest, idle fine again, and got on the freeway and drove the final 15 miles fine.

I have been driving the car the past week, and no stalls since. Redline two or three times a day, it goes there well. Cat not red. On Tuesday though, when I was accelerating on an incline, there was a rotten egg smell, which I know could be a Cat issue.

Having said all of this, anyone have thoughts on what could have caused my engine to shut off? I am going to pull the Cat this weekend to see if it is clogged. I dont think it is my coils and plugs, but could switch those out. Maybe it was a fuel filter that is dirty/clogged? I dont think it is a vacuum leak as my idle is fine and i have not had a loss of power in high rpms.

:sad:

I would certainly check the fuel pump as it could be failing on you. Especially at that many miles on an 04.

When the engine shut off, did you have to wait to re-fire? or you just opted to wait? Were you prevented from refiring immediately?

If you simply couldn't refire immediately, then I'd say fuel pump failure since it shut off suddenly while it was running at speed. If it died at idle I'd say compression, but compression loss won't suddenly shut off an engine while at higher RPMs at speed unless there is a catastrophic failure that prevents it from starting at all after that.

Rotten egg smell is the cat, fortunately it probably blew out than clogged, since a clog won't generate a smell.

^^ RIWWP

The first time it shut off, I tried to refire immediately but like you said, it would not refire. After the 20 minutes, it started up fine. Then the second time, I did not refire immediately, just waited and started up fine. The first time, I tried to refire twice right away, but it did not start up. So just waited.

Thanks for the advice both of you guys. I'll look at replacing the fuel pump as it is still the original.

Yeah, that sounds like very much typical fuel pump failure. Heat load increases more and more, especially with higher power demand on the engine, until the pump seizes and shuts down, cutting fuel flow to the engine. Letting it cool off allows for fuel flow again.

Be wary though, if you are going to keep driving it until you get a replacement pump, go easy on power and RPM. A high RPM high load state in the engine when the fuel pump shuts off can indeed lead to a lean spike that shatters seals in the engine. I personally know a few people that have lost engines this way. One of them lost the engine this way, then the dealer blew the replacement on the shakedown drive the exact same way before they realized it was the fuel pump.

noted and thanks. I am looking to order a new pump and looking at the search for replacement, looks like the preference is to get something other than the 04-08 OEM version. Thanks again for the help

i would also check the crank position sensor for metal debris and do a 20 pump brake pedal stomp to relearn the position.

Just to update this post. I switched out the fuel pump motor with a new OEM one and so far so good. I will report if anything else happens but hopefully with the motor switched out to a new one, the fuel pump issue is solved.