Cat failure stops car from running?

[htchevyii]

Vaccum cap, bolt, golf tee or spark plug?

[ORFORD2004]

Bottle of wine cap

[manoa matt]

You can remove the hose from the booster end and put a large bolt in the end of the hose, or anything else that will fit. "If it don't fit, use spit."

Or remove the hose from the manifold port and by a rubber or vinyl cap for the port.

[BartusCompater]

Alright, so I plugged the hose going to the booster with a bolt and took her for a nice long cruise in the middle of the 25 or so degree night here in Edmonds, WA. It was absolutely beautiful, the stars and the moon were out in full force, however it died after about 12 miles of driving, to my dismay. Probably shouldn't have ordered that brake booster so soon.

So I took it home, played around with it some more while sitting in my parking spot. I noticed that the brakes weren't really killing it when I hit them 100% of the time, but that occasionally upon hitting the brake pedal the car would die only to restart with the throttle applied. I messed around with the shift lever, threw it into reverse a couple times, noticed that it died when I did that once. Got it to die after applying the brakes a couple more times. Started it back up, flipped the headlights off, let it idle. Flipped the headlights back on, car dies. Again, flipped the headlights off, started the car with the throttle, let it sit idling, then flipped the lights on, car dies.

It seems that it wasn't the activation of the brake booster that caused the car to die when I was pressing the brakes the other day, but the activation of the brake lights. Something is going on when electrical components such as the headlights, reverse lights, and brake lights are switched on, and only after having driven the car for a while.

I've got a new high output alternator and a new battery. Wiring?

[digitech]

From what you're describing, something is pulling your 12v down to the point where anything else you turn on drops it too low to keep the ignition working. That's why everyone was saying to find out what goes away (fuel, ign., etc.) when it dies. I'll bet you could turn on anything that draws a little current, i.e., heater blower fan, and it'll die. I'm also thinking while you're driving, the rad fan comes on and kills it.

Verify the drop first, hook a meter to the batt. side of the ign. coil, start engine and record reading. Now, start turning things on - lights, heater fan, etc. and see what happens to your 12v.

Also, I say ign. but I see you have fuel inj. so a drooping 12v can wreck havoc there as well.

[TX82FIAT]

For my two cents, I agreed with digitech that something is wrong within the electrical system. A voltage drain is entirely possible and I re-reAd this thread and it does fit the symptoms. Early on I thought air flow meter/fuel injection or electrical system or some combination of the two. Metering the volatage and attacking this by component.circuit is a great suggestion. Ray

[BartusCompater]

I would like to announce, perhaps a year after this problem began, that on this day I finally solved it. Ignition control module. I had tried replacing it before but apparently the one I got was bad and it didn't fix the problem. Put another one in today which was given to me by another Fiat owner, taken out of his own car (so we knew it was a good module). It's frustrating to think that the issue was something which I had diagnosed prior, yet ruled out because of a faulty part. And such an inexpensive one, on top of that.

Either way, I drove the car over 60 miles today with no issues whatsoever except for a minor brake fluid leak, and it was pure bliss. There's always another project on the horizon. Back on the road though, and I polished off about a year's worth of dust this afternoon as well. Lookin' good now.

[TX82FIAT]

Awesome news. Sorry to hear about the ignition control module. Glad you have the car back on the road.

[BartusCompater]

Car died again today, two days after getting it fixed. Died instantly while at a stop, only unlike previously it wouldn't start again with the throttle held down. Tried replacing the ign. control module again and the coil, still wouldn't start. Started to take out the pickup wires from the dist. to the control module and noticed oil in the distributor.

Would that kill the car?? I parked it in an auto shop parking lot that was right near where it died. I need to know whether or not to have them look at it or tell them not to touch it because I can fix it myself.

[TX82FIAT]

Hopefully it is the distributor oil seal. While I have not had this issue, I know of some people that have. They were able to change the dist oil seal in 30 - 60 minutes. I'm told it is a pretty easy job. I defer to some folks that have actually had this issue and done this repair.

[124JOE]

i had the crank case vent tube kink up and it then vented though the dizzy it poured oil onto the exh man
so it was a jamesbond smoke screen.joe

[TulsaSpider]

Damn you sure are having issues! Hope this is the last hurdle!

[majicwrench]

OK, you have got to slow down. I have yet to see if you are actually checking for a lack of spark, or lack of fuel. It is no wonder you are having such issues, you do not seem to be doing the very basic, first things that need to be done when a car won't start.
Modules, boosters, dist seals, wiring, AFM, fuel pumps, etc etc etc, all that comes later. Got to check for spark, then fuel, when it dies.
Hope this doesn't come across as rude. I mean no offense.
The Broken Record.

[rlux4]

I had a similar problem with my car (suddenly dieing) and it turned out to be the fuse holder for the fused 12V going to the dual relay. It wasn't making good solid contact and without that power the fuel pump shuts off. Put a test light on the brown with white stripe wire at the dual relay and turn the key on. Jiggle the wire at the fuse holder (the same brown with white stripe wire under the dash behind the main fuse panel). See if you're loosing power to the dual relay. Next, while the car is running, jiggle the key. You may be loosing power somewhere. This may not be it, but Magicwrench is right, you need to check for spark and fuel.
Ron

[124JOE]

it IS somthing electrical
the instant dieing tells me so
get out the test light -or go buy one
and test the ING power when it dies .as it suplys power to the coil
you can pull the plug and use dielectric grease to give a good contact

how long have you owned the car?and you drove it without and problems?


it seem you we dirving it awile and then just stoped
thats usaly only one problem.the one that need to be found
it not likely to have 3or 4 problems at once

most of us get into trouble when changing 3 or 4 things at a time without checking 1 at a time
track down any connections for the ING and look for any burned marks or loose "scrachy" connections
and clean or tighten them

hope this helps.joe