Last night, I cranked up my truck to leave my girlfriend's house and it flat *** died after about 30 seconds of idling. No studder, shudder, or anything...just dead...like someone "pulled the plug." I tried to turn the key off and back on twice with NOTHING happening. On the third attempt it cranked right up. As I headed back to my house, the truck died while driving a few times (all in about a 10 second time span). It was odd...no studdering or anything that I'd associate with a fuel starvation / AIC problem / whatever...just flat *** dead. Crazy thing was that I never had to re-crank it to keep going...it just came back to life without me doing anything. Like I said...this happened about 3 times in a 100 yard span.

What worries me about this is that the lights and EVERYTHING went off - it wasn't just the engine. The only lights that were on anywhere on my truck were the dash "emergency" lights - the brake, SES, seatbelt, etc lights flashed, but that's it. Will a loose chip cause the headlights and stuff to go out when the truck dies, or is it possibly something somewhere else (like a damn wiring gremlin)? Thanks for anything y'all can offer, as I'm at a total loss here.

DUCK

 

I'll toss a w.a.g. out here... I think its an electrical grounding issue. Can't see anything else that would effect everything at once like that.


Only thing similiar I have had happen is when the battery in my '66 Mustang slid forward enough to weld the positive ground to the car frame... shut down completely, instantly.

 

It sounds like what happened to mine. Just flat died while at WOT at the track. Changed chips and no more problem. Some chips may not have the proper 'clamping' force in their contacts. I don't mean that your chip is loose on the PCM but that one or more of the contacts loses contact and something(?) shuts everything down.

Dan

 

Thanks, y'all. I'll keep playing with it and will see what I come up with.

DUCK

 

Are we still talking about chips.