My 87 GT DIED on the freeway tonight :(

Marlboro_Man · Nov 12, 2005

Well I was driving home from a car show/meet and everything was running just fine. I see a car pulled over on the shoulder and think damn that sucks thats a ****ty place to have a flat tire. Then not 5 seconds later my car loses all power , I look at the dash and see my battery light on and then realize the powersteering is out (it died). So I coast to the shoulder . Get out and give everything under the hood the once over. Get back in and try to start it up, it turns over , i hear the fuel pump prime , and nothing, it wont start. So the "safe clear" tow truck shows up and tows me off the freeway for FREE . I figured that it wasn't getting spark , becuase I had fuel and it would crank but not start. So as I waited for my wife to show up, I looked at everything and couldn't find any thing wrong so I decided to disconnect the battery . I waited for her to get there (about 10 minutes) and I connect the battery and try it again. IT STARTS!!! It drives home just fine , and i can't think of what would have caused that out of the blue like that. I have an msd box and a blaster 2 coil, stock distributer with new cap and rotor, new spark plugs.

Cliffnotes/ Car dies while driving,it cranks, gets fuel, but it won't start again,get towed off the freeway, disconnect the negative battery terminal for 10 minutes and it starts just fine and drives like normal.

Any ideas or suggestions as to what to look for would be greatly appreciated, and sorry for the novel.:SNSign:

Matt

HISSIN50 · Nov 12, 2005

Matt, I cant add much except for you not to forget that you could also have lost injector pulsing (fuel priming, or even fuel pressure does not mean the injectors are firing).

Glad you made it home. Maybe there was some vortex on that spot of road.

Good luck man.

Marlboro_Man · Nov 12, 2005

Haha i was thinking the vortex theory also....

Could have been injectors but i was thinking that spark would be it. Iunno. It had fuel pressure also,40psi after prime.

Matt

Black1987Stang · Nov 12, 2005

Marlboro_Man said:
Well I was driving home from a car show/meet and everything was running just fine. I see a car pulled over on the shoulder and think damn that sucks thats a ****ty place to have a flat tire. Then not 5 seconds later my car loses all power , I look at the dash and see my battery light on and then realize the powersteering is out (it died).

You jinxed yourself, thats your problem haha J/k I would pull the codes and see what codes you get and hopefully it might tell you what happened. I also say its spark or fuel injector, but i dont see why it would just go out of nowhere.

Camman · Nov 12, 2005

Another area i would suspect would be the tfi module. Just something to check that I did not see mentioned.

DMAN302 · Nov 12, 2005

Camman said:
Another area i would suspect would be the tfi module. Just something to check that I did not see mentioned.

I like the TFI idea as well.

sunil6784 · Nov 12, 2005

Just a quick thought....was your negative battery cable bolted in tight? THat happened in my old Mazda protege before. THe negative cable worked it self a little loose, but it started right back up. I found out that the negative cable wasn't tight.

rd · Nov 12, 2005

Several suggestions:

Check out the ignition switch. Start it and wiggle the key to see if it stalls. If it does, adjust or replace the switch.

The TFI is a prime suspect, as well as the coil. These can work cold and fail hot. Try the drive around local (very local) or idle in the driveway test to see if it fails. An old Duraspark dist pickup coil will do this.

Pull codes and see what comes up.

Marlboro_Man · Nov 12, 2005

Ok well i drove the car to school this morning (about 20miles round trip) and had no problems.

I've been reading up on how to pull the codes so once i figure that out i will try it. The ignition switch is brand new so i would put that lower on the list. The msd box and blaster 3 coil look like they might be pretty old. I recently did the 3g alt upgrade and at the same time i installed a new quick release battery terminal on the negative pole. It was tight , and i don't see that being a cause either becuase i still had lights ,radio ect, and it would crank just not start, till after i disconnected the negative cable for 10 minutes.

This may be a noob question but what the heck is the TFI module? And where is it located at?

Thanks , Matt

Marlboro_Man · Nov 12, 2005

Ok well heres the codes i got

81

82

85

95

Question: On the surging idle sticky there are two links for pulling the codes. They both have lists of what the codes represent but they both say they are for the 2.3l turbo svo. Are the codes the same for a 5.0 ho?

Marlboro_Man · Nov 12, 2005

Well it looks like all of those codes have to do with smog, My car has the smog pump and basically all the smog stuff deleted.

The only one which shows to be for smog and fuel pump is code 95. I haven't had any problems with the fuel pump as far as i know so i guess it is throwing that code for the smog related stuff also.

Any ideas?

Matt

HISSIN50 · Nov 12, 2005

The code 95 might seem likely, and it very well may be indicative of what caused your issues, but it can also be a ghost code.

The TFI module [Thick Film Ignition] is the ignition module. I did not go more in depth than I did originally because there is nothing to go on. You can read JRichker's no start checklist to see all the possibilities.

Good luck.

Marlboro_Man · Nov 12, 2005

HISSIN50 said:
The code 95 might seem likely, and it very well may be indicative of what caused your issues, but it can also be a ghost code.

The TFI module [Thick Film Ignition] is the ignition module. I did not go more in depth than I did originally because there is nothing to go on. You can read JRichker's no start checklist to see all the possibilities.

Good luck.

I just read jrichker's checklist (good info) . I did a search on tfi but never found out where it is located. It seems that several people have had similar problems and it turned out to be the pip or the tfi.

Thanks again , i really appreciate the help guys!

Matt:SNSign:

edit: Also the fuel pump has a new inertia switch and a new bosch switch of some sort attached to the fuel pump wiring in the spare tire area.

Ok scratch that i found the tfi in my haynes manual.

88stang88 · Nov 12, 2005

cloged fuel filter? just a suggestion

Marlboro_Man · Nov 12, 2005

Well i'll probably replace the fuel filter just to be safe since a motorcraft filter is only $12.99.

But a borg warner tfi is $69.99 and a motorcraft tfi is $84.99 (prices quoted from O'Reilly auto parts), that might have to wait, since i spent $200 yesterday on new rear tires

HISSIN50 · Nov 12, 2005

The TFI is on the side of the dizzy on a fox (it is the grey or black module with all the wires going to it).

THe PIP is inside the distributor itself.

Good luck!

My Black Beast · Nov 12, 2005

I also think my TFI is bad as I have had similar problems. I know it's not as good as a motorcraft one but Autozone has one for $31.95. It looks pretty easy to swap out so you could at least get this one to see if that's your problem. Just a thought.

Marlboro_Man · Nov 13, 2005

update

Well i couldn't afford a motor craft tfi ($80xx) so i got the autozone special for $41.99 w/lifetime warranty. Anyways , i replaced it and drove about 40-50 miles around town tonight, maybe more , and everything went smoothly. Next week i'll go ahead and change the fuel filter just to get that out of the way.

Thanks for the help guys, and much thanks to JRichker for his write ups!

Matt :SNSign:

aaros · Nov 13, 2005

mine did the same thing and it was the pickup in the dizzy.

1SLO306 · Nov 13, 2005

when tfi went out i lost spark. car wouldnt crank not matter what i did. put a new one on there and has been fine since.

My 87 GT DIED on the freeway tonight :(

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