My son just bought his first car. And it started cutting out in the middle of the road. So we had the pickup coil replaced!! Well for a week and half, its ran fine. Well now it’s cutting out again. Tonight my husband found the alternator belt was loose. Will this cause this type of problem? we had to have it towed in because we could not get it to turn over. That was sunday. now it’s runs again!
It’s unlikely that the loose alternator belt is causing your problem. If your battery was not being charged properly by the alternator it’s doubtful that it would start wthout being jumped after you had it towed. There are probably several reasons why your car might not restart, but I had a 1990 Dodge Spirit that I tried replacing a few parts, including the pickup coil, only to have it continue to stall. It didn’t matter if the engine was hot or cold, if I was going fast or slow, stopped or moving, it would just suddenly die. When it would die sometimes it would restart immediately, other times I would have to wait 15 to 30 minutes. What finally made the problem go away was when I replaced the fuel pump relay (also called the auto shutdown or ASD relay) . The following link shows the location of the relay. Click on the first picture on the page to blow up the image and you’ll see where it is located.
http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/08/dd/73/0900823d8008dd73/repairInfoPages.htm
That’s the relay that activates the fuel pump when you turn the key. If you can hear the fuel pump (it’s in the gas task) engage when you turn the key then it’s probably not the relay, but that’s what finally solved the problem for me. Good luck, hopefully you’ll get other replies as well as there are others on this site that really know their stuff.
Joe
A mechanic would go through the engine and check each system: fuel; spark; air; electric; electronic. The ASD relay is the same part number as the horn relay, usually. Swap the horn relay(little used) with the ASD relay (much used). The fuel filter may be dirty and impeding fuel flow. Change it. Said mechanic should have, and use, a digital voltmeter. Put the voltmeter to the little wire which powers the ignition coil. Turn the ignition switch on, and off, on, and off, on, and off. There should be battery voltage (12 plus), each time at ON. If not, suspect a defectice ignition switch. Check inside the distributor. This is where the maintenance manual comes in handy, especially. Use a spark checker with an adjustable gap to test spark. If these don’t fix the problem …call a good shop (ask friends, Joe Blow, Joe Six Pack, Jane Doe, Etc.)