My 2001 Z has been momentarily dying while driving. It cuts out for just a moment, then comes back on. I can hardly notice,except for the instument panel lighting up as though it is being started. Today, the key fob wouldn't lock it and it wouldn't start until I tried a few times.

Recently there has been a whistling sound from the engine which the dealer says is just alternator whine. Most of the time it is a soft sound, but sometimes when I turn on the engine when it is warm it is quite loud: that's when I have these hiccups.

Has anyone had these problems? My only mod is a catback.

Thanks for any help :

 

I would check underhood and make sure all of the battery connections are clean and tight and also those positive/negative terminal posts on the shock tower. Also, while it is running, try jiggling the ignition switch and see if you can duplicate the symptom.

 

Thanks for your reply. I did check the battery connections and the charge on the battery, and I jiggled the ignition switch to see if that might be the problem, but those all seemed to be OK. But what is the shock tower?

 

Where shock bolts up to the body, there should be a little terminal box there with connections bolted up.

 

My mom's car used to do that...she had the 3800 series II and her car whined a lot. I drove it around every now and then to try to figure it out but never had any problems driving it, other than sometimes when I shifted to nuetral while rolling down the road at night, the lights would dim some and you could hear the engine rev lower than normal, then bump back up to about 1000 rpms (still in nuetral) and the lights would come back up to bright like usual. I know the lights dimming and coming back are because of the load on the alternator being more due to the lower speed of the engine, but I'm not sure why the engine was revving lower to begin with......do your lights dim like that too?

 

My lights don't dim, or at least I can't notice it. However, the ignition definetly shuts off for a second because all of the instrument lights come on as though I was starting the engine. Also, once when I started it it died, something it never has done.

The other day I found the key fob wouldn't lock the car (or flash the lights either). I tried to start it and there was no response at all. Then I tried it again and it was OK.

Yesterday I rechecked all of the connections I could find, including the ones on the shock tower, and charged the battery. It didn't seem to take much time to reach full charge so I assume it was OK. Then I drove it with no whistling or problems. It was raining so I thought the moisture might be helping a bad connection somewhere. Today, it is dry but still no whistling that I could notice and no problems. I will have to wait until we have several dry days to see if that is a factor. But even if it is, why would I get a whistling sound?