Sorry so long but here's the deal...

Once day I was driving to work and the car just died (Seemed to happen the moment I lefted my foot off the gas - but not evertime) so I pulled over to the side of the road pumped the gas a bit then it finally started again...got a little further down the road and it happened again...Finally got all the way to work, parked it and could never get it started again. So I had it towed to the house. Tested the spark coming from the coil (Zapped me good so I know that was working also tested it with spark tester- also have MSD ignition and coil) then proceeded to test the spark coming from the spark plug wires...got nothing!

So I figured I narrowed it down to the Opti must be bad. Well as a matter of fact I just got finished replacing the opti about 30min ago. Darn car is doing the same thing...so I had my brother tap the PCM a little (just out of desperation) and I'll be damn if it didn't crank for a bit as soon as he stopped tapping it would stop running. So we took out the PCM, took it apart, blew out the inside with compressed air then put it back together and re-installed it. This time the car started and ran for like 10min. then just when I thought my problems were over it dies again. While it was ruinning it idled and responded to gas great...

So does anyone have any clues as to what to do next? I noticed the check engine and check gauges like comes on when in the start position (like when the car dings but is not trying to start) and stays on. I can't remember if that normal or if they should go off. Also, it threw no check anything lights whille it was running.

I really don't wanna spend more money on a new PCM just to find out that it may not be tht either. What should I do next?

 

Alternator? For your car to just die like that and your warning lights comin on all at once is probably your alternator gone bad. You can jump a car with alternator problems once or twice but you wont get them far before the die again for good... I would have that checked out, especially if your car is gettin up there in miles...

 

what confuses me is that he tapped the pcm and it worked???

 

You might have a problem with the pin/connectors on the pcm. Check them carefully. Looking at it with a scan tool might be helpful, too.

 

Shoe is right, I just wanted to add that it could be a solder joint in the PCM on the board. Open it up on a grounded surface, earth ground not the body of the car. Look at each solder joint to see if it looks cracked. Especially at the connector solder joints since these take the abuse of plugging and unplugging.

While your there, look for any discolored components. Not likely but always good to check while your there.

 

Yeah, don't thin it's the Alt because it did crank for like 5 min...idled great and even gave a little gas (since it was on lift).

When I took the PCM apart I also blew it out really good with an air hose...I'm gonna try it again this time with some electronic contact cleaner....

I'll also take a closer look at the soldier joints...

 

Holy f***ing S***....Okay ready for this?
The whole problem wasn't related to anything that I would have ever thought of...After I installed a new optispark...I still didn't work...So today I hooked up the laptop to it and found that the computer was indeed throwing a code (MALF 16 - Low Res Failure)...so I traced that wire down (thanks to help of a wiring diagram that I got from http://csce.uark.edu/~jgbertr/rb/4th_gen_tech1.html) to a wire that I had tapped into for my remote start alarm. That wire ran from the opti connector on the top of the intake to inside the car through the firewall. It seems that the wire had been rubbing against a piece of metal under the hood and was getting shorted out. So $220 and 5 hours later I find out that the damn problem wasn't related to a bad opti (of course found that out when it still didn't work once replaced) but a stupid wire to my alarm.

So with that in mind I have an opti that is less than a year old and has only been used for like 4 months because after I installed the last opti I got about 4 months out of the car before the transmission needed rebuild. Finally got that rebuilt after about 8 months and then got to drive the car for 3 days (yep 3 days) before this problem started happening. It has sat for another month till now. So anyone wanna buy a used opti with 4 months of use on it? I would like to get atleast $100 out of it.

Thaks for all those who gave advise and for those who actually took the time to read this...

Jason

 

Alarm wires are supposed to be tapped into the wiring from the opti to the pcm?? Man, that sounds like trouble waiting to happen (like this case ). As precious as those signals are, you would not catch me tapping anything on to the wires that carry them.

Glad the wiring diagram on my site was of some use.