Ok this is a long situation but I need some assistance because I'm trying to sell my car, and I don't want to sell it quite yet the way it has been going.

Anyways I have had some wierd issues with the car, about 3 weeks ago it just all of a sudden died on me and spit out the glorious P1371 code, the distributor code. Anyways the car sat there for 3 weeks and I had done nothing.

So today I took out the batter which I knew was shot and replaced it, the car started right up! Woo hoo. I moved it into my driveway and decided to check the alternator b/c I thought it was wierd for it to start up so immediately after changing the battery. Checked the alternator, it was fine. I then cleaned cables and all that jazz and it started up, with a bit of a hesitation. Then after a while it died again s*%t!

Well I re took off the cobles and pulled the pcm fuse, and it restarted but died again after like 5 minutes. I could get it to restart after a couple of turns and giving it a little gas. It had finally started to spit out a code again. I got the code reader and saw that it was P1371 code again. I cleared the code, the car started right up ran for about 10 minutes died, the code was on so I cleared it, again. Started rigjt up ran for another like 8 min then died. Crap! I cleared the code once again and started it up, ran for over 1/2 an hour before I turned it off. It restarted fine and there is no code.

I had not been starting or driving the car very much recently, and our friend had borrowed our computer to try to get his LT1 in his el Caminho to run. Other than that we have done nothing.

Does anyone know what it could be. I have a problem thinking that that code is legit because it starts perfectly fine after clearing it, its got to be something else, any ideas?

 

Opti, my car did the EXACT same thing a couple years ago when it went out. I had to let it cool off each time it died, then drive a mile, shut off again, kept doing that all the way home.

 

I think you already answered your own question. What would make you think the code isn't legit? How many miles are on the opti? Not that it always matters

 

there is only about 2K on the opti with the same amount of miles on the MSD cap and rotor.

 

The computer is losing the low resolution signal from your opti. It could either be the opti or connector harness. You could try starting it and then wiggle the cable to see if it dies again. It does sound like its going out but the connections on the harness can get corroded causing issues. Check both ends of the connector. The Msd has had all kinds of problems so if its new it could have something to do with the brand.