1999 LX Dying While Driving

[Smok3o3]

My car has over 250k. I dont know too much about working on cars only the basics. Well Ne ways, I use this car as my work car from home to my work is about 25 miles. When I drive there it has not died yet but when I go to work it is city driving then all highway to my work. Driving home is the opposite of course. It began three weeks ago one night as I was driving home on the high way as i would hold the gas in to keep the 60 mph speed my cars rpm drops and my motor does now have power and cars slows down pretty fast as im still pressing on gas it wont do anything and then it would all a sudden rev back up, motor would run then car would launch then it happens again and again. last week it did the same thing but then my whole car would shut off. to start it again I would have to sit there and step on and off on the gas and try to turn the engine. It would have problems turning over but after a while it was able to stay on til i got home. It died twice this way now and ever since then the car has been parked. What do you guys think it is?

I also want to do some tune ups on the car changing the spark plugs and other things thats in that area what would guys suggest I do to try to get the car back to better life?

Please help and thanks in advance!

 

[Smok3o3]

Opps forgot it is a 4 cylinder

 

[AllGOnoSHOW]

Main relay / maybe ignition issue relay switch

 

[schmiddr2]

When it is really hot my car does this also. I have read dozens of threads on the relays but have yet to read any of them saying, my car was dying and I fixed/replaced the main or ignition relay and it fixed it.

Seems this is still shrouded in some mystery and needs a proper testing procedure so we can diagnose things easier. Anybody have a good guide for this or at least pictures and part numbers?

 

[Smok3o3]

I have a friend that thinks it might be a dying fuel pump could that also be the issue?

 

[tegpower18]

Sounds to me like an ignition coil in the dizzy or possibly a bad convertor going out and since its intermittent it makes me think its one of these issues also because they both do that. gl on your search for the issue

 

[Smok3o3]

Thanks for the response! I have not found the solution yet but the last weekend I changed out the spark, wire, cap, and rotor. I want to switch out the coil this weekend. I also sea foam the car. But car is still shutting off while driving. Last night the car shut off on the highway. After sitting there for a few minutes and a few attempts of starting the car but failed. The car finally stayed on and I drove it slowly home.

 

[Smok3o3]

Tegpower18- when you say converter do you mean the cat converter?

 

[cl206]

I thought I read about this being the ignition switch issue and I could be wrong but I thought some people changed that and it got fixed?

Intermittent problems are absolutely imo the worst problems. However, it might not be as random as you might think (that is if you did think it is random). When it happens again, take note of what is happening. Is you car hot, just started, raining, etc. It's like going CSI on ur car haha. I don't think you have the heat soak like I did, but for the longest time, I thought it was randomly occuring but it really wasn't. I was able to replicate it and got it solved.

Try to see if you can replicate this problem, it will be a lot easier and cheaper than taking a guess in replacing this and that, unless you don't mind....

 

[Smok3o3]

So I have been trying to keep note of my cars issue. I just got home driving it from work. One thing that is very weird is that it mainly happens when I'm heading home from work. The difference would faster speeds and higher rpms. Tonight I tried taking it slow keeping it under two thousand rpm and not passing 65 mph and my car drove further without hesitation. But as I push it higher after twenty minutes of driving it starts to hesitate. When I got a few blocks from my house it died.

A few months ago I found a guy on Craigslist to change out my timing belt water pump assesorie belts etc. well long story short the car now squeals like crazy when I start it every time for a very long time sometimes at stops and low speeds. The guy flaked on me and now not trusting his work.

My question is could the belts be a cause of a motor stopping? I also have a 2006 accord my wife was driving the car and the serpentine belt snap and the motor just shut off. Come to think of it could this be the issue?

Also a few months back I had the car get scan for codes and the cat and egr has problems.

I am planning to change the ignition coil soon regardless it should be changed since its a very old car with lots of mileage. Thanks again everyone for replying to this thread much appreciation!