i have a 97 gts, i took it out today since it was nice out, started up fine like always.. drove it about 10 miles and all of a sudden the car felt as if it were out of gas you know like pressing the gas and it not going anywhere? the check engine and oil light both came on and the engine then shut off and i coasted to the side of the road, i didnt hear any strange noises coming from the engine so im hoping its still fine. i had to have it towed home since no repair shop was open and wont be until after new years, i checked the oil when i got home and its still at max though when it died the pressure was at about 5 on the oil gauge, and theres plenty of gas in it, i dont understand what could be wrong i hardly ever drive it! any help would be appreciated thanks
Last edited by iwannagofast00 : December 29th, 2007 at 06:13 PM.
maybe the oilpump took a shit?
check your fuses for shits and giggle.s
does it crank fine?
is the battery ok?
the alternator?
... what did it do as it was dieing? just quit, or nice and slow like?
it cranks fine, battery is good i tried a different one aswell, and all the fuses are fine, sometimes it like half starts but then dies? its really strange.. when it died today on the road it happened slowly like it was outta gas thats really the best way i can describe it, everything else on the car seems fine im not sure about the alternator or the oil pump i suppose those will be checked when i take it in this week i really hope its something minor though im sure it isnt what a way to bring in the new year ha
Crank the engine for 20 seconds and see if your oil pressure comes up, that will tell us a LOT here if you have an oil pressure problem or if in fact you lost fuel or ignition.
No shit, this actually happened one time on a Jeep I used to have. The neighbors cat liked the heat from the engine, so climbed up there one day... he got skinned pretty bad when I started the engine, but lived somehow (maybe lost one of his 9 lives though).
Me thinks it's a fuel problem. Is it possible you got a hold of some bad gas? Or worse, someone tainted your tank? Or could just be the fuel pump as others have said.
As was stated, check the oil pressure. Pull the plugs so that it will rotate faster. If the oil pressure is OK it will build pressure on the gauge. You can also pull a valve cover and spin it (with the key off) at the starter. After a few revolutions oil should start to flow out of the push rods.
After you verify the pressure you can start trouble shooting. Also, as was stated, attach a fuel pressure gauge to the Schrader valve at the rear of the engine.
I had a very similar thing happen to me. It was on my 99 Dodge Avenger. It sounds and seems like it might be the fuel pump but after a full day of diagnostics in a shop, it turned out it was the distributor. Now I don't know much about the inner workings of the new style distributors - especially on the Viper - but I replaced it myself and it immediately cured the problem. Fired right up and has driven fine since.
Good luck! Sorry to hear about your Viper needing a tow. That must have been a sad sight to witness.
I had a very similar thing happen to me. It was on my 99 Dodge Avenger. It sounds and seems like it might be the fuel pump but after a full day of diagnostics in a shop, it turned out it was the distributor. Now I don't know much about the inner workings of the new style distributors - especially on the Viper - but I replaced it myself and it immediately cured the problem. Fired right up and has driven fine since.
Good luck! Sorry to hear about your Viper needing a tow. That must have been a sad sight to witness.
The viper doesn't have a distributor. It has individual coil packs.
hey guys sorry i didnt reply sooner i was out of town, i had it towed to the dealership thursday they didnt even start til saturday they gave me the run around for about 3 more days saying the tech had it running and was still out driving it and then i get the bill and here the tech wrote that "a fuse near the engine had melted off that controlled the fuel mixture, which caused the car to stall and thats why customer saw drop in oil pressure because the car shut off" i guess that makes sense tho i still feel i payed 500 bucks for a tech to drive my car around and replace a 2 dollar fuse but hey it runs now i just feel dumb i swear i checked the fuses!
they gave me the run around for about 3 more days saying the tech had it running and was still out driving it and then i get the bill and here the tech wrote that "a fuse near the engine had melted off that controlled the fuel mixture, which caused the car to stall and thats why customer saw drop in oil pressure because the car shut off" i guess that makes sense tho i still feel i payed 500 bucks for a tech to drive my car around and replace a 2 dollar fuse but hey it runs now i just feel dumb i swear i checked the fuses!
First, I'd ask you if you checked the fuses under the hood, in addition to those under the dash.
I don't get "fuse near the engine had melted off"; however, I am not that familiar with the Viper engine. It doesn't sound like he is talking about a "blown" fuse.
Perhaps someone on the board might know of a fuse or fusible link external to the fuse block and near the exhaust manifolds that is just related to the fuel mixture ??
Or perhaps the tech is blowing smoke after spending a couple of days trying to figure it out before it just started working on its own (intermittent.)
I don't think there's a specific fuse that controls "fuel mixture"... But maybe (a long shot) the fuse for the heated oxygen sensors are tied into is blown.
However, this shouldn't cause the engine to die during the first 30 seconds or so since the engine runs under open loop and shouldn't read input from the O2 sensors. But, maybe once the PCM goes into closed loop, and if the O2 sensors aren't heated enough you could have interesting results..... Once the exhaust (and o2 sensors) are warmed up it should run fine since the signals should be accurate.
I'm not sure what the PCM does if there's "unexpected signals" from the O2 sensors, typically there's failsafe methods to ignore the signals and run rich. There's also usually methods where it'll check for open circuits to heating elements of O2 sensors and throw a check engine light. In extreme cases (ie. loss of crank sensor signal) the PCM will engage the auto-shutdown relay to kill the engine. I didn't write the code for the PCM, so I couldn't say exactly how it'll react.
But if I ever run into this scenario, I'm going to remind myself to carry a blow torch so I can heat my O2 sensors manually.
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