Hi

Any guesses?

I did a 300 mile highway drive yesterday @ 75 mph-ish. No troubles whatsoever. I had a full tank of premium, I'd filled up maybe 2 weeks ago so the gas was fresh. It's a bone-stock '04 Coupe with an Automatic, 85 000 miles and I swear to you the car hasn't seen 4500 RPM since I bought it 2+ years ago so it's not at all been pushed for a long time.

After a few hours of no-problems driving in 78-81 degree, dry weather, I pulled off the highway to refill, got to the end of the exit ramp and had to stop for the red light. I stopped, the engine died and would crank but not start.
I rolled it 1/2 off the road and started calling for a tow truck.

I sat with the hood open for about 45 minutes in low 80's degree temperature, turned the key and it started right up although the Check Engine light was now on.

I closed the hood and hit the highway without filling up as I was still 2 hours away from home and in the middle of nowhere.
The car ran great (but the Check Engine light was now constant) and I got about 10 minutes down the road and the engine dies @ 75 mph.
Same as before, the engine cranked but no start.

Sit on the side of the road for 45 minutes with the hood up, hit the key...'Boom' it fires up again....start driving again........7 or 8 minutes later, engine dies @ 75 mph again.

This happens again, finally a tow truck driver finds me and we dump the car at the nearest Chrysler dealership at 6 pm on a Saturday with nobody around.

I hadn't done any serious miles (more than 50 or 60 at a time) in a bit over 2 years but the gas was fresh and I still had more than a 1/4 tank of gas when it quit the first time.

Could anyone please hazard a guess? The car's almost 2 hours away at a Chrysler dealership I've never heard of and I'm wondering what kind of money this is going to cost me.

Thanks very much for any help or ideas with this,


Dave

 

Could be the mystery no start due to a dirty relay...

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...-start-18.html

 

I still don't own an xfire yet but i am dreading the day this happens to me hopefully it won't (knock on wood)
I'm actually quite terrified of being so embarrassed that a car as luxurious and beautiful as this one dies and needs to be pushed to the side of the road like its an old beaten up Honda , but this type of question pops up from time to time

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...tml#post430634

Read that , but first get your car back !! Don't let it sit at a dealership , they will nickel and dime you knowing your stressed about your car..

If It's not the rcm I'm assuming another place to check would be alternator or battery , but those won't leave an MIL..I'm sure some one will leave a better more helpful response, good luck chop

 

those solder joints will get hot enough to not make contact, and off goes the engine. It cools down, the solder joints make contact, and it starts right back up, only to get hot enough to separate again. It will do this until the joints crack enough to never start again...then you are stranded. I keep pushing my luck because I have yet to do either car. You will have to look at those joints thru a magnifying glass to really see how bad they are. I should be doing mine....and will when I tear things down to install the zietronics/dashdaq cause it is only a matter of time. Tighed1 will do it for you if you ship it to him...for just a token... or you could do itself. But, the dealer will never do it, and will tear your car apart looking for a "mystery no start".

 

So that's the reason It's called a "mystery no start", intriguing

 

LOL.....pretty much.... Tighed1 figured it out or we all would be paying big bucks... DJ is my hero.... Check out his "sticky" for fixing the problem...

 

I have read the sticky, actually was one first few threads I read when i was looking for problems that the cars have, there is no permanent fix for the rcm is there ?

 

Sounds like a heat related crank sensor to me??? Woody

 

Yea, this sounds like the CPS. $55 shipped from Autohaus.

The Chrysler dealer will probably screw around for hours and try replacing $1500 modules until they happen upon the CPS.

You'd be better off having it towed to a small independent shop that works on Mercedes. THOSE guys have seen this before, your Chrysler dealer? Well, you MIGHT get lucky IF they have a mechanic who is familiar with the car... but not likely.

YOu are not driving a Chrysler.


I'd get that car towed the HELL away from that Dealer before they telll you "The PTCM and CPS are both bad, parts ordered, they will be here in a week - $450 diagnostic charge plus $2400 for parts, call it $2500 and it's a deal". Then go to Autohaus in Arizona and order the CPS. It'll take 5 minutes to change it. THEN - Take the RCM out and either resolder it yourself or take it to a radio shop and let them re-solder the whole damn board, that will cost you probably $5 to $50.

And yer done.


(But I still agree with Woody, it's the damn CPS - anyway, the RCM will fail sooner or later anyway. MIght as well resolder it now!)

 

This happens so often that many of us, myself included, just carry a CPS in the trunk. If you can't change it, any shadetree mechanic can change it in 5 minutes - IF YOU HAVE THE PART!


(Oh, and get a BOSCH part!)

 

I vote for the CPS sensor. I would get the occasional hard start so I replaced the CPS sensor. Then, with the new one, (Borg Warner) the car would quit driving down the road every time I reached 4000 rpm. Put the stock CPS sensor back in and no trouble of any kind for the last year. Apparently it was a loose/bad connection between the sensor and the plug on my car. I would start by disconnecting, cleaning and reconnecting the plug. And don't forget to get the error code.

Les

 

nothing wrong with trying the cps first, but it will usuallly give you some warning it is going out. If you have had other times of hard starting, rough idle, then the cps may be your problem. Either one will cause the problems you mentioned....but dying and starting once cool is definitlely heat related...

 

Scan for the code stored in the ECU. If it is CPS related, put a new one in. James

 

Spidey sense was my first hint at trouble. "don't stop on the railroad tracks".. and I'll be darned if she didn't die and spend 10 minutes sitting before she restarted - with a check engine light. If you have any mechanical skills, you can replace the CPS and have a decent lunch for the price of another tow - unless you have AAA or some other tow service coverage.

 

There is no how to or DIY in this forum for the cps?
I looked in the common problems thread and the cps link downloaded the pdf
Of the rcm
Wouldn't the DIY be the same as an slk from his model year

 

Gentlemen,


Thank you SO much for your advice and opinions on this. I can't begin to tell you how grateful and appreciative I am for your knowledge/experience and input.
I bet I slept 2 hours last night tossing and turning and just sick about what this could be and although we don't yet know for sure what the problem is, you've given me hope that it's not going to be a $1000+ repair. I hope and pray you guys are right!!!!

I will call the dealer first thing tomorrow morning and touch base with them and tell them of the issues you've all outlined above. Hopefully they'll be able to fix it without any problems and my Crossfire will be back home very soon.

I'll post back here with any info I have so that in the future, others can hopefully benefit from this post.

Thanks again very, very much!


Dave

 

I vote for the CPS, there are a lot of threads on here about the same thing happening. Just search for CPS, there is even a step by step instruction for replacing it in one of the trheads. It just happened to me a few months ago, I had no warning, just CPS failed while driving down the highway. 10 minutes later the car started right up. Get the codes read, any Autozone or Advance auto will do it free. Buy a Bosch CPS for about $60, I replaced my own & if I can do it anyone can.

 

It's easy to tell the difference between the RCM and CPS issues. With the RCM problem, the car will not even crank. Let it sit long enough, fires right up. With the CPS, it will crank but not start. My car sits for a week at a time and is starting to experience hard starts so I'm considering replacing the CPS just to be safe.

 

I hope you're right because my car will turn over all day long but not fire - almost like there's no fuel getting to the engine and while I was sitting on the side of the road I was wondering if the fuel pump got too hot and stopped working until it cooled down?

I really wish the car wasn't 2 hours away. I'd be more than happy to try changing the crank positioning sensor to see if that fixes the issue.
The only times I've had to crank this engine longer than 2 seconds is when the car's been sitting for a month or more.
Yesterday, maybe an hour before it quit, I noticed that it it took maybe a half second longer to start than usual. Then the next time I fired it up, it took maybe a second longer than that. After that, it wouldn't start until approximately 45 minutes on the side of the road with the hood up!


Dave

 

crank positioning sensor