Engine (Randomly) Cuts Out

aztek · April 27, 2011

Hi guys,

Well I am getting a bit frustrated with my car at the moment. I have an IS200 (1999) Manual with TTE supercharger and the engine cuts out while driving.

To be exact: I am driving along. No warning lights are on on the dash. Then out of nowhere the engine stops and the rpms start to drop. Then 1-2 seconds after the engine stops the lights go on on the dashboard. As if I am standing still and turned the key to the most right position before actually starting the engine.

So I turn the car of the road and wait for a bit. Sometimes this takes an hour, sometimes (like today) it took 5 min tops. During that time I attempt to start the car. It turns over and seems to run for one second then dies again. If I do this often quickly it doesn't turn over I just hear the starter motor. If I wait long enough ( 5 - 60 minutes) and try again it starts as if it never had any problems at all. No weird noises. No difference in power. And I can drive for another few hundred miles/kilometers. Also the engine light is not on after starting the car again. After removing the Battery or keeping everything connected and just waiting. I have an obd2 reader but I don't know if all obd2 readers can see the same amount of errors. At the moment I don't see any.

Things I did so far expect searching:

- Replaced driver side junction box. There was a tiny bit of water in there a few months ago. We first removed it and dried it. Making the lights work normally again. But since then I have been having this random engine cut problem. Last weekend I replaced it in the hope that it would fix this but this morning the problem came back.

These where changed 2 weeks ago but the problems have been there for a few months.

- Changed timing

- Changed all belts related to supercharger, airco, powersteering, waterpump.

- Changed oilpump and since we where there we also changed the waterpump

- Changed Oil and coolant.

Things I thought might be it?

Maybe the supercharger piggyback ECU doesn't work anymore. Mine is a black square shaped one. I thought this "couldn't" be it because my engine light doesn't come on and with everybody that had this problem the engine light seemd to go on. Short version: No engine light on after (re)starting the engine = no problem with piggy back ecu. If I am wrong on this assumption please let me know :) I'd happily get the HKS FCD or something like it.

Hoping any of you knows what is up.

Also if I pop the hood and insert the key (not turn it) I here a click from the engine junction box. I think this is normal because of the key inserting. Then if I turn it all the way to the right before starting the car. I hear click click as if a relay is going on off or off on. I don't know if that is normal?