IzaBell 280 Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 My 280Z suffered a stroke in the middle of a spirited run to the store. She just died suddenly and everything I tried didn't work. Towed home;( After much FSM and EFI Bible and basic torture I solved the problem. Let me back up a bit. No Noid light on start cranking told me injectors were not firing. ECU?? Grounds?? Dropping resistors??? After all the work checking and testing the problem was right next to the battery is some white wires that go through a set of terminals that I don't know are used for. NOT FUSIBLE LINKS, they were closer to the battery. After cleaning those and my fusible links she started. It was so very glorious I wanted to share. The Lesson learned is : If you have a "new to you car" that's over 30 years old do yourself a favor clean all wire connections in the engine bay. My lesson 9 months ago was to replace all vacuum tubes. Trend? I think so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stravi757 Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 Congrats lol. Nice to hear someone did some research first and figured out the problem by themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19762802+2 Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 My 280Z suffered a stroke in the middle of a spirited run to the store. She just died suddenly and everything I tried didn't work. Towed home;( After much FSM and EFI Bible and basic torture I solved the problem. Let me back up a bit. No Noid light on start cranking told me injectors were not firing. ECU?? Grounds?? Dropping resistors??? After all the work checking and testing the problem was right next to the battery is some white wires that go through a set of terminals that I don't know are used for. NOT FUSIBLE LINKS, they were closer to the battery. After cleaning those and my fusible links she started. It was so very glorious I wanted to share. The Lesson learned is : If you have a "new to you car" that's over 30 years old do yourself a favor clean all wire connections in the engine bay. My lesson 9 months ago was to replace all vacuum tubes. Trend? I think so. Those white wires are pretty much the power supply to your ECU, glad you figured it out though. Its always nice to work on your car and fix it yourself, sense of accomplishment I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IzaBell 280 Posted March 15, 2011 Author Share Posted March 15, 2011 It did it again...just cut out. Luckily I was close to the house I walked home, got some 12 gauge wire , cut those stupid wire connectors out and wired directly from battery to the harness. Now it starts everytime and even runs better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stravi757 Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 It did it again...just cut out. Luckily I was close to the house I walked home, got some 12 gauge wire , cut those stupid wire connectors out and wired directly from battery to the harness. Now it starts everytime and even runs better. That doesn't sound right. Are you saying you took out those fuse wires and replaced them with 12G wire? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19762802+2 Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 It did it again...just cut out. Luckily I was close to the house I walked home, got some 12 gauge wire , cut those stupid wire connectors out and wired directly from battery to the harness. Now it starts everytime and even runs better. I would wire in a fuse, I have no idea what type of fuse would be good, I put a smaller fuse on mine but I would consider wiring in a fuse on one of those wires. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewZed Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 (edited) Actually, no injector firing could be from a bad ignition module. The ECU fires the injectors when it gets the signal from the negative post of the coil. The sudden death then miracle revival sounds like ignition module also. There is a one or two wire (green) in-line (separate from the ones under the covers) fusible link for the EFI harness. If you short your harness now, you'll burn up all the wire to the point of the short. Edit - the "spirited run" is a clue also. High rpm heat up the module causing it to fail. Cooling down revives it. Edited March 15, 2011 by NewZed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 NewZed has a nice stealth issue that is common in places where heat-related component failure is commong (southwest)... The 'white wires' are indeed fusible links, and if you notice they are idiot proof (as I recall)---most people simply remove them...and then you have two RED WIRES for the ECU power. No less than 6 cars I have bought because it was sitting for a time with the battery disconnected and didn't run were because people swapped the ECU power wires because both the leads to the battery are RED!!! A check to ground quickly reveals which is which, and some people aren't too happy when I put a battery into their bargian basement car, and fire it up to drive it on the trailer "required to move it out of here"... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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