This morning I left for work, made it half of a mile and my car shut off, brakes locked up, and Air Bag light came on. I started it back up, went down a side street and it did the same thing within 1/8 mile. I started it back up and drove home (coasted down a hill in neutral) and parked it. I let it sit for 5 minutes, tried to drive it down my street to see if it would do it again and it felt like it was going to bogg down again before I got up to 20 MPH.

What could this be? CEL light is on and it's a misfire in cylinder 2... replaced spark plugs and it helped but noticed a burn mark on the wire in cylinder 2, so I'm in the process of getting this replaced. I need the problem fixed tomorrow. Does this sound like a timing belt issue? I'm at 65,000 on an automatic.

I have to drive it about 7 minutes away to get fixed, so what would be the easiest way to drive it there, stay under certain RPM? Go slow and easy, coasting when possible?

Shadohh thinks tranny is done for... what do you think? Will it be denied warranty if I haven't replaced timing belt yet?

 

I had a very similar issue.....what is happening is that burn mark you saw is because the spark isn't going through the connector to the plug. It is arching out of the boot, running down the chamber and then being transferred to the plug. A simple change of wires should fix that. I had the issue last winter. I changed up to NGK wires and running like a champ. laugh.gif

 

so the wire would cause the engine to run that badly? Even shut down and brakes lock up?

are you sure?

 

Cyscoo actually had the same problem a long time ago, it was the wires.

Brakes locking up? Maybe you were braking when it happened and they wouldn't release cause the car died? I dunno. WOrk one issue at a time mang.

 

Yeah because it causes pre or postmature detonation....spark is not direct.
I had the exact same thing happen, the reason it seems like it is bogged down is because the engine is running more rich than normal and almost "flooding". The brake thing I am not sure of....but that shouldn't really be a result of the tranny and you don't seem to have other tranny type issues with this. I am still banking on the wires.

 

I'm thinking it over now. Maybe the brakes didn't lock up.. I was only going 5-10MPH when it happened, maybe the engine suddenly cutting off just caused it to stop real quick.

When it happened, it felt like the entire car shook and sounded/felt like the engine fell straight through to the ground. Popped the hood and everything looked fine, not mounts broken or anything.

I can't be sure but I may have lost steering capabilities when it happened, I only say that because my car isn't aligned perfectly at the moment and the car drifted toward the side of the road both times it happened (and I was still holding the wheel)

 

i wouldnt think one spark plug wire would cause something like that.

 

Yep, wires....short violent shakes and some lerching?

 

LOL, I didn't either until it happened to me....and the reason it happened was dumb.
I went into someone's house for a while with my car running. It was freezing outside so we left the car running and the heat cranked because the car wasn't really warm yet. (they live pretty close). We ended up being in there for like an hour. Car was REALLY warm inside and I think just got too hot for idling so long....lost track of time and would NEVER do anything like that on purpose since it is soooooooo bad for the car. Anyway, backed out of the driveway and started down the road, got to a stop sign and took off around the corner. I saw a little cloud of smoke but assumed that it was just exhaust because it was soooo cold. I drove about five miles and came to a stop, went to go again and the car stuttered and stopped. I started it again and if I kept it above 2000 RPM it seemed to be better but any less than that shook really bad like the engine was dying. I tried to have the code read since I threw a CEL but the place I went too didn't pick anything up. I reset the ECU and threw the CEL again. I checked the plugs and the one that had the bad wire was literally black and had charred crap on it that you could rub off. I changed the plugs and wires....BAM, like a new car. It even ran better than before I had an issue.

 

Oh dude, you know you drifted because you lost powersteering when your car died. If you were in gear you came to a sudden stop because you were moving slow. Engine breaking is a b****. LOL As for the wires, they were stock right? You may not belive it, but when I went to the NGK wires when I got back? There was a HUGE difference in how the car idled, and you could really feel the engine run smoother. Wires are important. Hell, even if they weren't stock wires, wires go bad. It happens. I've seen this happen several times now. I've had to replace the wires on my 93 Excel 4 times now.