Took my '03 MCS that we did the engine swap on a few weeks ago and it was running fine until we went to lunch today. Shut the car off and when we returned from lunch I had trouble starting it. Cranking just fine and battery is new. Finally strated after a few tries and then was sputtering, now and again, all the way back .
Went to pull it into the shop at days end and it cranks but will not start. Fuel pump is working just fine, I can hear it start and stop.
I did notice a funny thing with the temp gauge. When I go to start the needle pegs out as hot at 12 o'clock and the red overheat light comes on. After a few cranks it goes off and the needle drops.
On the way back from lunch the needle was doing funny things also but the light never came on. We checked coolant and all is well.
No SES light or codes appear.

Help!

Thanks guys,

Tom

 

I was incorrect as we do have codes....a bunch of them.
P1229 MFG Control Fuel Air Metering
P0222 TPS/Pedal Position Sensor Switch Low Input
P0123 Pedal Position Sensor A High Input
P0118 Coolant Temp Sensor High Input
P0113 IAT Sensor i Circuit High Input
P0107 MAP / BARO Circuit Low Input
P1237 Mfg Control Fuel Air Meterting

The car was running perfectly until this happened. Is it possible that all of these codes are related to one issue?? I can't imagine all of these problems occcuring at once.
Need some guidance from the Mini Gurus

Thanks Guys,

Tom in PA

 

Since you did a recent engine swap, i am just guessing, but i would spend a bit of time under the hood....and look for a loose plug, chafed wire, or even a bad ground....with a swap tons of stuff gets unplugged....and moved around....grab and wiggle a bunch of stuff...
Has it rained recently or take the car to a carwash?

 

Zippy,
I checked everything we had worked on and the car has been running for 3 weeks now with no issues. We put a 15% pulley on last week and then I ran it for 4 days before going on a weekend trip where it ran just fine. It was running good all week this week until I went to lunch yesterday and then it started acting up.
I did find a loose positive battery cable this morning that I tightened up and I show 12.6v at the battery. I am going to charge the battery and see what that does.
I have to assume it's something electrical that is common for all these faults to occur at once. You don't just run fine one minute and then have all these faults occur all at once. There has to be a common denominator.

Thanks again,

Tom in PA

 

Check for Leaks from the whole intake system, the inter-cooler to the throttle body. if you find you have a leak any ware disconnect the battery to reset the computer. then let the car re-learn the mapping. hope this helps

 

Do you remember WHEN the yellow check engine light was flashing...
It flashes while the errors are occuring/getting stored...
If i had to bet, the common connection is, er, a bad connection!!
A failed start can be from the imoblizer going bad, but since you have some codes, i thinking check the big plug by the ecu....

 

I have a very similar issue too. I will disconnect the battery and see if I can clear the ecu to help.

Tom,

I sent you a PM to see if you could help explain what the solution is.

Any others have something similar?

It's driving me crazy.

 

ZippyNH,
I disconnected the battery.
I then went back to check both rectangular connectors into the ecu. Wala.
The locking pins that need to be pushed back in after reconnecting, were still, all the way out.
I took out the front connector which was the only one I removed, inspected to ensure all pin were aligned and reinserted.
I had forgot to push the locking pin back in before, and when I did now, the connector dropped securely in another 1/4 of an inch, into the connection base.
Reconnected the battery and started. Perfect.
After running a mile or so, the codes had all cleared themselves as they were all pending.
Double checked with my OBD scan tool and all cleared.
Thanks again for the advise.

 

Thanks!!
Glad to hear it was something simple and easy!!

 

my car runs great , new belt ,tensioner, solid bottom pulley (listen for leaks ....no leaks) then it goes into safe mode after restart. clear codes and disconnect battery . runs again , maybe a couple of days then back to limp mode at restart.
shut off , limp repeat. done it a dozen times.
making me crazy
p0638
p1229
p0500
p2270 from ox sensor
couple other codes too.
please help !