HELP! Car shutting off for no reason, SDS Engine Mgmt. I think might be the cause? - Zilvia.net Forums | Nissan 240SX (Silvia) and Z (Fairlady) Car Forum

rcviper · 06-23-2003, 10:12 AM

Well I'm having problems with my SDS Enginemanagement system. The cars has run flawlessly up until yesterday when I started having this problem.

I just was driving down the road no problems whatsoever and the engine just turns off. All of the electronics stay on, everything acts normal but the motor itself just shut off.

Ok, that has never happened before, I am checking the SDS control unit and nothing looks out of the ordinary, engine temp looks perfectly fine, air temp may be a little hot but the motor itself wasn't overheating by any means. Get out of the car and am not leaking any fluids, visual inspection of the engine bay and everything on the outside looks perfectly fine. Ok try to start the car and it won't start back up right away so I let it sit for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes it started back up and I drove away.

Then about another half hour later the car does the same exact thing, normal driving and it shows no sign whatsoever of running hard or rough or any preliminary symptoms that something is about to happen. It starts back up after a while and now it runs for maybe a mile before it shuts off again.

Well anyways I get to the car show and the car sat for probably 6 hours or so and leaving was a bitch, a normally 1 hour drive took 3 hours because the car died so many times on the way home. But a few times I found on the way home that when the car goes into its "limp mode" or whatever you want to call it if I let off the gas and coast while in gear the car will coast normally but when I hit the gas again the car actually slows down quicker like it is worse for the car when I give it gas. One of the times also when the car was about to die I turned the knob all the way to the rich setting which is 50% more fuel at idle and it saved the motor from completely crapping out, it had a really rough idle for like 2 minutes and then it went back to normal for about a half hour

.

Bottom line is I would love to get some feedback if anyone has and information if they think it could possibly be something else. It also feels like I'm losing spark or something possibly, I'm going to check the spark plugs and wires to see if they are still good and one of them isn't fowled up. I can't imagine it has anything to do with the engine itself, it runs cherry and I can beat on it all day long when it runs fine, but just out of the blue it goes into this "time to turn off" mode. I'm starting to learn more about this SDS system everyday but if anyone has had this problem, or if my unit is going bad you think, please give me some feedback. Thanks guys.

Bill Roberts · 06-23-2003, 10:48 AM

Although I have never had this problem with my 240SX, I speculate that it could be vapor lock. Vapor lock happens when the intake manifold is too hot.

???

Just one of many things that can go wrong. Hopefully, someone will have a better answer.

rcviper · 06-23-2003, 10:58 AM

Well I posted it up on a bunch of forums and a fellow user of another board has a friend that was encountering the same problems with his SDS system. It turned out that the crank sensor magnets for the SDS system were losing their magnatism over time and eventually the ecu got confused and turned off the engine. So I'm going to call up SDS and get some new magnets. Hopefully that solves the problem:hammer:

06-23-2003, 10:12 AM	#1
rcviper Zilvia Junkie Join Date: May 2003 Location: NW Ohio Age: 44 Posts: 351 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	HELP! Car shutting off for no reason, SDS Engine Mgmt. I think might be the cause? Well I'm having problems with my SDS Enginemanagement system. The cars has run flawlessly up until yesterday when I started having this problem. I just was driving down the road no problems whatsoever and the engine just turns off. All of the electronics stay on, everything acts normal but the motor itself just shut off. Ok, that has never happened before, I am checking the SDS control unit and nothing looks out of the ordinary, engine temp looks perfectly fine, air temp may be a little hot but the motor itself wasn't overheating by any means. Get out of the car and am not leaking any fluids, visual inspection of the engine bay and everything on the outside looks perfectly fine. Ok try to start the car and it won't start back up right away so I let it sit for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes it started back up and I drove away. Then about another half hour later the car does the same exact thing, normal driving and it shows no sign whatsoever of running hard or rough or any preliminary symptoms that something is about to happen. It starts back up after a while and now it runs for maybe a mile before it shuts off again. Well anyways I get to the car show and the car sat for probably 6 hours or so and leaving was a bitch, a normally 1 hour drive took 3 hours because the car died so many times on the way home. But a few times I found on the way home that when the car goes into its "limp mode" or whatever you want to call it if I let off the gas and coast while in gear the car will coast normally but when I hit the gas again the car actually slows down quicker like it is worse for the car when I give it gas. One of the times also when the car was about to die I turned the knob all the way to the rich setting which is 50% more fuel at idle and it saved the motor from completely crapping out, it had a really rough idle for like 2 minutes and then it went back to normal for about a half hour. Bottom line is I would love to get some feedback if anyone has and information if they think it could possibly be something else. It also feels like I'm losing spark or something possibly, I'm going to check the spark plugs and wires to see if they are still good and one of them isn't fowled up. I can't imagine it has anything to do with the engine itself, it runs cherry and I can beat on it all day long when it runs fine, but just out of the blue it goes into this "time to turn off" mode. I'm starting to learn more about this SDS system everyday but if anyone has had this problem, or if my unit is going bad you think, please give me some feedback. Thanks guys. __________________ 04 GTO 00 S4 00 S4 1995 240sx S14.5 SR20 Freshly Built Motor, T3/T4, S15 Front 1990 S13 Hatch SR20 @ 400+ whp SOLD

06-23-2003, 10:58 AM	#3
rcviper Zilvia Junkie Join Date: May 2003 Location: NW Ohio Age: 44 Posts: 351 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	Well I posted it up on a bunch of forums and a fellow user of another board has a friend that was encountering the same problems with his SDS system. It turned out that the crank sensor magnets for the SDS system were losing their magnatism over time and eventually the ecu got confused and turned off the engine. So I'm going to call up SDS and get some new magnets. Hopefully that solves the problem:hammer: __________________ 04 GTO 00 S4 00 S4 1995 240sx S14.5 SR20 Freshly Built Motor, T3/T4, S15 Front 1990 S13 Hatch SR20 @ 400+ whp SOLD

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06-23-2003, 10:48 AM	#2
Bill Roberts Zilvia FREAK! Join Date: May 2003 Location: S FL. Posts: 1,538 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	Although I have never had this problem with my 240SX, I speculate that it could be vapor lock. Vapor lock happens when the intake manifold is too hot. ??? Just one of many things that can go wrong. Hopefully, someone will have a better answer.