He died on me today!

[six_wheeler]

Well, it turns out that my teal Typhoon does have a soul of his own.
I was off work for the past five days because my wife had a miscarriage but thank God she's okay.
So today (Thursday) afternoon I decided to take the Ty for a spin and go see a guy about taking car of the front propshaft. A couple of minutes later and I was on one of the busiest junctions in Jeddah, even busier with some road work going on. And the damn thing cut out on me right in the middle of it. The engine went dead and the starter wouldn't even crank. A few minutes later it was on the bed of a tow truck :roll:
So finally, after some long-overdue procrastination, I decided to delve in and fix it up. Just today, the mechanic (whom I've never met before) and I took out the water pump, the whole intercooler system, and we're troubleshooting the alternator/electrical system. On Saturday we start replacing the intercooler pipes with hoses, and I'll see about either having the IC pump (which turned out to be so shot that the screws wouldn't even come off without some drenching in brake fluid) fixed up, or replacing it with a heater pump originally meant for 1985-95 Mercedes 230-300/W124 (both are made by Bosch and look similar, so putting it in shouldn't be that difficult.
We'll also start work on the suspension and steering (you know, the usual shock/ball joint/rod runaround) and whatever else that needs fixing.
I'll keep you posted on progress.

Shady

 

[jjorgensen52]

Re: He died on me today!

sounds kind of like the infamous purple wire ... by the downpipe, after a while gets fried and the truck wont run anymore ... I've forgotten the link for the fix but if you search purple wire it ought to turn up :tup:

 

[six_wheeler]

Re: He died on me today!

Thanks J! I ran the search and this thread was the first to pop up! :lol:
I'll have a look at it on Saturday, but I'm sure it's an alternator problem, because when I'm going heavy on the battery at night with the lights, A/C and stereo all on, I can see the battery gauge dropping way below where it should be (the battery is brand new.)

Shady

 

[jjorgensen52]

Re: He died on me today!

Thanks J! I ran the search and this thread was the first to pop up! :lol:
I'll have a look at it on Saturday, but I'm sure it's an alternator problem, because when I'm going heavy on the battery at night with the lights, A/C and stereo all on, I can see the battery gauge dropping way below where it should be (the battery is brand new.)

Shady

I have that problem anyway :lol: ... just how low is it getting? I've seen mine hang at around 9 volts for 10 - 15 mintues and then come back up eventually

 

[MikeRenz]

Re: He died on me today!

the ic system would have nothing to do w/ the motor dying - it is its own entity. My $ is on the alt peg being loose and only charging sporatically.

 

[six_wheeler]

Re: He died on me today!

I've seen mine hang at around 9 volts for 10 - 15 mintues and then come back up eventually

Yup. That's about it, but only with all that stuff running.

 

[six_wheeler]

Re: He died on me today!

the ic system would have nothing to do w/ the motor dying - it is its own entity. My $ is on the alt peg being loose and only charging sporatically.

Yup, I know that. But I've decided to go on and fix it anyway, since the vehicle is in the shop already and my wife has some cash lying around :lol:

Shady

 

[jjorgensen52]

Re: He died on me today!

the ic system would have nothing to do w/ the motor dying - it is its own entity. My $ is on the alt peg being loose and only charging sporatically.

This would be more likely to show up at night wouldn't it? By which I mean the battery dying so suddenly at night when it's under a heavier load :lol: - thats when the alternator in my Ty failed, wipers headlights stereo and everything going ... it flashed every single warning light in the book before it did it though :dunno:

 

[MikeRenz]

Re: He died on me today!

mine would die in broad daylight when my alt was failing. Depends on how full of a charge you'd get. I have electric fans, but they weren't even trying to kick on.

 

[qbnkiller]

Re: He died on me today!

...let me be the first to say sorry about the miscarriage..my wife and I went through that late last year.....very hard to deal with.

Good luck with the truck...could be the purple starter wire...have had that happen also.

 

[MikeRenz]

Re: He died on me today!

it could just be your ecm fuse too. The purple wire frying wouldn't cuase the truck to die - just make it not start

 

[jjorgensen52]

Re: He died on me today!

it could just be your ecm fuse too. The purple wire frying wouldn't cuase the truck to die - just make it not start

Maybe it shorted to the downpipe :dunno:


NOTE: This is just a crazy theory to defend the correctness of my statment :rotf:

 

[kentuc]

Re: He died on me today!

The purple wire only energizes the starter solonoid..After you start you could cut that wire out of the car and it would still run.I would check the ignition switch on the top of the column.

 

[Don W.]

Re: He died on me today!

Also low system voltages and/or an aging bat can cause all kinds of problems. Get that alt checked by a reputable shop and a load test on the bat also. That may not be why it just died but will sure help it run right once it's fixed.

 

[six_wheeler]

Re: He died on me today!

Thanks guys. I know it's an alternator problem. There's nothing wrong with the starter, because when I tried to start the truck, it would try to crank (click... click...) but there wasn't enough power to turn the engine.

Shady