Car dies turning wheel, and jacking.

[91PDXmocha]

Have had this swapped 3.0 in my 91 sho for months now, recently was getting battery light coming on and off with acceleration and braking and throttle, also check engine light on and off. Car was bucking in traffic and giving the 213 code for grounded/open igntion. all sensors are new and tested. It finnally died when i turned out of my driveway. i noticed i can turn the wheel and in one spot i can get the CE and bat light to flicker on off so i know its right on a wire, also started the jack jacked up and when lowering the jack car died.

Ive concluded that it is a wire rubbing somwhere but I am baffled as to where. Ive gone from all the ignition wires, harness and battery cables. checked between the tranny and block, motor mounts. any ideas ? anyone have similar problem and find this ghost wire ?

 

[LJRuddy]

Have someone rotate the steering wheel lock to lock while engine is running. watch the engine bay and see if the entire engine is moving

Having the car die while lowering the jack makes me think that you have a loose subframe and it has allowed some wiring to rub together and possibly cause a temporary short when it moves around.

EDIT: looks like i totally missed the second part of your post lol. Check the wire harness that runs behind the engine in front of the firewall. I know YamahaSHO had a broken ground wire due to chaffing in this spot that caused a no start issue...

 

[yamahaSHO]

Actually, my harness is replaced and it is still doing the same...

However, my car was acting in a very similar manner. I had to jack it up to start the car once. When I slammed the hood, the car would hesitate and almost die. I would occasionally have hesitation to a point of almost killing the engine when I was giving it gas. At the same time, both of my temperature gauges would fluctuate and peg hot. I have also gotten the battery light to light up a few times.

My battery has not drained in 6 months of the car sitting.

I have swapped the main harness and get proper voltage under the hood (12v/14v+), but read low in the car (10-11v/12-13v).

When you find your problem, let me know... I'm going on a year and a half now of not driving the car.

 

[91PDXmocha]

Yea the bat light has been on and off for 5 months and thebattery never dies and has plenty of juice . It also shorts my fuel pump to run constantly and fans now , then after I leave it move it around it will start again. I had a similar problem before I ever swapped the motor and I changed the computer and did a 60k and it went away .

I'm goingto check the rear harness again .. And I checked my ecu harness nice and tight . I'm worried if you haven't found your problem yet Jason ... I'd rather not end up pulling this motor back out to track down one lousey wire .

Jason this is Evan btw I met you many moons ago .

 

[yamahaSHO]

Ah, I know who you are.

Have you checked the voltages under the hood and in the car?

I am in the process of taking out every bit of electronics I have ever installed on this car so that I can take that out of the equation. Once I find the problem, I'll do a cleaner install as I already have everything instead of acquiring more parts after initial wiring.

My problem could be compounding... The harness rubbed in the rear, however, it didn't make it through anything but a shield wire. I have fixed, removed, and completely replaced. I had the batter cable pop off with the car running and just rest on the terminal. This fried my WBO2 converter box. I also accidentally hooked my batter cable up backwards when positioning my batter box in the back of the car (all this happened about 2-3 years ago).

 

[91PDXmocha]

I too had lots of battery wiring issues, I installed a stereo and HID's since getting this car and had a loose battery cable for a while. I thought maybe I grounded somthing out, unhooked everything still nothing.

Havent checked voltage in car yet. I do have a spare harness but worry about going through all the hassle of swapping it and be in the same boat like you still .

Is this on your red car btw ?

 

[yamahaSHO]

Yes, it is the only SHO I own.

 

[91PDXmocha]

Lol that's probably wise ... Sounds like the sti is treatin ya well .

 

[frosho]

It also shorts my fuel pump to run constantly and fans now , then after I leave it move it around it will start again.

This sounds like a problem with the CCRM (black box above the radiator where the fuel pump and fan relays are located).

 

[yamahaSHO]

I'm guessing the there is something upstream effecting the CCRM.

 

[91PDXmocha]

I've changed the ccrm already , maf , crank , cam , iac , tps , and battery cables from solenoid and to starter . Tryed to get all the easy stuff first :/

I'm going to dig into the rear harness tonight hopefully or tmrw , if I remember the harness going to the ccrm runs from the back of the firewall up over transmission and up to the core support correct ?

I've seen a pinout diagram on here I'll see if I can find again but does anyone know which pins are runnig to the ccrm , sounds like a good place to start to me .

 

[SHOZ123]

Is there a PS pressure sensor somewhere?

 

[91PDXmocha]

power steering pressure sensor ? there is one on the car yes . where you going with that one ? its def not anything to accually do with the power steering.

 

[SHOZ123]

power steering pressure sensor ? there is one on the car yes . where you going with that one ? its def not anything to accually do with the power steering.

Going nowhere I guess.....

 

[91PDXmocha]

Thanks for the advice all the same tho .

 

[91PDXmocha]

I went out and fiddled with the rear harness today. unplugged everything and moved around as nice as i could and re connected and dropped the car from the jack still running again ,this time stayed alive

Car drives like it did before but what worries me is the bat light still flickers sometimes, but not as often as it was. I also grabbed the ecu harnesss and wiggled it with the car running to see if it would make a a difference , nothing.

Im driving the car again but worried this is only a bandaid

 

[91PDXmocha]

is there a ground that comes out of the rear harness somewhere other then the rear firewall on the pass side ?