I have a 2003 Lancer ES which shuts off randomly while driving, and usually at freeway speeds. It is very intermintent, and usually goes a couple months between doing it.

I have the 5speed ES with about 117,000miles on it. The car has gone through routine check ups.

I can feel some sort of electronic "clicking" like noises in the steering wheel right before it happens. Then the gas pedal no longer works, but the motor stays on until I come to a stop then its dies. Usually takes a few seconds and maybe a try or two to turn it back on. Nothing else is wrong with the car other than this.

Could an ignition switch be going out and possibly shorting the car out? Any help or insight would greatly be appreciated.

Thank you

Jimmy

 

If this happens and you take the car out of gear does the engine stay running?

 

no codes? if not I'd assume ignition switch

 

in gear or out of gear, it wont even let me rev up the rpm. sometimes i can pump the gas and itll go back on. most of the time it just dies.

and ive had the codes checked and nothing has given an error message, and ive dropped it off at a mechanics shop and they have seen nothing

 

Sorry to hear about your problems. Definitely something I haven't run into before. A couple brief suggestions I can give would be to clean off all the grounding points in the engine bay and to disconnect your negative battery cable for about 20-30 minutes to let your ECU reset. Then start your car after hooking the negative cable back up and let it idle for 20 minutes without touching the gas, brake, anything. This will allow the ECU to relearn the engine's sensors.

Shot in the dark it almost sounds like your ECU might be causing the issues. When you say that the gas pedal no longer works do you mean that you can press it and the engine doesn't respond or that you press it and it moves with ease like its not hooked up to anything and just sorta hanging there?

 

tps going out of the range the computer can handle? sounds like an ecu overheat issue maybe ..

 

These clicking noises you hear. Is this EVERYTIME for sure you hear this before it happens? You could have maybe a relay going bad and it just has to hit the right "spot" to trigger the failure of the relay. Its extremely hard to pinpoint an intermittent problem such as this GL.

 

I will have to try pulling off the battery leads and trying that out.

As far as the gas pedal, I can just press it to the floor and it doesnt respond with rpm or anything.

And the clicking noises happens always right before the car shuts down.

Im assuming that the ignition may be going out, or that it may not be connected all the way. And at a certain point in my be grounding out on something inside the steering column.

Sounds plausible?

 

The ignition switch wire clip is really easy to get to you could get some electrical cleaner and spray it on the contacts to see if that helps.