[Goodums]

Whelp I seem to be running into all kinds of trouble with this thing, I love it - it hates me.

I was on the highway Monday morning and cruising about 45, out of no where the car stalled either as I was shifting into 5th or right before I hit the clutch. Tried starting it back up while coasting and no luck so I had it towed home.

I had the battery charged and tested and it's fine.
Timing belt was replaced less than 15k miles ago.
I just put new spark plugs in and have spark.
An hour ago I did a fuel pressure test which bounced between 40-45psi when cranking. Gas Tank is 1/2 full right now as well.

All I have left to check is compression, right? Or should I test the fuel injectors? If I have spark does that rule out coil pack and timing?

I had originally thought it to be filter/pump but don't see how it would be if i'm getting o.k pressure?

The only things i've done to the car since I had a clutch, head gasket, timing belt and water pump put in was replacing a corroded clutch line with a z1 SS line. However at that time I knocked out a coolant hose from the engine to the firewall for a second but got it right back in. I highly doubt that has anything to do with it but mentioning it just to be safe. Also to be safe, the only other things that have seemed wrong with my car is hesitation at 3.8k-4.1k rpm and my headunit randomly turning off.

Really hope someone can shed light on this, I don't know what to do and have spent all day trying to research this.

 

[BRZCory]

I had a problem kinda like that, it just quit while I was cruising.

after towing it home, swapping out the coil, swapping to a different ignition setup, checking the fuel, everything...

Turned out to be one of the slow-blow fuses in the underhood fuse box. The big square ones.

Also, do you have an alarm?

 

[Goodums]

Yeah, disabled the chirp and alarm horn but kept everything not dealing with sound hooked up.

Friend of mine just had me take part of the timing belt cover off to peak in there and see if it was still on and well, it was. He thinks it may have skipped timing. Everything is old though so I didn't want to try tearing down too much and shear a bolt - as a few have already sheared off in various places.

I lack a lot of tools to do everything efficiently too which doesn't help me much. Was trying to get some locals to lend a hand but no luck yet.

I'll try checking the fuses, I really hope it's something stupid like that! haha

 

[BRZCory]

Hook up the horn, your alarm is probably going off and killing the ecu power.

 

[Goodums]

Oh the alarm isn't going off. I know that for sure.
Just pulled out all the sbfs and brought them in to inspect in better light right now but not seeing anything out of the ordinary with them.

 

[Jagular 1785]

Check your timing. Just out of the blue quitting like that could be a timing belt slip if the tensioner is loosing it's spring force. Pop the cover off one or both of the heads and make sure the timing marks line up.

 

[Goodums]

Check your timing. Just out of the blue quitting like that could be a timing belt slip if the tensioner is loosing it's spring force. Pop the cover off one or both of the heads and make sure the timing marks line up.

Ok, I pulled the cover off - kinda. Drivers side came off nicely, I don't have the socket for the crank pulley so I was only able to move the other half of the cover around to see that side. It looks like there's an arrow pointing up and to the left (on the drivers side) and theres like a straight line going across the other pulley going down and left. I also noticed a weird chip or something taken out of the side of the pulley. Doesn't look like it can cause any harm but i'll get a picture of it tomorrow when it's light out.

Other than the markers belt seems snug, I did notice a lot of gunk at the bottom of the cover on the inside. smelt rubbery and looks like there's fibers in it. Belt doesn't look damaged, this residue might be from the old one? Current belt is like 2 months old.

 

[Jagular 1785]

Ok, you need to find the dash mark on the crank pulley (might be hard to find, look carefully) and point it straight up and then see if the cam has the dash facing directly up as well. If it is facing directly down, that is also ok but I would turn the engine to face the cam directly up to make sure. The crank bolt is a 22mm or 7/8" socket, I would try to get ahold of one and a strong 1/2 minimum breaker bar. You will need those if the belt has slipped, plus I use that bolt to turn the engine.

 

[Goodums]

It's raining pretty good but I got the crank pulley tdc, drivers side seems good but passengers looks like it's pointing too far to the left about 1-3 teeth off.
It's really hard to see a dash on the crank pulley, someone smugged some white shit on it though to replace it (I think). I'll dive back in after the rain passes.

Man what a pita this is for the unprepared.

 

[Jagular 1785]

Sounds like you skipped a few teeth. I'd definitely get the proper tools and take the bolt out and cover off to inspect closer. If indeed you are off a few teeth, that could have been the culprit, and judging from the rubber on the inside of the cover that looks likely. So, I would be taking the timing belt off and replacing it, although it could be possible that you had valve contact. The best way to check for that without tearing the heads off is a leakdown test or compression test if you put the belt back on correctly.

 

[02darkRS]

Friend of mine just had me take part of the timing belt cover off to peak in there and see if it was still on and well, it was. He thinks it may have skipped timing. Everything is old though so I didn't want to try tearing down too much and shear a bolt - as a few have already sheared off in various places.

One of those wouldn't be the camshaft position sensor bolt would it (drivers side front of the head behind teh cam)? I forgot to bolt mine in one time I had my motor out. Every bump or slow down that morning caused me to have to jump out & tap it back in until I got a zip tie.

Also, I jumped timing real bad while driving once. Shouldn't cause it to just shut off. I drove all the way home with mine banging & clanging. Sure you can't think of any strange noises or stutters you felt right before? You'd know if you jumped teeth while cruising on the freeway. Unless you happen to have the non interference motor? can't remember which they are. but i don't believe 99 is one of them.

 

[Goodums]

One of those wouldn't be the camshaft position sensor bolt would it (drivers side front of the head behind teh cam)? I forgot to bolt mine in one time I had my motor out. Every bump or slow down that morning caused me to have to jump out & tap it back in until I got a zip tie.

Also, I jumped timing real bad while driving once. Shouldn't cause it to just shut off. I drove all the way home with mine banging & clanging. Sure you can't think of any strange noises or stutters you felt right before? You'd know if you jumped teeth while cruising on the freeway. Unless you happen to have the non interference motor? can't remember which they are. but i don't believe 99 is one of them.

Car was completely smooth when this happened. No jerking or anything other than clutch rub when I pushed it in to shift into 5th. I seriously had no idea it stalled until I noticed I was slowing down, didn't have loud music on and heard nothing out of the ordinary.

About 5-10 minutes before this happened I was in serious stop/go traffic going uphill it that helps anything, and since my clutch has uneven wear it chatters/rumbles the car a little bit.

SBF Fuses look good, think I mentioned that.

It's been raining all morning and car isn't in the garage so i've been waiting for my friend to get off work and help me get it inside and take a look at the timing. Also after reading, everyone is saying the ej25 is an interference motor.

What are some signs I can look for with the belt? It seems to me that it wouldn't make sense for the timing belt to slip if it's still snug in there, but i've never worked on one before so I don't know much about it.

Aside from camshaft position sensor could it be crankshaft position sensor? Or is that ruled out? Also how can I check/test the camshaft position sensor?

 

[Jagular 1785]

Well, if you can, I would pull CELs and see if there is anything that might help with diagnosing. When I set my timing up wrong it threw a multitude of CELs. Cam and Crank position sensors were both thrown, and I think misfires on all 4 (but the car never started... not sure why it tripped them but whatever). Was 6 or 7 codes if I remember right.

And yeah, the EJ25s are interference motors. However if you slipped a few teeth the valves may not have been off enough to contact. It's a long shot, sure but you could get lucky.

As for signs of the belt slipping, there really isn't much to see unless cogs were knocked off when/if it slipped. But I don't think that usually happens. If the tensioner is movable by any amount of force that you can push by hand, it is bad. The old blown tensioner on my car never made noise or slipped, but I could tell it was loose because I could see a dent in the case where it flopped back and hit the hardened pin the adjuster sits on. If there is a lot of rubber dust in there it is not a good sign, but other than that I would pull all the covers off and check. Has the timing belt been done recently?

 

[Goodums]

Yes the timing belt was done less than 15k miles ago along with water pump, about 2 months. Car currently has 126k miles on it.

I took a picture of the rubber dust because I wasn't sure if it was just leftover residue from the old belt (I never got to see it) or if it could be from the new belt, however the new belt shows no visible signs of rub or damage, looks like it did when I bought it. The only visible indication of damage i've seen so far, granted I haven't taken the crank pulley completely off yet - is a chip taken out of the side wall of cam #1. It doesn't look like it's big enough to do anything though and has not effected the teeth. It looks like someone when to chisel a mark in for timing and just hit it too hard.

 

[Jagular 1785]

Do you know if they re-used or bought a new tensioner? I know several shops reuse them because its cheaper and will usually spec out properly at the time. However several thousand or tens of thousand miles down the road it will wear out prematurely and then you have bigger problems.

As for the chip, I don't really know. I would guess its ok as long as the belt doesn't rub on it. If you want to be safe however, I'd replace the cam gear.

 

[Goodums]

I personally didn't buy a new tensioner with the belt. They never mentioned putting a new one on nor did they put it on the invoice so I believe it's safe to assume they re-used the old one.

 

[02darkRS]

I personally didn't buy a new tensioner with the belt. They never mentioned putting a new one on nor did they put it on the invoice so I believe it's safe to assume they re-used the old one.

If the belt is snug chances are it did not slip. I'd be real interested to see what that chip is though you keep referencing. Since, you're going to get in there anyway replace your Idlers & Tensioner now if they did not do it or you'll be back in here but this time for certain with bent valves. That's how mine went, the idler bearings blew & let the timing belt go where it wanted.

My CSP was loose so it kept falling out. If you look at the cam, you'd see if it were the problem. However, if it's bad you can't tell by eye but you should be throwing a code. Same with the Crank Position Sensor.

If it's cranking & you've got air, spark, & fuel, then the only things left are the sensors. or compression I guess but I have never had to get that deep into it. I think i read you did not actually test the fuel injectors? if so, you may want to check those before doing anything else. Where did you check fuel at?

 

[Goodums]

Fuel pressure tester was used between engine and filter at 40-45 psi during crank, and held pressure for quite a while.

I'll test injectors and see what comes of that.

I'll get a picture of the chip once I get the cover completely off.

 

[02darkRS]

Fuel pressure tester was used between engine and filter at 40-45 psi during crank, and held pressure for quite a while.

I'll test injectors and see what comes of that.

I'll get a picture of the chip once I get the cover completely off.

I could easilly be incorrect here but if you're testing before the filter you're leaving two components that could be failing you unchecked. You've essentially checked your fuel pump but left possibility for a clogged filter or failing injector..... unless those would be seen by higher than standard pressures on a test?

 

[Goodums]

I put the fuel pressure gauge after the filter, wouldn't that be testing the filter and the pump?

My friend is lending me his impact tomorrow to get the crank pulley off. The markers are definitely off between cam 1 and 2, but not by a lot. Doesn't seem to be a marker on the crank pulley other than a giant white smudge which doesn't give me much room for accuracy.

Would a compression test and leak down test completely confirm whether my valves are busted or not? I'm really concerned about spending money then having to get a new motor.

Thanks for all the help so far guys, really appreciate it.