car just died
 

on the way home from work today, my 08 fit seemed to sputter as i came to a stop. i only hit 2 lights on the way home, and it did it both times. when i first stepped on the gas it was a bit sluggish, then drove fine (after the 2 times it sputtered) it almost seemed like the car was slipping in and out of overdrive, as i took my foot off the break pedal (its an automatic btw) as i pulled into the driveway, it stalled out. and now will not start. the engine cranks, but no startup. theres a tow truck comming now. i might murder someone. the cars 8 months old and has 8600 miles on it. i bought a brand new car so i wouldnt have this problem.

i drove a 93 jeep cherokee for 4 years. it had almost 200,000 miles on it, and it never saw the shop. the new cars making its first trip already.

[quote=MetalHead88;624332]on the way home from work today, my 08 fit seemed to sputter as i came to a stop. i only hit 2 lights on the way home, and it did it both times. when i first stepped on the gas it was a bit sluggish, then drove fine (after the 2 times it sputtered) it almost seemed like the car was slipping in and out of overdrive, as i took my foot off the break pedal (its an automatic btw) as i pulled into the driveway, it stalled out. and now will not start. the engine cranks, but no startup. theres a tow truck comming now. i might murder someone. the cars 8 months old and has 8600 miles on it. i bought a brand new car so i wouldnt have this problem.


Any number of possibilities: clogged air filter. bad alternator, bad connection battery to body will do those things. Happen to notice if your alternator was charging? And did you check the battery for low fluid levels? Or loose clamp or sulfated terminal? Thats just to start.
Good luck.

like mahout said. it could be a bunch of things. it doesn't seem to be a common problem here on the forums, so it's tough to say. good luck.

You could be out of gas, or have a clogged fuel filter. If you got a bad tank of gas this can happen easily.

Or any one of a few hundred other things, as Mahout said. :) Good luck! Let us know how it turns out.

metalhead- yah, you're the first ive read that died like that so it is definitely out of the norm and a VERY isolated case.

hope you get that car fixed soooooon! :)

of coarse when the tow truck driver got here, the car started up. so i guess ur wishes of good luck helped me out haha. thanks guys! it sputtered badly on the first start, but then when turned off and on again, it started fine. took it for a test drive, no problems. since it seemed to be running fine, and no lights ever came on, i didnt bring it in because i figured they wouldnt find anything wrong anyways. last night and today the car is fine so far. im just gonna see if this happens again. i did fill up on gas the day before. from a hess station. and it was also raining. the tow truck driver said these cars love to suck in water, even from splash off other cars. i didnt hit any puddles but i was on the highway. anyone hear of problems like this? its definitely not a power problem by the way (distributor if anything) but being that the cars pretty much brand new, and that no lights came on, it cuts out a good deal of those possible 100's of possibilities.

the factory airbox is sealed on the frontside and sucks air from the front
fender area.... i doubt much water (if any) would get inside.

it is possible that you got bad gas...

ive read places where it rained hard and their tank underground had water in it. :rotfl:

I had my '01 Civic for 7 years and 180,000 miles and it randomly turned off while I was driving three times spread over the last 5 of those years. Never knew why, always went back to normal.

yeah im just gonna hope it doesnt happen again. boy was i pissed haha. yeah....it didnt even rain hard.

By the time the tow truck driver got there, the dirt/water in the gas settled in the fuel filter. So it started and pretty soon it will do it again. I'm betting on the fuel filter. I'd start looking for a new place to buy gas.

Check your wiring and connections for exposure, tightness, and metallics that can short out or reduce your circuit. Also check weatherproofing the computers and fuses for potential leaks in rainy conditions.
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" doesn't apply to conditions that just go away without treason. The least you can do is check the basics.

I would think your car would be under warranty so I would get it looked at so that it won't happen again.

I had a 88 honda prelude that had a similar problem. It would sputter and stall at low rpm but ran fine in middle rpm range. The problem was sue to water in the gas and I just had to burn through it. New gas and I never had the problem again.

... or a meteor falling from the sky directly at his car? :D

that was the first thing i did, i normally never go to that gas station, it was just on the way to where i was goin. def not going there again.

that you're a funny guy manxman. :wavey:

Not to get in the middle of your little tete-a-tete, but what manxman is saying makes more sense than you might think. If the car is dying while under acceleration, the odds of it happening at an inopportune moment are non-trivial. I had it happen to me (a long time ago in another car) and it is a very scary moment indeed.

My money is still on a bad tank of fuel. If you see even a hint of a repeat you may want to have the fuel system purged -- at the gas station's expense of course. At the very least dump a bottle of fuel treatment in the tank. That should help minimize the effect of water in the gas, unless you got a big dose.

if you have read the thread...

it's one thing to warn someone, another to scare him overwelmingly or unnecessarily.

almost a month now, its rained a few times hard. no problems since. im gonna go with bad gas as well.

I definitely agree with this.

Happened to a saturn my dad had. He would buy citgo gas and it destroyed the car.


Where ever you filled up at probably had a shitty mixture, and it caused your car to sputter, stall out, and have that wheezy effect. Obviously crappy fuel is in the lines then when it finally stalled out, and it wasn't good enough for it to turn over right away. Once everything settled to the bottom of your tank it had some decent fuel to pump and turn over with.


Do some fuel treatment on your next fill up, and go somewhere else.