tenacious

Ok my I 96 teg shutdown on me a few weeks ago. The longest it will stay running is maybe 30sec. The engine light is flickering and main relay is going crazy. I've swapped fuel pump. Tried another main relay. Tried another dizzy. Checked ecu for any burns and it was clean. Anyone have any idea what this may be? If this helps I just put on slim fan/Rad combo prior to car breaking down.

Fabrik8

Sounds like a battery power problem, or a ground problem. I'd be willing to bet that the battery voltage (at some important point like the main relay) is too low for things to operate properly. Grab and multimeter and start checking voltage at the fuse box, see what you come up with. I don't think this is related to the main relay or the fuel pump or any other part like that, I think they're just showing you the symptoms of the problem you're having.

tenacious

Let me check that.

Fabrik8

You need to check it while the engine is running or when whatever you're trying to test is drawing current. You're probably dealing with a high-resistance connection (bad ground, etc), and if there is no current flowing through that connection there will be very little voltage drop so you might get completely fooled.

boredom

im sure fabrik8 is right (or will be) but how old are the battery and alternator? have you had them checked?

Fabrik8

Those are definite possibilities. You're putting the cart before the horse though; you can figure out what's causing the problem once you figure out what the behavior is. First things first.

boredom

i'll go sit in a corner now, brb

Tunafish

Check your battery cables.
Had a similar problem once where battery voltage was good, and couldn't figure out the issue.
Turns out one of the cables was so corroded inside that there was barely any connection.
When I jiggled it a little bit, what was left of the cable broke inside the wire covering.

tenacious

The + battery post had some blue tape That had melted onto it(Idk what this blue tape was for my 1st time seeing it). So I cleaned my post and got the car running. But the time I tap the gas, the car shuts right off. Going to have access to a multimeter the weekend.

tenacious

If anyone is still reading along. I just found a plug that's not connected to anything. Its coming from under the intake manifold and it stretches up to the fuel rail. Its one of the green plugs. I'm just hoping the other end isn't ripped off.