parked, and car shut off...

[PKRWUD]

Originally posted by 90LxDroptop
I was with my girlfriend and we hit a stoplight, waited for the train to pass. when it's green i'm about to go when I realize that the motor shut off...everything else was still on, I barely noticed...what caused this to happen?

The train probably came from Indiana.

It's hard to say without more info. Did you have any trouble getting the car to start after you realized it stalled? Describe what happens when it's hard to start. Have there been any other drivability problems lately?

It's not the battery, or any of the battery connections, because if they were to fail in a manner that would unexpectedly stall the engine, "everything else" would not have remained on.

I don't believe it's fuel related, because when an engine stalls due to a lack of fuel, it tends to buck and cough a bit first, and you certainly would have noticed that.

That leaves the ignition. The ignition, if cut abruptly, would kill the engine instantly, and could go unnoticed. In order for the ignition to die from a cause that is unrelated to the battery, it would have to be a failure in the primary circuit, or the coil itself. If it was the coil itself, it wouldn't have restarted. That leaves the ignition switch itself and the TFI module. If it were the ignition switch that failed, then everything else attached to an accessory circuit, including the dash warning lights, would have also failed. They didn't. Therefore, based on the info you gave, I would suspect the TFI module.

Other more common, specific signs that a TFI module is failing include hard restarts, especially when the engine is warm, and the fact that when this does occur, the problem appears to go away after the car has sat for a few minutes.

Take care,
-Chris