Hey guys Im having a weird problem with my car. I just recently purchased a new battery for it and I didnt put it on right away so the car was just sitting there for a couple days. I hooked up the battery finally and the car fires up and everything but it just doesnt want to stay on. Whats the deal? I even pressed the accelerator down and it still shuts off. But it doesnt just shut off, it slowly drops RPM and then dies. I have no clue whats going on. The car fires right up and everything. Any help or pointers would be helpfull. Thanks

Luis. :gunsmilie:

Make sure your terminals are tight and not corroded. If the terminals don't sit firmly on the battery, this will happen.

Im at work right now, Ill check that out tonight. I've checked all my connections but I dont remember checking the battery terminals....lol. If thats the problem, Im going to kick my own ass...lol.

this would be my guess. i had something similar happen when my battery died completely, but you said you just put in a new battery, so a loose connection is the next best bet. i mean, it could be the battery itself, even new batterys can be bad, but its not very likely.

Well I checked the terminals, and I replaced the Maf with one from my friends and it still dies. I even reset the ECU and everything. I def now going to purchase the 3" GM sensor w/ Maf-T. But Im still pretty clueless on whats going on though. Im going to test the fuel pump probably on Friday and also the ECU to see if any caps are leaking. Stay tuned....

i had something similar happen to my car, i tried a couple of things but what finally made it work was cleaning the throttle body. not sure if its the same thing, but it can't hurt to try it.

Well when I first got the car, I did the usual maintenance and that included cleaning the TB. But Ill check the TB anyway. Thanks for the info.

maybe your alternator? i dont know if thats it but I had something like that happen to me before and it ended up being the alternator.

Ok guys I got an update...... We checked the fuel pump, TPS, injectors, ECU, and Maf. The only thing we didnt check is the timing. We messed around with the distributor, but that didnt help. We fired the car up and the car idled, but idled like it was running on 3 cylinders. So then my buddy pulled off the #3 cylinder spark plug wire (for shts and giggles) and the car was still ran without any change to the idle. Then he put the plug wire back on and pulled off the #4 wire and the car choked out and died. We dont know whats going on. We checked to see if we are getting spark, and there is spark on all cylinders. We also checked the spark plugs and they look a little brown but the book says thats normal. The spark plugs were gapped correctly as well. This is tripping me out. I hope that its just a timing issue. We are going to check it out next week sometime. Stay tuned....

Have you done a compression check yet?

Of course I have...lol It was 148 across the board. I know it needs a rebuild but it should still run right. At least, it did last week. Ill do another compression check tomorrow to see if anything has changed.

Yea it should still run, but it is odd that the compression woud be even. Rarely does an enginehave identical compression in all 4 cylinders if it is low.

have you changed your plug wires?

Its funny you would mention that pwee cause on my lunch break today, I went and bought some new plugs and wires....lol. Nothing special just Duralast stock ones. I told the guy that I wanted 4 of the cheapest ones that got and he sold me 4 NGK "V" cut ones. Are they any good??

Ok, I replaced both the plugs and wires and it didnt change anything. Could it be the distributor cap? Or anything to do with the head? Im lost here...lol

I don't know much about the distributors on those cars, but have you tried to change it? what about the MAF?

Well I just ordered the distributor cap, and I tried 3 different MAFs. I dont think its the MAF. Im starting to think its the ECU or something.