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Old 01-24-2010, 06:45 AM
long-gone long-gone is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 254
You know, that's not a bad suggestion.
Pull and either clean the terminals on all the fuses or replace them with new ones, and clean all the fuse box contacts as well.
I did that on mine after it sat for only a year, and I've done it on other cars. It'll at least be one less thing to think about.

A good way to clean the fuse ends is to clamp a tight wad of medium steel wool in the chuck of an electric drill. Can't say I know an easy way right off hand to clean the box contacts.

A few easy thing to test that may also be helpful to eliminate...

It's marginally possible a bad AIC valve (Air Idle Control) might contribute to your problem. Its a metal cylinder shaped part located on your intake manifold adjacent to the fuel pressure regulator (about the same size too). It's clamped in and has a rubber hose on the left coming from the cylinder head (under the manifold), and a hose on the right that goes to the rubber boot that throttle body sits on. On the end it has a two-prong connector.
With the car off, disconnect the plug on the end. Connect a 9v transistor radio battery to the valves contacts. You shuold be able to hear or feel it "thump" as you make/break/make contact with it.

Another easy to test item that affects the fuel mixture is the temperature sensor for the CIS (injection system). I think it's the last of the three sensors (by the firewall) sticking up out of the head. It has a round black connector with four pins.
With the engine cold, take a multi meter and measure the resistance between each set of [diagonally] opposite pins on the sensor. The value should be the same between the two sets. The actual resistance value depends on whatever the ambient temperature is when you do it, but I think it would be something like 4500@40°F to 2800@60°F. The important thing is that they be the same between either pair. Plug it back in and run the car up to temp. Shut it down and measure them again. The value should drop with the rise in temperature to about 220@190°F (88° on the car gauge?). I'm really not sure of those numbers, but again the important thing is the value should once more be the same between the two pairs, if the values are much different the sensor is failing.

I'm not sure that either of these things could make your car shut down as you describe but they're easy to test, not uncommon to fail and certainly crucial to the performance of your fuel mixture delivery.

BTW, how's the bad head gasket situation?
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