Brian Crandall

I have a 85 300zx and the engine will shut off as suddenly as you can imagine while driving. It does not even cough or shake. It only really happens when the car warms up. It usually happens between 5 to 8 miles at normal temperature. About middle range in terms of the temp gage. When the car shuts off while driving, the car will not start back up until the car cools down. Maybe 5 to 10 minutes of cooling. I really need to do something about this and soon. If anyone has any insights or can lead me to a very similar thread that would be great.

NismoPick

Welcome to ZDriver!

Does the car still have power when it shuts off? AKA... lights, stereo, windows, etc still work?

An engine needs 3 things to start (when mechanically ok):
-Proper air
-Proper fuel
-Proper spark

So you need to verify that you are getting fuel and spark at all cylinders.

rogerz

get a can of freeze spray at Radio Shack. next time it happens freeze the power transistor (ignition module). If it starts after freezing you have a bad one-replace

Project 300

Ignition control module would be my first guess. I had a 280ZX that did that same thing and as soon as I changed it out, problem went away.

chuys84zee'

Hey everyone, im having a similar problem with my 84 na , it starts fine when cold then warms up with a rough idle it wants to slowly die down but i lightly keep my foot on throttle to keep the car on, after i turn the car off or dies on me it won't come back on till it cools down..i started smelling fuel so replaced the fuel pump, fuel filter, and efi relay but still have the same problem! I dont want to take it to the shop but i dont know where else to go with this, if anyone has any ideas or insight on this i would very much appreciate it thanks!

chappo123

Have you had any luck sorting this out?

SportBikeMike

I had the same problem with my 280ZX. After driving 15-20 minutes it would stall from overheating, then when start back up after sitting 10-15 minutes. Turned out to be the fuel pump.

chuys84zee'

Yeah my problem is different, my 84 na wont overheat it just runs like crap wont idle fine and*dies on me once engine warms up..still havent figured this out, im gona have a guy look at it.