hi, im new to these forums, and to be honest the main thing that drove me to create an account and post is the number of knowledgeable people that seem to reply to each thread. well, here is my brain teaser. i got this car about a month ago, its a 93 c4 w/ 80k miles. everything has been working like a champ and actually this was the first weekend i got to get the 1 piece glass top of it and take a joyride with the wife. ran great, no problems. now, i go to work last night and right as i get through the front gate (im military) going over a speed bump, the car just dies. i took it as fairly wierd seeing as i did not go over bump fast wut-so-ever, and it did not feel like a fuel issue to me, as that the pedal was not spongy and the car did not bog when i pushed the gas. it felt like something just died. so in the dark the first thing i did was to get one of my buddies to go get me some gas as i checked fuses. we threw the gas in to no avail and i didnt see any fuses blown. the thing would not start. it would turn over strong, just nothing would happen. later after my bud took me to work we went back out to the car and it started right up... i was gonna disconnect one of the plug wires and see if it was ignition or fuel. so i hop in taking that maybe by the grace of god it was going to be some random thing. but of course i made it about 1 mile down the road and it quit. from running great to just dead. and it wouldnt start again for like 10-15 min. at that point i got it running again just enough to get it to a parking lot i could leave it in. please help me out if you got any ideas. the only weird light i saw that i havent before is the 'INFLT RSTR' or w/e that I looked up and have read is some shock gauges in the front of car having to do with airbags not my prob. if ya got any ideas plz enlighten me, as for now im 1 car ing it with my wife and its killin me. thanks
james

 

What base? just curious if your on Oahu I can probably help localy. Other wise the sudden death is most likely and ignition problem. Now im not certain but the sensors on the air bag system should feed a signal to the ECU to kill the engine in the event of a crash if one of those sensors is failing sparaticaly then it could be the source of the problem. Since the first time it died was over a speed bump its a posibility.

 

im at dyess afb texas, and i just got done with running a diagnostic on it and it kicked out faults 42 and 16. the mechanic kept eluding to thinking it was a bad ground or chaffed wire etc etc. this cant be right, i can leave the car idle for 15 minutes and it will just die all in the sudden. either a part or the computer for some reason is causing it to die for the airbag light. think first thing im gonna do is fix the sensor that needs fixed for the warning light and throw a new ignition coil on it. lest anyone has any better ideas

 

Don't have my manual handy right now so I don't know what 42 is, but 16 is optispark. Unless it's had new optispark recently, I'd highly suspect that's the problem. Your symptoms fit what mine did when the optispark failed, but on mine I could see the "check engine" light. It would just shut down and wouldn't run until it cooled off. Sounds like you need a new optispark. While the waterpump is out, you might as well replace it too because if it leaks it'll kill the new optispark.

 

16 Opti-Spark Ignition Timing System.( Low Pulse)
42 Electronic Spark Timing Circuit Grounded

well its definantly and ignition problem

grounds can be a real pain in the a$$ to find especialy an intermitant ground. Since its a total sudden loss check the coil to OPTI cable if its damaged that is the most likely problem. Your coil could also be the problem although if its the coil I would think that if it ran at all it would be missing due to insufficant voltage.

 

well im heading in the direction of goin ahead and changing the ignition coil and checking any grounds i can find in the haynes manual and wiring diagrams i got. im an electrician so it shouldnt be that hard >
ill keep everyone up to date. thanks for all the help and if anyone has any other ideas keep'em coming. thanks