Hi everyone! I am new here so I will introduce myself before I ask for help. My name is Sara and I live on the Gold Coast. I have a Magna TR which I bought last year. After a few minor problems which were easily fixed, I have never EVER had a problem with her....except for this morning!
I was on my way to work, the car was going fine, I hadn't noticed anything different about her, when all of a sudden she started jerking like she was running out of fuel (she wasn't). Then I heard a tick tick ticking noise that sounded like it was coming from under the glove box, or that area somewhere, it actually sounded like an amp meter flicking backwards and forwards really quickly.
I pulled over and then she died. I tried restarting her and she sounded like her battery was flat, my CD player switched off, my central locking locked, and my immobiliser came on. There was no way she was going to start.
I have now left her on the side of the road and I have heard form work colleagues that it could be the battery, fuel pump...all sorts of things!
I was hoping you guys would have some ideas to help me, I know nothing about Magnas :cry:
Thanks in advance
Sara
(mrscoastvl)

could be the ecu is dead.... not to sure though

Sounds very much like the ECU to me. You'll probably find that if you try and start it now it will be fine. My sisters TR 4cyl did it for ages, replaced the ECU and it was fine, then 6 months later it did it again, replaced ECU again! Apparantly a common problem.

Easy to replace too, unscrew and unplug.

My husband replaced the battery with a new one as the first option. And guess what ? It now works fine. Turns out the battery was absolutely dead. Thanks for your help.

I had the same prob where i unplugged the battery terminals and apparently the computer gets reset and forgets how to 'run the car'. It wouldnt start, and when it finally would, wouldnt idle properly, would stall as rpm would drop to 0 when you are stopped, car would stall when air con was turned on......in the end i was told if i want to take of my battery terminals....i have to get a thing that plugs into the cigerette lighter that keeps the computer memory.....is this a load of bull?

Has never happened again, coz i dont make it a habbit of taking off the terminals.

You can thank that dead battery for making you join up to Aussie Magna.. Now your stuck here forever... :evil: :badgrin:


Glad to see it was a minor problem :thumbsup:

....i have to get a thing that plugs into the cigerette lighter that keeps the computer memory.....is this a load of bull?



That sounds like a really big load of bull to me. Ive had the battery disconnected for extended periods of time in my magna a few times since ive had it and never had problems like that. In fact none of my cars have had that problem when having the battery disconnected.

I would say i sounds more like the battery itself was stuffed or your alternator

YUP definatly the battery, i had the exact same problem when my alternator decided to cark it. How old was your old battery? Does the battery light on the dash light up and stay on while the car is running? Very important you make sure it was just an old battery and that the alternator is working fine. (alternator being the thing that charges the battery while your engine is running).

Also disconnecting the battery is not bull****, actually from what i've heard it does alot of good to your ECU, if you havn't done it in awhile and your engine has changed (maybe from a service, new something in the engine) your car could be running inefficiently, disconnceting the battery will reset the ECU and the ECU will learn the car to it's new state :).

the car stopped while driving... that shouldnt happen, even if the battery is low. The alternator should charge the battery enough to keep it going.. sounds to me like your alternator is buggered to me.. because a stuffed battery is only really a problem when your trying to start the car, once its going it should stay going thanks to the alternator....

++++
Greetings All.

No...I disagree. I have a 3rd Gen TF...and the battery died one day while stoped at some lights...the WHOLE CAR just died...It wouldent jump start either...New battery fixed it though...

Cheers,
--Tonba
++++

the car stopped while driving... that shouldnt happen, even if the battery is low. The alternator should charge the battery enough to keep it going.. sounds to me like your alternator is buggered to me.. because a stuffed battery is only really a problem when your trying to start the car, once its going it should stay going thanks to the alternator....

not always as if a cell has totally died the alt will not be able to wupply enough charge to supply the battery. keeping in mind that the car runs off the battery and not the altinator. most will say "well the alt charges the battery so the circuit should be complete" wrong, a dead battery will stop an efi car dead.

I had my altinator plug come out once, the car went crazy, the tach would pulse when the indicators were on, every accessory died and as soon as I stopped the car died altogether. It was similar to being in a limp mode

Have you checked the ECU code? For more info check out this website
http://www.troublecodes.net/mitsu/

If it was battery or alternator why is'nt ya battery light coming on?
While ECU problems are not uncommon it may just be the actual EFI relay under the glovebox.
As the car runs off its electrics the other thing that you might check is your engine start relay...
is the check engine light on all the time? May be the module in distributor. Fuel filter, worth checking it all and don't forget quite often the fuel in these buggers pressurizes and will kick the relay out under the glovebox. Check also to see if fuel comes back out of the return pipe in the fuel rail, it may go in but may not be returning, if this is the case get a new fuel pump. Hope it helps....
Dave

Guys, Sara has said the problem has been solved, no need to keep trying to solve it.

Welcome to AM Sara, hope you enjoy it!

Ha ha, thanks everyone for your responses!
The car has been running fine since the new battery went in...it even starts easier, surprise surprise!
Someone mentioned in an earlier post about the EFI relay under the glovebox, is that the ticking noise I heard just before the car died? Would that have gone nuts because the car was dying?
All the lights on the dash did come on before she died, but not soon enough to give me any warning of what was about to happen.
My husband said as soon as I told him what had happened that it was the battery. I thought they couldn't die while the car was driving...because the alternator charged them etc etc, but obviously I was wrong. Apparently if the battery is in a bad enough state they do just die.
I am not sure how old the battery was, I only bought the car late last year. (My other one was written off in a hail storm on Indy Sunday).
Thanks again for all your replies and welcomes :)
Cheers
Sara

mitsu ecu's dont seem to like unstable voltages and unlike most cars they can stall or run rough because of a flat battery. Magnas are well known by nrma etc for damaging the ecu if you jumpstart them without a surge protector on the leads. TR and TS 4 cylinders have to "relearn" the idle if the battery is disconnected. this is done by starting the car and not touching the accelerator for about 10 minutes.

I had a TR that, after the battery was reconnected, would idle on start up and drove fine but wouldn't idle after you drove it. It hadn't had a chance to continously idle for long enough.