348 just turned off while driving

Did just the motor quit, or did all guages go dead as well?

 

Hmm...preceded by any odd noises or sensations from the car?

 

Bad ground strap connection?

Mike

 

With the redundancy built into the ignition/injection systems on the 348, it does seem unusual that the car would totally quit all at once, unless the problem was related to something like the alternator, or the ignition switch.

Does your car have an aftermarket alarm/anti-theft system?

 

Are there two fuel pumps on the 348?
I had a similiar condition on my 308. It was embarassing to have to coast to the side of the road, wait a few min & restart. Intermittent fuel pump. Was a stinker to diagnose.

 

Hmmmm?

Did the slow down lights come on? Reason I ask is because if the cat temp ecu's "think" your cats have over heated the Motronic ecu/s will shut the bank down. But I haven't heard of that happening at the same time, on both banks.

Interesting?

 

Poor connection to passenger side fusebox?

 

Each side of the engine operates as more or less a separate system so it does seem that any sudden complete failure like you describe would involve the few things that control both.

Don't rule out something like rodent damage.

 

Same thing happened to me a few years ago on the freeway. Doing about 70, Engine just quit, Pushed the clutch in, Turned the key off just for a second and restarted the engine. She fired right away and i just continued down the road. Hasnt done it since.

 

On motorcycles we see this a lot with bikes that don't have their battery cables tight enough. You lose connection for a fraction of a second and it turns off. I'd start by checking the battery cables.

 

Does a raccoon count as a rodent? (in reference to the member that posted about hitting a raccoon that destroyed his alternator)

 

Devilish critters.

I was actually thinking about mice.

Something as simple as a loose battery cable or ground strap might do it.
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I've given this some thought and the last time this happened to me, although it was in a different car, it was a dead cap & rotor. But since the 348 doesn't have a cap & rotor setup the only thing I think could cause something similar would be bad coils, or ignition control moduals. But then again I don't see how it would cause both banks to shut off at the same time. So......... I think Daniel-san could be on to something. Have a look at the footwell fuse panel.

 

This problem recently occurred with a friends Porsche. The car would be running fine and then just shut off. It was an intemittent problem that happened just as described here. After months of this, the car stopped running all together.

We finally found the problem and it was fuel pump related. In his car, a relay was going bad which would every so often cut the fuel pump off.

I also had this same problem with a street rod which turned out to be a bad fuel pump.

Maybe, on the Ferrari, it is a bad fuel pump wire, relay or fuse. Would not hurt to check these.

Good luck.

 

Yep yep... this has happened to me before. In my case, it was a slightly loose battery cable. That would definitely be the first thing I would check, as several here have already suggested.

 

I was driving my 348 quite a distance from home this summer and it died on me the same way. I pushed in the clutch and fired it back up . I inspected my battery cables and found them to be loose and slightly dirty. I cleaned them up and tightened them and it hasnt done it since. I'd definitely start there.

 

Hello,
This is a very old post but does anyone know of a conclusion here?
I took my 348 out of winter hibernation last month and it stopped once while idling at lights and then this month twice while driving at speed.
Engine quits, all lights come on, then momentum starts the car again. I’m going to start with battery and passenger footwell fuse connections but it’d be really cool to know what solved the issue for other owners.
Thanks!,,

 

Sounds scary. So it didn't even go into a one bank limp mode? If the car restarts without issues, you would have to think that the battery is ok, but it wouldn't hurt to check the battery connections and maybe invest in one of those cigarette lighter voltmeters.

If all your lights are on, then I guess key power is ok. It's hard to think of a fault which would take out both banks other than power. Do you know if you have two cam sensors or one?

What year is your car? Do you have a 2.5 or 2.7 engine management system?

Has the car had a recent service?

 

Good Morning,
Yes, it was a shock! Kind of like putting the handbrake on, momentarily, and then it fired up under movement turning the engine over. The car is 1992 348 TS with only 35,000K's on the clock. Not serviced for several years - but only 2-3,000k since doing

It is also Canadian delivery car and does NOT have the ECU buttons to look for engine codes - which is a bit of a pain. Not sure if they can be easily retrofitted??

I'll start with cleaning battery terminals and checking the passenger footwell connections this weekend. I have a cig-lighter voltmeter, so will check with that, too.

Thanks for the response! Much appreciated.

 

If you still have the factory bullet connectors from the battery to the starter/ground, on both the positive and negative cable = GET RID OF THE DAMN THINGS for hard lines! Use either 1 or 0 gauge solid cables.