Engine Randomly Shuts Off

[DSGNator]

So I've owned my 2003 Cobra now for about 7 months. In that time I've had the engine randomly shut off while driving maybe 6 times. The only thing that seems common to each shut off was that I had the clutch pushed all the way in and I was coasting into a parking lot or around a turn or something similar. A few days ago I started practicing my launches from a stop. I actually only did it once. I launched from about 5000rpm which I now realize was a bit to high. (Please save the ridicule, I'm not claiming to be a racer here, just something I'd like to learn how to do.) Needless to say my tires spun like crazy. I kept shifting and driving the way I'd assume anyone would race down a strip. My rpms did stay pretty high but I made sure that I wasn't at full throttle once I got into 5th. (I hear that's bad juju.) After the run, the very first turn I took as I had my clutch pushed in, the engine shut off. (Whenever this happens I've always been able to start it back up immediately.) I kept cruising around town and it shut off 2 more times within the next 30 minutes. It never happened again after that. I actually drove the car 80 miles to my home that evening and didn't experience any issues. Thankfully this isn't something that happens frequently, but when it does it's a little scary because I loose power steering and what not. But I think you'd all understand that this is an issue I'd like to get fixed.

I'm well aware of the TSB from Ford that addresses this issue. From what I understand they reflash the cars computer. My car has been tuned using a Diablo Sport Predator. The tune/tuner came with the car when I bought it and I think it may be as much as 9 years old. I don't think my car would run well with the mods I have if ford did anything to the cars computer. I did see somewhere online where this was an issue with the DiabloSport Predator tuners and you could send it in to get the tuner itself reflashed. I have no idea if this was ever done with my tuner.

If anyone here has any experience with these sort of issues please let me know. I'd really like to get this fixed!

 

[cobra-k]

The very first thing I'd be doing is calling up a reputable tuner in you're area and booking dyno time. In the mean time my car would be sitting. Sounds like a tune issue to Me.

 

[EvilTwins]

Totally agree with the above member. If you wanted to make any mods/changes to the car, get it done now and take this opportunity to get a new tune on the car. It definitely sounds like a tune issue. Even though I had a heavily modified tune my car would randomly would shut off during left hand turns at low speeds like in parking lots (just as like described in the Ford TSB). So this issue can still happen with aftermarket tunes so they need to be aware of that issue.

 

[BadBlue98GT]

My car has done this intermittently since I bought it about five years ago, before and after mods and tuning. A few years back, it got to the point where it happened a few times a week and I thought the issue was the MAF so I replaced the old one. The problem went away for a couple years and now it does it every once in a while, usually after I've driven the car in rain. My theory is that in rain water gets sucked through the MAF if the filter gets saturated and screws it up.

OP, I would look into getting a new MAF, maybe a SCT BA 2800 or something along those lines to give you some growing room, get it tuned, and see if that helps.