Vovchandr

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It sure has been a few years. Glad to hear about the progress! Double check your picture embedding, shows up as a black picture for me? Maybe we can meet up for a coffee somewhere or one of the car and coffee events. The Scotia airport one should be right by you?

Caterham 7 LED Grill Light Modification Owner is open to a group buy if enough people are interested. I'm pending one as a wall decoration

I'm going out on a limb and assume it's missing downstream o2 which is somewhat common on cats

I don't think these symptoms match the problem and resolution described but I'll gladly be proven wrong if he goes down this path and resolves the issue. I went for probably 5 years with my cutting out issues and only recently mostly resolved it down to being a poor fuel map issue on the ECU. One of the most critical points to an intermittent issue troubleshooting is being able to recreate the fault conditions on demand and proceed with partitioning from then on.

You're also commiting to ripping out a fuel pump without a replacement or verifying that it's bad? Seems strange. Why not get an electric fuel pressure gauge and quickly mock it up? If the fuel pressure goes to 0 when this happens then yeah it's likely a pump. If the fuel pressure remains steady at 40 then I wouldn't be so quick to commit to a pump change. Either way fuel pump still has no relevance to your rpms dropping to 0/tach dying unless you're describing that wrong. Can you provide a report of what troubleshooting/testing/partitioning been done since this thread started? Do you have those engine bay pictures?

If this is a problem that only happens on busy 5 lane highways with you being in the fast far left lane I have a very easy solution to your problem. Otherwise at the very least let me know what it does once you put it into neutral before you hit the clutch. I'm sure a 3 second delay won't kill you.

I see your post im not just not sure about this point. Are your freeways different than mine? I've broken down multiple times and pull over to a side as my car didn't restart and I didn't have a choice. Both full electrical cut off. Once alternator died and other time I lost battery terminal. In second picture I had to push it back uphill to get to the exit that I passed. Also you don't need to be pulling over to try to put it into neutral for a second before trying the clutch If you put it into neutral and it comes back to life then it's a quick way to eliminate the clutch. Fuel pump doesn't explain your tach dying and going 0 rpm while still in gear and rolling

I agree with that theory which is why I suggest putting it into neutral next time it happens without touching the clutch to partition.

Without waiting for OP. Correct. While in motion once the engine cuts out. We are still pending a test of putting car into neutral instead of clutch while in motion after cut out and we are pending coming to compete stop after cutout and testing start/clutch.

@CarYenta @cemaykan @spc_cwby @Saudio I think there is also an owner of a red one in VT but cant find him right now

Just seeing this. I dont have any clearance issues with my cover on. It was removed for other reasons in the video

I thing I got the gist. Everything is fine then engine stops responding to throttle and rpm reads zero. Car starts engine braking. He pushes the clutch in, tach shows idle and RPM idles happily like nothing ever happen. Continue blatting as normal.

I think you're misreading what he says. He doesn't claim engine restarts from 0 rpm just that tach says so even thought engine is rotating with drivetrain connected. As soon as clutch is pressed engine gets ignition and tach shows true RPM going to idle with clutch in.

Not to be too pedantic but I'd stop calling it restarting. By all accounts it loses ignition and regains it. I have a feeling if you come to complete stop without pulling clutch in and engine at true 0 rpm it won't "restart" without key, it will gain ingnition back however.

This is why I want you to do neutral thing and come to a stop. You can also try to jiggle a bunch of wires at idle with engine off to see if you can trigger it. If time with sorted car is more important than money and troubleshooting I'd do what Croc did. New ECU and ignition. Ecu is anout $100. Coil should be less. Here's old auction for reference. https://ebay.us/m/Ysv6QO

Your tach shows 0 before you push clutch in? That's what's confusing some people. Your engine rpm is not at 0 while you're moving in gear, that means tach loses signal at same time you lose engine power. So you lose power, tach goes to 0, you clutch in and engine goes to idle I'll still be waiting for you to try to a stop next time it happens before I make further assumptions. Video would def help Tach going to 0 is a clue to ECU or ignition system. See Crocs post

Can you give us pictures of your engine bay and transmission from above?

Ok. So I'm trying to understand this entirely. You're driving, in gear, accelerating (or braking) and the engine "dies" which I assume is that it just stops responding to throttle and you start engine braking/decelerating? You're still in gear, coasting with RPM's up and engine rotating and all the electrical still on. You push the clutch in and the engine goes to idle RPM and or resumes throttle response. Very important, are all the electronics still working and just the throttle no longer works or is this like a full electrical cut off with nothing working until you press the clutch back in for things to "come alive"? This is either load related or electrical gremlin related. Does your car have a clutch safety switch? If so defeat it for troubleshooting (tape it down or jump the wires) If your car doesn't have it (you don't need to press the clutch to start it) good proceed to next steps Next time this happens I want you to not press the clutch but do the following 1) While still moving push gear shift level into neutral without touching the clutch pedal. The engine go to 0rpm and is dead? Good, put hazards on and pull over and come to a complete stop. Proceed to step 2 2) Restart the engine with key in neutral still without pressing the clutch pedal (we defeated the safety or you dont have it to begin with) and see what the engine does. If it doesn't restart and just cranks then its definitely clutch pedal related. If it restarts without you touching the clutch it was never clutch pedal related. This will help partition the issue further. If by pushing the gear shift into neutral the engine kept running at idle and maintained it, then the issue isn't clutch related at all but rather engine load related or physical shifting of wiring/mechanics that causes an intermittent fault. Plenty of electrical things can interrupt and engine from running and shut it off, not many will let it come back to life without mechanical jiggling of wires or sensors.

It appears to be a later 2000's build with new headilght mounts and later wheels but with LHD and left side exhaust. Late Zetec like a 2008?

Can you please specify if it's a starter restart or the engine just coming back to life of sorts? If starter is involved then there's more questions to follow like what stops the starter signal if clutch starts it I have a feeling it's not a completely dead 0 rpm engine and starter is not involved. Can you to a complete stop next time before pressing the clutch? Does it still restart?

Mine is powder not a water solution, so I'm adding no incompatible fluids in.

As I always say. When you're buying a used car you're not buying the car but buying the owner. If the car is having issues and owner is not available it's a serious consideration for you to be troubleshooting issues indefinitely and/or paying somebody to do so for you at a decent hourly rate. This is coming from somebody who's still troubleshooting mystery issues 7 years later with his. I hope the price is reflecting issues and unknowns, if not then the premium for a well sorted car is worth it.

I spend close to $1500 in parts not counting my and friends labor troubleshooting my electrical issue when I reversed terminals on a battery. Turned out to be a well hidden 3.5a fuse. Your results may vary but I'd start by replacing cheap and easy to reach components such as crank/cam sensors and then start collecting more data to help partition it out. Still waiting to hear if it starter restarts from dead or just comes back alive as you're rolling.

Just talked to State Farm and what I thought I had as "agreed value" policy was just a regular policy where they were curious what I paid for it. Now State Farm does do agreed value for Classics and Collector cars but thats a different policy and its underwritten by Hagerty anyway. What a bait and switch for me. I'm switching to Hagerty asap.