[littebluepony]

A few days ago I changed out my old completely dead DIS after finally finding this forum and determining the problem with my check engine light and broken tach to be the DIS. I had removed the old one, confirmed it bad at an Autozone and installed a new one. The car ran great so I filled up the gas tank and drove it the next day to my sister's house, a round trip of about 130 miles, with no problems at all.

The day afterwards I was making my commute to college when after about 30 miles or so the car started sputtering and struggling, tach was reading nearly nothing and the check engine light was going on and off. I coasted onto the shoulder and shut the car down( or it finally stalled, i forget). Immediately i restarted it and let it idle, reving it from time to time. After a few minutes i continued on my way. I got to school with no issues and got back home with no issues. But since then it has stalled on me(or tried to)in the same fashion about three times.

I've had this car for about 8 years. The only trouble i ever had were minor fairly routine maintainance things, two batteries, a muffler, a water pump. In short the car has never had problems so this acting up is concerning. I'm certain the new DIS has a good ground and i've let it idle while wiggling plugs around looking for bad connections and so far nothing.

I'm not certain the new problems are related to the new DIS but I'm going to pull it and have it checked. The only other thing I can immediately think of is this: The day I changed the DIS my gas tank was below 'E' and it was very humid and raining. I'm wondering if I got condensation in the tank or something, possibly dirt sucked into the line that causing this sporadic stalling. Does that sound unreasonable? Any other theories? I would greatly appreciate help on this one, since i'm used to working on my old '66 mustang and with all the computer stuff I'm not sure where to start on a relatively newer model car...

[EagleAutosports]

Hiya, I see this is your first post. Welcome to the site.
It's very possible it's condensation, it could also be the fuel pump and regulator. You should have those checked out, they do have a limited life and can cause problems like this.

[littebluepony]

I've changed out the new DIS for a replacement with the same results. The car doesn't so much stalls as just dies...like someone turned off the key. It's rather dangerous because it happens without warning...like today when I'm driving down the highway at 65 in the passing lane or just driving around the neighborhood.

I'm just going to take it to a garage owned by my best friend's family. I'm not really sure what else I can do or try at this point. Really frustrating, when a simple mediocre part swap turns into this.

[rgf350915]

Use a code scanner to see what codes are stored in the computer; this might give you useful information. Did you apply heat sink grease to the ignition control module before bolting it onto the manifold? Did you change the coil packs as well?

[littebluepony]

So I have gotten a chance to tinker lately and finally got to a friend's garage. He looked at it and heard the timing belt hitting the plastic cover and said it might be causing enough resistance to throw the timing off. However the stalling seems to have gotten worse and another friend said it's probably the camshaft sensor. I've read you can test the sensors with a multimeter. Any idea what it's resistance is supposed to read? I really hate to replace it on a whim since they are pricey. I'm also going to change plus and wires anyway.

It seems odd that the sensor would suddenly go bad after replacing the DIS but I've been told putting a new electronic part in an older system can 'shock' it sometimes and damage components that might not be in the best shape. So we'll see. Maybe it is the crank sensor.

[b_chandler]

While it's running, jiggle the key back and forth gently. You may have a bad ignition switch. They do weird things when they get worn out.