Help. Car starts briefly then shuts off.

[winstonsmith]

Hey I was wondering if anyone has any idea what's wrong with my car. It's a 2003 VY SS. It runs perfectly well, and at random times while I'm driving the check engine light will come on, in addition to the SRS light, and the traction control will turn off. The car continues running as normal, but then when I turn it off, it won't start again. The engines turns over as normal, runs for about 0.5 second, then shuts off. After a day or two, it will start as normal. I've had it in to Holden and they can't find anything wrong with it, no error codes or anything. Does anyone have a clue what could be happening? It's getting really irritating having a car that I can't drive for several days at a time! I should mention that this problem seems to recur about once a week, and I drive it everyday.

[karlos]

Do you have a spare key?They are coded and can give these symptoms.

[Commydoor]

had a problem in the daughters Barina...would stop anywhere within 5mins to 2hrs running but usually about 15mins...wait an hour before it would start again...no error codes...turned out to be the Hall Effect Sensor in the distributor...hasnt missed a beat or stopped in over 3mths so far...

[winstonsmith]

Thanks for your responses. I should mention I've tried both keys and the problem is the same.

[winstonsmith]

Does anyone have any other ideas? It's a real pain trying to explain the problem to Holden when most of the time there is no problem at all. It also says "Service Error Contact Retailer". How was the Hall Effect Sensor causing such a problem? (I don't really know what it does/is)

[Commydoor]

not sure whether your model distributor has a hall effect sensor in it or not but it seems the chip in the sensor was faulty and prone to failing when hot but coming good again when cooled off...maybe your ignition module/coil etc might have a fault...theres always the wiggle test too...disconnect all the terminals and look for corrosion and plug them back in, start the car and wiggle the plugs and harness a bit and see if it cuts out or misses...

[colgf]

Have you had your instrument cluster removed or the plug on the back disturbed, this causes similar if not plugged in properly , try disconnecting car battery for few minutes then reconnecting it. Sometimes resets ECU codes that are locked in..