Car turned off while in Drive
 

At a stop sign, while in Drive, my 2005 Mazda 6S with Automatic transmission just turned off by itself. This is scaring me...is it the alternator? battery? transmission? I've had the car for about 2 1/2 months with 2700 miles on it.

RE: Car turned off while in Drive
 

Does it start back up after it shuts off? Is it a sudden turn off or does it kinda surge a little and the lights get dim? Does it make sort of a clicking sound when you try to start it back up? Do you have to jumpstart it when it dies? Sorry for so many questions. Just trying to help.

RE: Car turned off while in Drive
 

It felt very weak and sluggish while driving. Then when I came to a complete stop at the sign, it just died. I started the car up again immediately, and it drove ok. No need for cables, no clicking sound, and no problems since... didn't get a chance to notice the lights, but I'm sure all the dash lit up when the engine stopped. Should I have it checked out? Could I have left the lights on all night ? (I don't think I did, and it should shut itself off anyway).

RE: Car turned off while in Drive
 

It sounds like the battery too me. Or it might be that the alternator is loose too. Check too see that everything is in tack and not loose. Then check your grounding points in the car too.

RE: Car turned off while in Drive
 

Not likely the battery or alternator. If the car started ok then battery was good. When driving the engine is running off of alternator and if it had no output your battery would have been dead when you tried to restart. If has only happened one time the dealer will probably not be able to duplicate and will not try to repair anything. Would not hurt though to take in and have the complaint documented that it happened. A stalling problem like that should certainly be covered by your factory warranty and is just a matter of making it happen for dealer so they will be able to determine the problem. May have been a one time weird event as well..

RE: Car turned off while in Drive
 

It started fine, but felt sluggish all the way to work... very strange. then just died at a stop sign. It's been fine ever since. I guess I'll just wait to see if it happens again. I called the dealer and they said that unless there are any warning lights, they couldn't do anything about it....thanks for the input everyone.

RE: Car turned off while in Drive
 

I have had the same thing happen to me twice, months apart oddly at the same stop sign. The lights and radio stayed on and started no problem. The drive never felt sluggish and was a suprise to me both times and didnt happen till i approached the stop sign where 5 or 7 cars were ahead.

RE: Car turned off while in Drive
 

i was in my good old ford when i was getting off at an exit ramp and my car turned off... no power controls at all (no turning, no brakes, etc.) and almost nailed a guard rail since the ramp was going downhill and turned sharply to the right... was hard enough braking let alone trying to hold onto the road while going about 45mph

never did find out what the problem was... but it never happened again.

RE: Car turned off while in Drive
 

wtf is up with cars these days, this is a guess an uneducated guess, but could it be that the ECU for some strange reason decided to reset itself and do a systems check or something like that?

RE: Car turned off while in Drive
 

i had it happen to my iroc once... it was the first year for the tpi

anyways

it used to die when i was rolling up to stop signs, the problem was the iac was clogged by something

idle air controller

when your not on the throttle it is what is contorlling alot of your systems

find out where it is in these cars ( or a similar system) and see if it is clogged up by something or needs to be changed