My wife's car, an 01 Mirage LS, has been acting weird for a while now. It had the gauges die out, which I've replaced recently after about 7 months, and before the gauges died out the car was having some other problems. Now I'm not sure where the problem lies so I hope one of you master mechanics out there can figure it out.

Here's the problem:
A while ago (like I said before the gauges died on her) sometimes the car would not start on the first try. This was very sporadic so it was hard to even figure out what the cause might be. Wasn't severe so she just worked her way around it by turning the key several times to turn on the car.

Recently it's gotten more complicated. It still does the same thing but now the car has decided that it will turn off randomly while driving. This has scared my wife and now I'm stuck driving her car until I can figure out what's wrong with it. I thought maybe it's the gas pump or filter but the car will sometimes go a week without it turning off on me in the middle of driving nor give problems while starting up.

Then she gave me some more info on the problem and this is where it gets weird. She told me that if the "Check Engine Light" ("CEL") doesn't turn on when she first turns the ignition the car won't start. Without even trying to turn the car on she would turn the key to the off position and back to the on position a few times until the light turned on and then she would proceed to start the car. This is the same problem occurring when the car turns off while driving. The car would just turn off by itself without warning and then you can't imediately turn it back on. The "CEL" is usually not on and to turn the car on it would take some turning of the key like when trying to start the car. It's the weirdest thing I've seen and I'm just dumbfounded by it.

I'm thinking that it might be the computer but I don't want to go and buy one if that's not what the problem is. Can anyone figure this one out? Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

has to be electrical , so concentrate on either the ecu or the wiring , sounds like shorting out of a wire causing false contact , have you smelled any burning smells? when your car is on, does your idle act up? if the motor runs (idles fine) not a mechanical prob ,then again ecu does control your fuel pump etc.

 

yea, im thinking computer, i would take it to a mech and have them run a diagnostic on it........

 

I totally forgot about this post. Well lemme answer your question 4g. There are no burning smells and the problem can happen either while driving or while trying to turn the car on.
The reason I said that I think it's the ECU is because of that darned check engine light. If it doesn't turn on when trying to turn on the car (as it should) then the car won't start. That's the only thing that I can think of that might cause a discrepancy with the check engine light...the ECU.
Guess I'll see how much it would be from a junker or something.
Thanks for the ideas. Just needed some verification of what it might be...