95 N/A riv, cranks, wont start.

Some buildup story:
I recently installed HID headlight. Twice before I turned on the headlights with the car running, idling in neutral and when I turned them on they killed the engine. It didn't sputter out or knock, it just straight died as if I had turned off the key. Only instead of going to key-off state the rpms just died off and all the normal warning lights came on (battery, low oil, check engine etc..) They have yet to kill the engine when I am driving and turn them on, and also it starts right back up no problem afteward.

Another problem is that my guage reads wrong (I suspect the sender) when it says I have 1/4 tank left, it's actually empty. I just reset the trip meter whenever I fuel up and when I've gone about 350 miles, I fill up again.

So the meat of the story: I'm driving down the road, it's night time, raining like crazy, so wipers are going, HID headlights are on and the car falls on it's face. rpms die of slowly and it acts exactly like it did the two times I learned that the fuel guage was wrong. I had only 170 miles on this tank, and the guage showed 1/2 left. I call my dad, he brings me 2 gallons of gas. I add the gas and it still wont start. I can hear the fuel pump kick on and whine while it primes the lines so i have pretty much ruled out the fuel pump or lack of gas, however it cranks very strong and acts exactly like it would if it was out of gas.
While waiting for the tow truck I checked every fuse and they are all good. I naturally had the headlights off the whole time trying to start the car.

My suspicions right now are coil, fuel injector system, or the possibility of the HID lights somehow shorting another electrical component of the car (ignition switch, pcm)

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. It's sitting at my work waiting for me to start work on her tomorrow (I work at a car dealership) If I can't figure it out then I gotta call in a favor with a mechanic, or pay $85 an hour.

Thanks in advance!

-Josh

I would start by undoing whatever you've done. Remove all the headlight wiring, put stock bulbs (or no bulbs temporarily) and see if you still have a problem.

Where did you ground the HID ballasts? The PCM and ignition module can be finicky about having a good ground.

There is no grounding. I just plug the factory pigtail into the ballast, which is secured right now to the body with foam-tape (what was supplied to mount the ballast, I'm trying to find something more permanent) I did unplug both ballast when trying to get it started last night.

Need a NOID kit (little lights that plug in in place of the fuel injectors) to see if the injectors are firing when you crank the car.

Also need to check fuses.

Also need to know how the HIDs were wired - what wired to, did you use the car's headlight relay or a different one, what was taken for power and where were they grounded, what was the ballast mounted by, and so on.

Albertj

So far it looks like a set of spark plugs and a new throttle position sensor has fixed it.

Well if you run it out of gas...

Make sure you have gas in the tank.

When you goto start the car FLOOR IT.

You need to get the air out of the lines.

My Alero sat for over a month as I thought I killed something after running it out of gas. I read about this trick, tried it and was back in business.