I need all the help I can get. I appreciate any help that I can get, but I am gonna need very detailed explanations of how to perform any tests that may be recommended, because I am not too engine savy (although I am learning as I go). My car keeps dying on me when I stop. Some days I can drive it and it doesn't die once. Once it dies on me once though, I'm praying at every stop sign, red light, or traffic jam I encounter. It seems that it especially likes to die out on hills (going up or down them). When I finally make it back to my house after this happens, I like to sit in the drive way and put it through all the gears (yes it's an automatic - for the time being). The idle is all over the place and it usually dies on me again when I go from drive to park. The idle is always kinda f@#$ed up, not just after it starts dying. The weird thing is, the only way I can get it to start back up when I'm in traffic is to pump the gas (it is fuel-injected but pressing the pedal to the floor never starts it). Please help.

 

Check vac lines. One prob popped off or is corroded or something.

 

TPS is out of adjustement

 

^+1. Mine used to die during warmup when i would come to a stop. I adjusted the TPS and the problem went away.

 

Don't ever stop.

this will require some careful route planning and alot of right hand turns but it can be done.

 

Sounds like the torque converter isn't releasing as it should. The torque converter locks up to save some gas once a certain speed is reached, and on older units, the torque converter doesn't always unlock when it should.

 

Check your air control valve.

 

Drive it like a stick. Put in nuetral and rev the engine at stop lights. Seriously though, I vote for TPS and possibly a vac leak. Mine was similar (I had to rev it at stop lights to keep it from dying) and I have a large vac leak in the rats nest.

 

also look at the egr, if it an on and off problem the egr could be sticking. it would drive great at cruise but with a load (going up a hill) it would bog out and also would not beable to idle. I doubt its the torque converter clutch because he would be locked in gear if it was sticking causing a LOT more than a bad idle. but with any weird idle you should always check the tps...

 

tps and timing..

:AA:

 

timing would be a consistant problem, if it runs fine one day and not the next i think its probly something mechanical.... like the egr. timing doesnt just change. but the tps is stupid and does what it wants, i ziptied and glued mine in place cuz it seemed to move around on the mount.

 

Thanx for the help guys, I'll check out whats been suggested and get back to you all, if it's still acting up

 

Make sure your BAC harness is connected.

 

+1

 

Does the car die after going down the highway, coming off an off ramp and stopping? Or also general around town driving, never getting up to a consistent speed?

If it does it after cruising a highway for a while, it could be your torque converting staying locked up, just like neovoxx said.

 

i have a 91 automatic and it dies out of nowhere as well except mine does it from park to either of the gears. i have to throttle just to put it in a different gear. when it engages, theres a load ping noise and it jolts into gear. its pretty fucked. i plan on doing the 5speed swap after summer. but yeah its fine after i put it in gear except slowing down sometimes. it shutters like its confused what gear to go in. i onno. just my input on automatic problems. oh and if i let it idle for like 10 minutes so on, it may sometimes cut off or bog out.

-allen