On my way home today my car began stalling while the clutch was disengaged. Regardless of my speed, my RPM gauge would drop to around 500 and then moments later the engine would stall. I could only keep the engine running by either 1) staying in gear or 2) lightly pressing the gas pedal while out of gear.
I am not getting a check engine light or any other symptoms. The car operated perfectly normal approximately two hours before this problem occured.
Any input on what could possibly cause this problem(or any other information that could be useful to me) would be greatly appreciated.
I am guess you IAC sensor needs to be cleaned, with some throttle body cleaner, Could have some grime blocking the pinle,
how many miles?
- 2004 Cavalier - 124k, owned since new
I filled my tank up this evening and put in a bottle of fuel injector cleaner. The car has almost 49,000 miles on it.
^^^^^^ what Rich Weeks said. i was thinking the same thing.
that happened to my car as well, and i changed the fuel pump. Fixed the problem.
Under Construction
What is the IAC sensor and where is it located?
Buddy Club Ecotec Cavalier
* More to come *
It has something to do withthe computer having to be flashed. There's been other posts on this topic. It's a common problem. the same thing happens to my 2004 Sunfire
Walt
Jay Corkum wrote:What is the IAC sensor and where is it located?
IAC is in the throttle body. It is the idle air control valve and sensor which kinda bypasses the throttle plate when it is closed. Keeps the car running when the throttle is closed (idle).
"The Blue Bullet"
Walter Pawliw wrote:It has something to do withthe computer having to be flashed. There's been other posts on this topic. It's a common problem. the same thing happens to my 2004 Sunfire
Walt
Yeppers, do this. As far as I remember it should be able to be done for free. My 03 sunfire was doing it as well. Did you have your air conditioner on at the time? That always made mine worse. But bring it to GM and have them reflash it and I haven't had the problem since.
I've had that problem. Computer was reflashed, Didn't fix it. Every time I brought it in for service I would bring it up, they told me they couldn't find anything wrong, or more specifically they implied I was imagining it. (How you imagine a stalling engine I don't know)
Mine first happened the second day I had the car with about 25 kilometers on it. Putting on the CAI seemed to help it a bit, but it still happens. You just learn to drive with the car always in gear, or revving the engine.
When I asked around at places that weren't GM dealerships, they told me it was probably a crank sensor.
I start ranting towards the end of this so I apologize here....
I'm in the same boat as Jonathan. the first 3-4 times the dealer would look at me like I was an idiot and tell me there was nothing wrong. unfortunately, if you leave the car off for a minute the problem will stop happening for a while so they couldn't diagnose it. Then I found the TSB myself and when the service writer actually said "you don't know what you're talking about", i showed him and his manager the tsb. he was fired by the end of the week (i wasn't the only person he treated this way). they reflashed my ecu and it seemed to work, but every couple months or so it will happen. i have sent many FU letters to GM and i swear to any god you want that because of the way GM and ford before them treated me, I and everyone I can convince will never buy domestic again. i used to work for an import dealer and they never treated people like that.
