Car Stalls While I'm Driving !

[ehyde111]

This happened twice. First I blew it off and attributed it to the cold. . . today it scared me.

OK, two days ago, I had driven about 5 miles and was stopped at a red light. The engine stopped (car stalled), the heater fan kept running, cd player worked, etc. Just had to put it into park and restart the engine. No biggie.

So today, drove 5 miles again. Was taking a right turn about 15 MPH and the car stalled again!!! (heater, cd etc still worked -- just was really hard to turn --no power steering).

What's up with my SVX. I'm not even close to being a mechanic, but I know this shouldn't happen.

The only interesting details about the svx are
-currently the ECU shows no codes
-2 months ago, I replaced both O2 sensors
-I have that funny brake light thing going on as described in another thread.
-mods include tranny cooler, and an ECU from another 92 svx. This one has the eprom and crush mods -- mine did not.

Any thoughts or advice would be great. I don't know where to start to look. Someone at work suggested that may be the egr valve sticking, but I don't even know what the egr does.

Thanks for the help.

[Aredubjay]

Simple things first. When's the last time you cleaned the throttle body?

[ehyde111]

Originally posted by Aredubjay
Simple things first. When's the last time you cleaned the throttle body?
I haven't cleaned it yet. I'll put that on the list for tomorrow.

How often should a throttle body be cleaned?

Last time I cleaned a throttle body (on a previous car), I used carb cleaner -- will that work?

Thanks

[listed]

Did you happen to have your defroster on at the times in which the car stalled? If so, there is some electrical device on the A/C compressor that is supposed to tell the ecu to raise engine speed another 100rpm. These have been known to go bad and cause cars to stall at idle due to lack of power to turn the compressor.
chris

P.S. You can also start the car in neutral so that you may restart while rolling insead of having to stop.

[ehyde111]

Originally posted by listed
Did you happen to have your defroster on at the times in which the car stalled?

No, the defroster was on at home for about 2 minutes while I was scraping my windows. When it stalled, the ECON was on at 72 degrees.


P.S. You can also start the car in neutral so that you may restart while rolling insead of having to stop. That's a good idea, never thought of it -- even thought I used to do it all the time in my 5 speed. It stinks to stop in the middle of the intersection. :D

Thanks

[ehyde111]

Originally posted by Aredubjay
Simple things first. When's the last time you cleaned the throttle body? Hey, I tried to clena the throttle body today. Subaru is not kind :mad: . I just didn't have time to take half of the engine bay components out today. O.K. I exaggerate a bit, but still there are an aweful lot of hoses to disconnect to get the black air intake thingamagigger (for lack of a better word) off so I could see into the throttle bodies. I did spray a bit of cleaner in but will have to reapproach the problem next weekend.

Thanks for the adivce though, and keep your fingers crossed for me and my SVX ;)

[0260N4]

Could someone post a how to on how to properly clean the throttle body? Thanks

[ehyde111]

Originally posted by 0260N4
Could someone post a how to on how to properly clean the throttle body? Thanks I'm not swearing this is the correct way, but, here's what I did in the past (on a throttle body I could see into).
1. took the air intake thingamigger off.
2. Got some carb cleaner spray.
3. sprayed some in and wiped the tb clean.
4. Manually opened the butterfly
5. sprayed some more in and wiped inside as far as I could reach with a long swab (something that came with a vcr cleaning kit).
6. then I think I started the car, had someone sit in side, step on the gas and sprayed a little more cleaner in.
7. put the whole works back together, crossed my fingers, and hoped the car would start up again:confused:

[ehyde111]

I had a suggestion that my mass air flow sensor may be malfunctioning (since my stalling occurred at low RPMs and I have a little bit of idle varience at low RPM). Could you tell me how to verify the mass air flow sensor is operating correctly?

Thanks

[Beav]

What you're describing can be caused by many things. Start with the basics, check for vacuum leaks, dirty air filter, etc. Most cars that we see with your problem have dirty throttle bodies. Some have some small amount of dirt or glop on the MAF (mass air flow sensor.) Anything you do to it must be very gentle, they're easily damaged, and they're about $325! Generally I just spray a bit of carb clean on them, enough to rinse them well. A gentle blow of air to dry them - not from a compressed air hose! It would be best to just let it air-dry for 15-20 minutes than to risk compressed air. I would let a pro check the car out before condemning the MAF, they can sometimes be tricky to check out.
The only easy way I know to recommend would be to substitute a known good MAF from a friend's car.

Beav

[Aredubjay]

Originally posted by Beav
Generally I just spray a bit of carb clean on them, enough to rinse them well.

Are you talking about on the "hotwire" itself? Cool. I'd always wondered if that would work, but I've been chicken to try it and afraid people would think I was "stoopid" if I asked. Do you spray the screen also? Okay, people think I'm stoopid anyway, but, I don't need to give them any more excuses. Thanks, Beav.

[Beav]

Originally posted by Aredubjay


Are you talking about on the "hotwire" itself? Cool. I'd always wondered if that would work, but I've been chicken to try it and afraid people would think I was "stoopid" if I asked. Do you spray the screen also? Okay, people think I'm stoopid anyway, but, I don't need to give them any more excuses. Thanks, Beav.

Yup, on the wire itself. We were kinda iffy at first too, but we've been doing it succesfully for years on all makes of cars. Just remember how delicate the sensor is and be careful. I wouldn't do it just because I didn't have something better to do with my carb cleaner. ;)

Beav