I’m driving a clunker of a car, an '84 Cavalier Wagon.
The car has to be the ugliest thing on the road: Gold body, red roof and yellow bumper. Until recently I could tell people “hell, it gets me from point A to B”.
Sadly this is no longer true. The car has been stalling recently.
The problem happens after about 30-40 minutes of driving. When I stop at an intersection the engine dies. Restarting the engine is quite the adventure: shift into park, ignition, rev the engine, shift gears and !!accelerate!! (all the while ignoring the honking hoards behind me:rolleyes: )
The car was free and as I’ve mentioned it’s old, and ugly. Can I fix this problem on the cheap? Should I give up on the car and start borrowing my Dad’s? I don’t drive the car often and can’t really see myself spending hundreds of dollars to fix the problem.
More on the problem:
-The car survived the winter just fine. The warm weather is contributing to the problem.
-Turning off the radio and air seems to help prevent stalling (not so scientific observation).
-Car only stalls after being driven for over 30 minutes.
-Engine never seems happy when it’s idling in gear. Idles fine in ‘park’.
-No dashboard warning lights are active.
-Fluid levels seem alright.
A friend suggested replacing the spark plug cables. Is it worth a shot? I’ve already tried his other suggestion: carburetor cleaning fluid (hasn’t helped at all).
If you think it’s worth it, take it to a service center and put it on an engine diagnostic machine (usually costs $40+). That would give you a place to start.
Check filters, both air and fuel (it may have more than one). Get a Haynes manual (definitely worth $20 or so).
Is it overheating, maybe? Like, you need a new radiator?
I grew up riding in, and learned to drive and maintain cars on, a marvelous '84 Cavalier (carburetted). Ah, the memories.
My, admittedly unprofessional, guess is overheating. Maybe the radiator? Maybe somthing else? Filters, as Mr. Blue Sky suggested? That’s all I can think of, at the moment.
Maybe carbon or moisture building up inside the distributor? Pop it and spray some WD-40 in there. Maybe time to change the spark plugs, too; they begin misfiring when they reach engine temperature?
No not moisture, driving for 30 minutes would evaporate any moisture.
Most likely is a componet or connection that goes open circuit with the heat. (this happens and can be a cast iron bitch to find.) If I had to guess which item, I would look at the RPM sensor (or whatever your car uses to generate primary ignition signal)
If it’s a carbureted car, which I suspect it is, I would start with a can of Gumout carb cleaner and see if that does any good. Then try changing the fuel filter and air filter. If you still have no luck, change the plugs, then the wires, then the dist cap.
Since the CHECK ENGINE light is not coming on, I suspect it’s not a bad sensor; they are the kinds of things that trigger the computer to throw an error and turn on the light. Or maybe the bulb’s just burned out
Another guess (cause thats all we can give without looking at the car) would be a vacuum tube off someplace. With your discription, it seems it has a hard time holding at idle after its warmed up. You could also do the semi-permanant band aid fix of jacking the idle up to a couple grand. Your crappy gas milage will get even crappier though.
take it to AUTO ZONE… or the respective auto parts store in your area… they will pull the codes (if any) for FREE
dont just buy everything they say is wrong… come back and let us know what they said… maybe we can help with some direction.
btw you can start the car in neutral, you dont have to put it in park.
The car dies at stops, in gear, when fully warmed up in warm weather. It then restarts readily. Since you mention no other symptoms,we presume it runs fine otherwise.
Having it inspected and evaluated by a shop is a good suggestion. It sounds like a carburetion problem. It may be as simple as needing adjustment or a vacuum hose replaced. It may be more involved, with an other type of vacuum leak or an internal carburetor problem.
Ignition problems–spark plugs, plug cables, distributor cap, etc.–are not likely the cause if it runs smoothly off idle. That said, I’ve seen some rotors do weird things so I wouldn’t rule that out.
A fuel filter won’t cause dying at stops in the absence of other symptoms.
While running hot could be a factor, it alone would not cause the dying.
Since it restarts right away and the “check engine” light doesn’t come on, I doubt it’s a failure of an electronic part. There’s no point in checking for codes unless the “check engine” light came on.
Spraying carb cleaner is very unlikely to help with anything other than a stuck choke (which is not indicated by the symptom). If dirt in the carburetor is causing the problem, said dirt is INSIDE the carb where you can’t reach it.
The car will stall again if put into gear.
In order to get the car to move I have to accelerate very quickly after shifting into drive. If I hesitate at all the car will stall again.
Fortunetly, so far the stalls have hit while I was fairly close to home and I’ve been able to make it back without incident.
I’ll take a trip to the local mechanic either today or tomorrow see what he has to say.
The details here tell me that after it restarts, it will die again if you don’t handle it just right. But what I’m curious about is the actual restarting–not how it runs after restarting. When you say it doesn’t restart readily, do you mean it takes extra time or playing with it to get it to restart at all? Or is that just another way of saying although it will restart right away, it won’t idle after restarting unless you nurse it along?
Now, if it restarts right away and will idle all day in neutral, but dies immediately when shifted into gear, I think you’ll find the transmission’s torque converter is sticking in lock-up. This is a fuel-saving feature that eliminates normal torque converter slippage. It’s designed to engage in 3rd gear with the engine over a certain RPM. It’s meant to disengage when the engine speed comes down and the tranny automatically shifts into a lower gear. Then the normal torque converter slippage allows the car to idle while stopped with the tranny in gear, similar to depressing the clutch with a manual transmission. When the lock-up feature sticks on, it has the same effect as keeping a manual tranny in gear but not depressing the clutch when stopped–the engine dies. With oomph.
If it were a carburetion problem as I first was thinking, you should be able to get it to idle while stopped in gear with a little pressure on the accelerator pedal. But if you’ve got to rev the dickens out of it and let the car move, which is what I’m now perceiving, it’s almost certainly the lock-up.
If that’s it, the symptom can be bypassed by disconnecting the wires to the lock-up solenoid. I don’t recommend this as a permanent fix, as it will reduce gas mileage somewhat and can result in accelerated internal transmission wear over time. The normal repair is to replace the lock-up solenoid and 3rd gear switch. But disconnecting the solenoid can make the car temporarily drivable until a complete repair is done.
