Recently my car has been dying when I push the clutch in (ie - stopped at a light). It has just began doing this the last couple of days. Any advice or remedies are greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

I don't think it has anything to do with pushing your clutch in but it is the fact that your idle drops at a standstill. There are a few solutions:

- Idle adjustment
- Idle Air Control Valve has gone bad
- New Battery

I didn't think it would be the 3rd option until I just read a thread a few minutes ago whose car stalled at idle and it was the battery. If the battery cannot maintain a charge at idle then the car will die. This happens b/c at idle the alternator isn't spinning that fast so it is not charging the battery as much as it could in higher RPM's. So check your battery first b/c it's the easiest solution

Josh
Excelerate LLC

 

A few have reported problems with the idle control both in needing adjustment or replacement.

 

Thanks. It concerned me that it started doing this sporadically, sometimes it seems to idle fine. It only gets about a 100 miles a week put on it. I cleaned the filter to the Ice Box recently, do you think this would have anything to do with it?

 

Well if it is a sporadic occurrence then it probably doesn't have to do with the filter since the filter would be dirty/clogged all the time and thus it would be a everyday occurrence.

 

Bad gas can cause the same problem. Running 85 or 87 during the winter (oxiginated gas) can cause stalling. What gas do you use?

 

This last tank I put Shell 93 octane in. I usually use BP Amoco 93 octane. The whole thing is that it is so sporadic. It will idle and run fine after re-starting, but a little while later at an undeirable time, it will die as I'm pulling into a parking spot when the power steering and brakes are a nice feature to have.

 

Finally took my car to the dealer over the weekend and explained the situation of my car dying sporadically. The advisor asked me if it was doing it now to which I replied no. He hooked it up there machines and checked everything and found nothing wrong and said that I would have to wait until it was doing it consisitently and had a CEL. As soon as I left it died again at the first stop light I came to which it didn't in the 120 miles it took me to get to the dealer. I turned around and it was running fine again and again the dealer told me he couldn't do anything. He was was trying to blame the Icebox as a possible culprit for my car dying. It wouldn't so bad if the dealers weren't do far away. Any other suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks

 

You can purchase your own OBDII scanner for about $100 and re-scan if your CEL lights.

I'm still betting on the Idle Air Control Valve.

 

That's the whole problem...the CEL has never came on. They're basically telling me that they can't fix something that isn't completely broke. Now I feel that it will be a waste of time to take wife's MDX in for the sporadic errors with the NAV. They'll probably tell me that can't fix it until it doesn't work at all.

 

Although I beleive this is IAC related and should be the main focus of investigation, low fuel pressure can also cause this. Just FYI.

 

Thanks, I will keep that in mind as well. The car runs great otherwise. Even when it tries to die, I can keep it running by practicing some heel/toe. It just takes some of the enjoyment out of the overall driving experience.