so my dad's 2003 acura tl is experiencing this problem: driving a few miles after gassing up, coming into a right turn, the car starts to shake and then engine stalls right afterwards...engine oil light and maintenance required lights light up. afterwards, restarting the car leads to the same problem...shake,stall, lights. needless to say, he's unable to drive it to the shop because the engine stalls before he can put it into gear. the car only has 11k miles on it so i'm really hoping it's not anything serious. i searched the forums here but didn't find a similiar problem.

any ideas?

thanks in advance!

 

hrrrm i delved into the forums a little more and these are things that come up:

1. ignition switch problem
2. IAC valve problem

are these possible causes to my car's symptoms?

 

Are you tightening the gas cap at least 3 clicks??
The car will not run if that is not done- sealed system
go check it out

 

i just had my dad check. said it was tight but i had him retighten the gas cap. same problem. starts up, shakes for a few seconds, then shuts off and stalls.

 

might be bad gas, when was the last time your dad filled up the Tl with gas and where? Did he use premium?

 

yeah, he's always used premium. was at a shell gas station in texas. he had this problem about 1 or 2 miles after gassing up.

and as a side note, i'm impressed at how responsive people are on this site. awesome!

 

Perhaps the battery is failing or the alternator output is low? You can get some bizzare behavior if the electrical system doesn't have the power it needs.

You can clean the Idle Air Control Valve (IACV) yourself and there are instruction somewhere in this forum. (It's a bit of work, IIRC.)

My 1999 TL is on its 3rd ignition switch so I wouldn't rule that out. Before I replaced the switch I was having trouble starting the car and it would sometimes stall at low RPMs. The ignition switch is about a $50 part and you can change that yourself.

Keep searching the forums for other ideas.

Good luck!

Bob

 

A tight gas cap and 3 clicks are not the same
Make sure dad understands the clicks are designed to do that and it must be 3 or more!

Also- in the daylight, examine gas cap for cracks on the rubber o-ring

 

he said the gas cap doesn't click. he says it's a rubber gasket and he loosened it and tightened it as far as possible and still doesn't click.

he did notice that if he steps on the gas pedal when he just starts the ignition, the engine won't stall but the second he stops stepping on the pedal, it starts to shake and stall. he also said he noticed a fair amount of water coming off the exhaust pipe even after a short time of doing this.

any ideas?

thanks!

 

with the motor just ideling what is the RPM. Is the check engine light on at all under normal driving? The water coming out of the exhaust is most likely normal condensation due the the motor not being able to burn the moisture out of the exhaust with that short amonut of driving. Will the car rev in park to 4 or 5k?

 

I am still on the gas cap

The correct cap is plastic with a round oring seal
It tightens and then clicks
Anything else means the wrong cap got put on at the gas staion and someone else got his

 

so i got my dad to check the gas cap again thoroughly. he cleaned the gasket and got it to click 3 times but he said he had to turn it pretty tight to get there, which he never had to do before. started it up but still same problem.

the check engine light wasn't on during normal driving before this happened. with the situation now, he's unable to drive it at all.

to add more detail, the lights that light up on start up are:
charging system indicator
low oil pressure indicator

after hitting the gas pedal in park, he was able to get to 4-5 krpm but the malfunction indicator light comes on and the two above lights go off. when he stops gas, the engine stalls and the above 2 lights come on again.

confused...

 

I might say that maybe the alternator? I think you may want to have the system checked. Does the car start normally or is it starting to crank over slower

 

Do you have a engine code reader? Perhaps the engine has thrown a code during one of the failed attempts to start the car. If so, that might give you a clue.

How much gas is in the fuel tank? If it's pretty low you might want to add a couple of gallons from a different gas station.

You might want to clean the battery terminals to be sure that there's a good connection.

If you're not sure if the battery has a good charge, you might want to try charging it or jumping it with the help of another car.

As a longshot, try another ignition key since the immobilizer circuitry inside can fail.

Make sure that you don't have a second immobilizer key on the keyring since two keys can interfere with each other.

Have you made any new wiring changes to the car such as the installation of a new radio?

Check your air filter to make sure it's clean.

The spark plugs coul be fouled. You could pull and inspect them.

Good luck and be sure to follow-up once you figure out what was wrong.

Bob

 

Buy A New Gas Cap

 

since the problem started after filling up the car, try putting some seafoam (available at autozone for 5 buck per can) and put it in the gas. That will help remove water and some contaminants in it. Also if this doesn't work, try finding a junked TL and take the gas cap off it.

 

 

so my dad dumped a whole bottle of seafoam equivalent into the gas tank, let it sit for about 30 min, and it started fine. the malfunction light stayed on but in the manual, it mentions it would stay on until after a few trips. after 1 more bottle of the stuff, the car is running as normal with all lights off. guess it was indeed bad gas. hopefully the problem doesn't come back any time soon. i'll be sure to post if anything new comes up but....

thanks a ton for the help and suggestions guys!

 

That's great news!

Thanks for the update.