dezem

Hello all,

I have a problem with my 2005 Cavalier that is stumping my local Chevy dealer and driving me crazy. Searching here for answers before getting rid of the car.

Starting in April of 2014 the car would stall intermittently while approaching a stoplight. The car would start up again without problem. This would happen every week/two weeks or so. Car drove (and drives) perfectly fine otherwise. It has about 120,000 miles on it. I mostly drive it very short distances to and from work. I drive 3.4 miles to work. Each time it has stalled it has always been on the way home from work in the evening, never to work. It always happens at 1 of 2 different stop lights on my route home, which are both exactly 0.7 miles away from my workplace.

In spring/summer 2014 I had it in and out of the dealership three times. Things they did:

April 2014
- throttle body/fuel injector service
- replace spark plugs

May 2014
- replace idle air control valve

June 2014
- re-calibrate the new idle air control valve

I should note that after extensive driving, the dealer was never able to reproduce the problem. (No doubt because it only happened to me once every week at most.) After I got the car back in June, the problem seemed to disappear - no stalling whatsoever.

Yesterday, April 15, it stalled on me while approaching a stoplight. Started up again just fine. So, the problem appears to be back. I am confident the dealer would not be able to reproduce the problem, like last year.

Does anyone have any ideas short of ditching the car?

sledge.impy

Once when removing my serpentine belt on a 2.8L v6 87 cavalier, I knocked off a vacuum line I believe to the purge canister.
After driving a while - the car would stall. Then after a few minutes - it would start again and I was able to drive a short distance. One time I was blocking traffic at a red light and was freaking out. haha applying more gas didn't help the situation if I remember.


It sounds like you have an automatic - for my car - Anyways - another time - the TCC Solenoid would stall when the car was warmed up in drive after stopping. Shifting to neutral would prevent the stall. Applying more gas did help I believe. If your 05 has this - you can try unplugging it if it is accessible. You will get slightly worse gas mileage, but your stalling will stop.


So does applying gas while holding the brake help any when stopped? (I wouldn't recommend doing this as a fix - you might cause more tranny problems).
Does putting it in neutral help?

dezem

Thanks for the reply sledge.impy.

To be honest I'm not sure if applying gas or putting in neutral would help. When it stalls, I have always put it in park, turned the key to the off position, then turned the key back to on, and it starts just fine. Next time this happens I'll try giving it some gas first/putting it in neutral.

I forgot to mention in the OP: the first time this happened, it was not approaching a stoplight, but in the car wash (obviously in neutral that time). This would have been mid/late March 2014. That day I had gone to get the oil changed, then ran it through the car wash. Halfway through the wash realized that multiple service lights were on on the dash (including the change oil light), at which point I realized the engine was dead. As soon as the wash was over, I put the car in park, started it up again, and drove it to a mechanic right next door to the wash. They suggested the engine coil, which they tested, but test came back normal. They said it was probably just a fluke, that water got somewhere in the engine it shouldn't have, and that the car was fine. The car drove fine for two weeks then stalled approaching a stop light.

All the things I can think of (bad spark plug wires, faulty coil pack, etc., etc.) leave me puzzled because the car ran flawlessly with no stalling from June 2014 until this April. I was convinced that the last repair done (new idle air control valve/recalibration) did it, but now don't think so, as I can't imagine a new IAC installed by the Chevy dealer crapping out/sticking/getting carbon build up after 8 months.