My girlfriend's 2005 Cavalier is acting up much like I'm sure everyone else's are. Without any prior warning and no rhythm to the problem, the engine just stalls while idling. Warm, cold it doesn't matter. The car has been into 2 different dealerships without any luck. The timing chain was replaced about 6 months ago, but no luck. The problem is highly intermittent which makes it hard to diagnose. Then today, the check engine light came on, and remains on. Again, no prior warning, just the lamp. Does anyone have ANY IDEAS? All fluids are good. HELP.

 

i would say you got screwed on the timing chain
but since the light is on go to auto zone and see what the code reads
and then you can come back here and see what others think of the code
stalling at idle could be a lot of things TPS IAC
hard to say
good luck

 

The timing chain was under warranty luckily...and well, so is the entire car right now. I'll get the codes tomorrow when it goes back into the dealership (yet again). What exactly does TPS and IAC stand for so I have something to suggest tomorrow. Thanks.

TPS= Throttle Position Sensor...?

 

throttle positioning sensor and idle air control..

 

What happened at the dealer? You don't say where you live. . .but I can say not all dealer service depts are the same, so if this dealer isn't taking care of you, find another forum member in you area and maybe they can recommend another dealer to visit.

 

I live in Vancouver, B.C. As for the dealership, as I was taking the car out, the engine light shut off (another case of Murphy's Law). They ran some scans to see if the thrown code was stored in the computer, and decided that a module (intake control/air control or something along those lines...they called my girlfriend so I don't know if she remembered the proper name) of some sort was defective, and that it should be replaced (under warranty of course). So that part is on order now. And as far as the stalling goes, of course it didn't do it in 4 test drives, so they couldn't really do anything in regards to that. Hopefully both problems were related to the module.