Today I was driving to a Walmart in almost 90 degree weather. I had been driving maybe 6 minutes. I stop at this red light with my stereo playing and I notice that the rpm jumps up a little all of a sudden then a second later the car dies. I restarted it just fine but what could have caused this to hapen? I have a TPI 5.0 L V-8 305 on my 85 iroc. Any opinoions would be greatly appreciated.

 

From what you are describing, I would check your IAC and TPS sensors. I have found that both of these will cause the car to idle poorly and/or die.

Hope this helps.

 

sounds like it to me. also check your egr too while your there

 

Thats what is stumping me. Because the car idles real smooth. It was just yesterday that it died at the stop light. Real weird. Thats never happened to it before. Is there any way it could of been gas deprived? I had maybe 1/4 tank of gas and I had to stop real quick at a red light. This seems far fetched but maybe it was choked of gas? LOL. Also, is there any way a fuel injected vehicle can get vapor lock? Also, I dont wanna sound like some idiot but what exactly is vapor lock? Thanks!!

 

agree with the IAC and TPS, my car does that at times itself. runs fine and then just dies at a redlight or stopsign, but fires back up like nothing happened.

and just thinking, isn't vapor lock water/air in the cylinder. and since you can't compress water it just locks the engine up until you can drain it, or bend a rod?

 

yes, vapor lock is water in a cylinder. And you will bend a rod right quick because it can't compress it.

 

No that's not what vapor lock is... close, but not.

People call the condition with liquid in the cyl "hydro lock".

"Vapor lock" is where the fuel line is so hot that the fuel boils; so instead of getting liquid fuel to the carb, you get vapor. It's pretty much non-existent in modern FI cars, because the fuel is under 40 or so psi all the way from the tank to the injectors. So that's not it.

I'd start with a fresh tank of gas.

"Almost 90° weather" is nothing. People in some parts of California and Arizona and Texas and all over the South have that from the time the sun comes up until it goes back down for months at a time. I remember one stretch in Tennessee (far from the hottest place in the country) where it went over 100° every single day for over a month. I've been camping in the desert when it was 114°. "Almost 90°" really is nothing, it's safe to say that didn't cause your car any problems.

If new gas doesn't straighten it out, the IAC suggestion would be the next thing I'd look at. Take it out and clean it in lacquer thinner.

 

Ive had it happen once or twice in really hot weather with my tbi car. Since the pump constantly circulates fuel its momentary and not much of a problem, not to mention that its highly unlikely to have it happen with any sort of pressurized fuel system, even a low pressure one like the tbis have.

Another possible thing I can think of is maybe its dropping reference pulses and the motor shuts down. I had similar problems with a bad module. Every once in awhile, completly out of the blue, it would just quit for no reason at idle.