Hey guys I have a little problem, I have taken my car to several mechanics and no one seems to know why my car keeps on stopping at red lights, it starts fine and runs fine but as soon as I stop at a red light, it sounds like its about to turn off and sometimes it does, it turns back on right away. First I replaced the starter, it wasn' that. Does anyone have any recommendations on what it can be? Thanks. 92 Firebird.

 

Auto or manual transmission?

 

Look at the other threads that say the same as yours. There are about 20 of them in the last 2 months.

 

Friend of mine had the same problem with their Taurus a while back and it turned out to be a plugged fuel filter.

Hope that helps.

 

your supposed to stop at red lights... lol

 

I was waiting on somebody to say it. lol


Here, read this one and see if any of those things solve your problem. I bet one of them do solve it.
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/v6/3...ough-idle.html

 

Aww crap guys, Never knew stopping at red lights ment a mechanical defect in my car. Where should I start looking for this problem?

 

I keep trying to stop, but my car won't let me. Scares the SH** out of me!
And, by the way, if the car starts, the starter isn't your problem. Seriously though, it may be fuel filter or fuel pump, let us know what it was when you determine the problem.

 

Well vacuum leaks will also do that. Power brakes use allot of vacuum. If you have a leak, a sure sign is when you apply the brakes the engine dies or tries. Its cause the brake booster is sucking the life out of the engine trying to get enough vacuum, but its can't cause of the leak.

knowing your vacuum situation can reveal all kinds of things about an engine.

 

A malfunctioning vehicle speed sensor can cause the car to die at idle also.

 

Had the same problem on my camaro but that was because the generator was malfuctioning.
I could see that the volts dropped and then the revs began to decrease and well, the car died.
So a generator swap helped.

off topic:
woo first post here! sorry for my language, not used to talk about cars in english

 

Yeah I used to be the same way, Red Light, what's that? Until I got caught a few times by red lights on a black and white car, they taught me right away what a red light was, ever since I have used that ingenious invention to my advantage but now my car stops, go figure I guess you just can't win. Anywho! Thanks you guys for the recommendations. You would think a mechanic would know that, I know their hood mechanics but still come on.Ok I'm new to the car enthusiast thing but when you say replace the plugs and wires what do you mean exactly? The wires that connect to where and the same for the plugs, and excuse my ignorance. LOL.

 

Spark plugs and the wires that go from the distributer to the spark plugs. But I would lean more twards a vac problem.

 

If it runs fine otherwise and is a fuel injected engine, you might try taking the plastic hose off of the front of the intake and clean the carbon build up on the edges and back side of the throttle plate / valve. I'm not really sure what it's called but I've had a similar problem with GM and Ford vehicles where there should be a slight clearance there in the air intake but the little bit of carbon build up is enough to choke it off when you come to a stop. I don't think you should spray carb cleaner in there (I think it's the MAP or MAF or something) but rather spray some on a clean rag and wipe the black carbon off of the big butterfly valve.

If this doesn't make sense, I'll try to post a picture.

 

does it do it at stop signs?

 

Vacuum? Yeah just today I was going to Downtown (L.A.) and it stopped at a light, its starts to accelerate a little like voom voom by its self and suddenly it stops, I can turn it on right away but sometimes it stops as soon as the light turns green and I can't stand when people start to honk at me, so I am pretty desperate to fix this problem. So far I've got that it can be the wires and plugs, distributor Cap and rotor or THE VACUUM? What you mean by the Vacuum? Thanks fellas.

 

vacuum usually is a vacuum leak... in a rubber hose. i think it cost me $14 and 1 hour to replace (buy and replace myself) all of my vacuum lines except for the hard plastic ones by the EGR (passenger side of engine by heater core and heater valve... and overfill tank for radiator).

Also one thing that kept making my car die was a $0.50 piece of rubber connector. it had dry rotted... it was at the end of one of those hard plastic vacuum hoses that plugged into a sensor. i got some vacuum caps for the small plastic vacuum tubes and cut the end off of the cap (cheapest way) and stuck it in place of my dry-rotted one. it was an easy fix

edit: Also if you have cruise control (whether it works or not) under the driver side nose of your car there should be a ball hooked up, a hard plastic ball. There is a vacuum hose going to that ball as well... make sure it hasn't dry rotted/cracked or come loose. if you are replacing vacuum lines, replace that one while your at it... and make sure all condensation is out of it.

Until you fix your dieing problem... use your left foot for the brake and use your right to apply a little gas so you don't die at a stop light/sign. Also, make sure you have good/new air filters. When was the last time they were replaced?

 

Speaking of Vac lines. Could someone with a '91 or '92 3.1 post a picture of the vac lines coming off the back of the intake? Cant figure out which one goes where.

 

Thanks guys I'm going to try this week replacing the plugs and wires and if that doesn't work then I'll try replacing the distributor and rotor and finally I'll try replacing the vacuum tubes if everything else fails. Thanks a lot for your opinions, I'll tell you how it goes.

 

there is only 1 hose that NEEDS to be plugged into the back of the throttle body.

 

I appreciate the effort, its more than anyone else did, but I didnt ask about the throttle body, i was asking about the back side of the intake....by the distributor.

 

i got it now. nevermind.

 

if nothing else ill draw a pic of it for ya and explain where everything goes, give me 2 days.

 

I knew a 2.8 that did that cause the comp was going bad, but that car also didn't want to run till op temp