I'm trying to get rid of this most annoying problem of intermittent highway and idle stalling which I've been experiencing on my 1989 with about 71k miles. Only the timing belt had been changed for the 60k front maintenance and decided to have the rest done the way it should be: camshaft and crankshaft seals, water pump, crankshaft and camshaft position sensors change. I ordered the parts and had them delivered to Joshua Langevin, SHO Phoenix webmaster, to do the maintenance whcih was done yesterday.
When I drove down to his place the car was running fairly well, with rare but occasional highway stalls for the first 80 miles and the situation got worse as the time lapsed with longer stalls (like 10 seconds) but the power eventually coming back to finally arrive there, 30 miles further, with the idle being problematic.
The job was done and we took it for a spin of about 20 miles, everything seemed to be back in line and planned on getting the top 60k maintenance.
On my way back, I drove around 70-85 mph for about an hour without any problem then a first very brief stall occured at 65 mph which was followed by another longer one 30 seconds later and intermittent but longer lasting ones as I was getting closer to home. I tried different methods such as pumping the gas pedal instead of just depressing it further with mixed results, tried downshifting again with mixed results, tried depressing the clutch and revving up with mixed results ( sometimes it worked for a good while, other times the engine was dead and restarted by releasing the clutch pedal). I can describe the worst where the speed would be 65 mph, in 5th, the stall occurs and car slows down, I try accelerating but the engine is dead, the rpm goes from 2300 rpm to 2000 while the clutch is still up, the engine suddenly comes back to life for 2 seconds and dies again, followed by another life spurt for 5 seconds and a 2 second death followed by a back to life again for 5 minutes untill the problem shows its ugly head again. I first thought it was more likely in uphill situations as that was the case on my way down but the ride back was on very flat highway. It can occur at 75mph as well as 55mph so a specific speed/rpm does not seem to be involved. The engine temperature is normal. The check engine light does not come on. When this situation occurs and I get into normal city traffic, the idle speed regulation does not function properly and depressing the clutch pedal without pushing the accelerator almost means a stall. The motor then may be difficult to restart. The last 10 miles were most erratic. When I finally made it in front of home, the motor stalled at idle, my attempt to restart were met with a racing engine followed by a sudden stop after a couple of seconds. I left it cooling for 20-30 minutes, the car restarted with much inclination to stall but made it into my driveway...
The vehicule speed sensor and fuel filter were ordered and received but did not have time to have them installed.
When I drove down to his place the car was running fairly well, with rare but occasional highway stalls for the first 80 miles and the situation got worse as the time lapsed with longer stalls (like 10 seconds) but the power eventually coming back to finally arrive there, 30 miles further, with the idle being problematic.
The job was done and we took it for a spin of about 20 miles, everything seemed to be back in line and planned on getting the top 60k maintenance.
On my way back, I drove around 70-85 mph for about an hour without any problem then a first very brief stall occured at 65 mph which was followed by another longer one 30 seconds later and intermittent but longer lasting ones as I was getting closer to home. I tried different methods such as pumping the gas pedal instead of just depressing it further with mixed results, tried downshifting again with mixed results, tried depressing the clutch and revving up with mixed results ( sometimes it worked for a good while, other times the engine was dead and restarted by releasing the clutch pedal). I can describe the worst where the speed would be 65 mph, in 5th, the stall occurs and car slows down, I try accelerating but the engine is dead, the rpm goes from 2300 rpm to 2000 while the clutch is still up, the engine suddenly comes back to life for 2 seconds and dies again, followed by another life spurt for 5 seconds and a 2 second death followed by a back to life again for 5 minutes untill the problem shows its ugly head again. I first thought it was more likely in uphill situations as that was the case on my way down but the ride back was on very flat highway. It can occur at 75mph as well as 55mph so a specific speed/rpm does not seem to be involved. The engine temperature is normal. The check engine light does not come on. When this situation occurs and I get into normal city traffic, the idle speed regulation does not function properly and depressing the clutch pedal without pushing the accelerator almost means a stall. The motor then may be difficult to restart. The last 10 miles were most erratic. When I finally made it in front of home, the motor stalled at idle, my attempt to restart were met with a racing engine followed by a sudden stop after a couple of seconds. I left it cooling for 20-30 minutes, the car restarted with much inclination to stall but made it into my driveway...
The vehicule speed sensor and fuel filter were ordered and received but did not have time to have them installed.
