Stalling/Radio Stopped Working/Etc.

[jimshepp8g]

Well I'll address the stalling problem first. Just got the car on Saturday evening. Drove around relatively fine without any problems at all. Was driving to school today and noticed the car idling rough when i was at a full stop (Traffic Lights/Stop Signs). Ignored it, and made it to school. Pulled in the parking spot, put it in park, and the engine sputtered to a halt. Had about a quarter tank of gas at that time. My first idea was that it was maybe a fuel problem (Dirty Injectors, etc etc). Bought some Injector Cleaner and put it in after filling up. Haven't driven it around much since I did that so I'm not entirely sure it did the trick. Another Idea was that maybe the battery is weak? I'm not the best with car related stuff so any suggestions would be appreciated. Car is the 4 cyl automatic version. 2001.

On to problem #2. I removed the stock radio from the car and put in an aftermarket radio. It worked perfectly fine for about a day, until I decided to remove it so I could mount it properly (It was just hanging loose in the slot). Run into home depot to find the proper screws to attach the stock radio's metal side pieces (The ones that were with it were a little too big). Come back out, plug everything back in just so I can listen to something on the way home, and then NOTHING. No power or anything to the radio, double checked all the connections and everything was fine. I tried the factory radio just to make sure I didn't blow up the aftermarket one, and that doesn't get power either. After checking the repair manual (thanks to whoever posted it), it seems I need to check fuse 6 to see if it's blown. Just wanted some reassurance that I didn't completely screw up anything else electrical.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[evil-G-nius]

your stalling issue could be (going from my experience with a 7G, same engine) cap and rotor is shot, need new plugs, idle control valve is shot, MAS sensor could be malfunctioning....all of these could cause stalling symptoms. I'd start with the easy stuff first and move on to the harder....which is which is for you to decide! LOL Hope it helps a little

[jimshepp8g]

Hey, Anything Helps! I'm hoping it's just something simple. I'm starting to lean towards an electrical problem, say for example the alternator, because things do dim as the idle drops. And i fixed the radio issue. It was the fuse under the hood, my dumb ass just checked the one inside.

[oakrdrs187]

You could be another victim of a cracked intake manifold, there's a small neck that cracks right where the throttle body goes I would check that before any other work goes into it. as for the radio, make sure you are grounding the aftermarket straight to metal a there is no ground on the harness and the antenna wire wont be sufficient. If indeed is a fuse check all the ones that say audio, radio even aux pwr.

[jimshepp8g]

You could be another victim of a cracked intake manifold, there's a small neck that cracks right where the throttle body goes I would check that before any other work goes into it. as for the radio, make sure you are grounding the aftermarket straight to metal a there is no ground on the harness and the antenna wire wont be sufficient. If indeed is a fuse check all the ones that say audio, radio even aux pwr.

Do you think cleaning the throttle body may help if the intake manifold isn't cracked?

[oakrdrs187]

It will help, but only do so much. Any lights on your Dash trigger?

[jimshepp8g]

No Check Englne lights or anything like that. Everything comes on after the stall but i'd imagine that really doesn't mean much anything

[oakrdrs187]

clean TB good, Think back to high school here...... Use a rag with TB cleaner and get your index and middle finger in there. BTW did you at any point disconnect the battery before this started happening?

[tamim13]

For the stalling problem, push the accelerator hard when it's sputtering, it might then register a code and turn on the check engine light, that's the easiest way to find out what's wrong. How many miles do you have on the car?

The radio fuse is most probably gone, check on the fuse box inside the car, I believe there's a 20amp fuse that must have gone. I think you also have a spare one on the fuse box cover, so you can swap it out and see if you get power.

[jimshepp8g]

clean TB good, Think back to high school here...... Use a rag with TB cleaner and get your index and middle finger in there. BTW did you at any point disconnect the battery before this started happening?

I just picked some TB cleaner up so i'll do that tomorrow. And I DC'D the battery after the problem started (when i was trying to figure out the Radio Problem), i was thinking the same thing cause i read that resets the settings and makes the car think that the throttle body is new and entirely clean.

For the stalling problem, push the accelerator hard when it's sputtering, it might then register a code and turn on the check engine light, that's the easiest way to find out what's wrong. How many miles do you have on the car?

The radio fuse is most probably gone, check on the fuse box inside the car, I believe there's a 20amp fuse that must have gone. I think you also have a spare one on the fuse box cover, so you can swap it out and see if you get power.

I got 83,600 on it as of now. And i was doing that before while i was driving it out of anger, no CEL's though. And yep took care of the radio fuse. I'm going to assume that it fried because I didn't disconnect the negative terminal when i was putting the radio back in. Correct me if i'm wrong. My bad on that.

[oakrdrs187]

There's your problem TB cleaner should do it, it will probably still stall the first few times until you drive it around the block a few times, make sure all four gears go through several times so it relearns shift points and its minimum engine idle speed.

[jimshepp8g]

There's your problem TB cleaner should do it, it will probably still stall the first few times until you drive it around the block a few times, make sure all four gears go through several times so it relearns shift points and its minimum engine idle speed.

Awesome. I'll report back tomorrow or sometime this weekend with some hopefully positive results. Thanks again.