'05 Cavalier engine dies when at idle

roger2 said:

You have formed an opinion, and posted, without even reading what I said. Read my post again. For YEARS this person has had a condescending attitude towards me. From one of my very first posts here over 6 years ago this has been going on. I have bit my lip and put up with it. But now I am done. Simple.

And if you haven't noticed his tendency to be involved in conflict throughout the forums, then you haven't been paying attention.

You have a right to your opinion of course. But what makes you believe that you are able to post intelligently in regards to a personal conflict that has a much deeper context than you could possibly understand?

And why jump in here at all? I don't know you, we have never been involved in a thread together that I can recall. Are you someone who simply enjoys being involved in conflict?

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I jumped in at the start of your post and gave you an alternative to think about but in light of the fact that you obviously have misplaced aggression problems with another member who I thought was sincerely trying to help you out, personally I could not care less whether you revive your clunker Cavalier or not.

dosmalo said:

I jumped in at the start of your post and gave you an alternative to think about but in light of the fact that you obviously have misplaced aggression problems with another member who I thought was sincerely trying to help you out, personally I could not care less whether you revive your clunker Cavalier or not.

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Then go away and don't come back. I neither need nor want your advice.

You are being a TROLL . You are coming into a thread with which you have zero knowledge or involvement for the sole purpose of stirring shit.

Okay I'm going to bail on your thread but before I go one more bit of advice. Sounds like your steering wheel NUT is really loose to me.....

roger2 said:

The fact is I am approaching this methodically and intelligently.
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Is there something wrong with eliciting opinions from people who have more experience than I do with this type of work? No. It would be foolish not to do so.

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I don't know you from Adam and I have nothing against you. I'm sure your a perfectly nice and decent person.

That being said what you are doing is the exact opposite of methodical and intelligent. You don't have have enough knowledge or experience to chase this one down. If you've got money to burn and don't mind doing so keep on keepin on. In my humble internet opinion you should take your car to a professional mechanic and be done with it.

And yes, I can say that I have more experience with cars than you and just complex machines in general. If I fired the parts cannon at something at work because I didn't understand the problem I would be out of a job pretty darn fast.

I'm all for sticking this thread out and offering any advice I feel I can give. Just don't replace things if you are unsure that it was causing your problem.

replacing general servicing parts make complete sense to me ...i know as it is my living . if it doesn't fix it it at least eliminates stuff and needed doing anyway if due overdue or almost due .. if recently done then its obvious it don't need doing . if you have to take it in the mechanic wont have to think about it and costs you less at the end of the day .

blocked filters will lower fuel pressure and the sensors wont like that and report to ecu that cant handle it ..engine dies ... if i hadn't cured so many by changing a filter i wouldn't have mentioned it in the first place .
always suspect the cheapest stuff first ..

petehall347 said:

replacing general servicing parts make complete sense to me ...i know as it is my living . if it doesn't fix it it at least eliminates stuff and needed doing anyway if due overdue or almost due .. if recently done then its obvious it don't need doing . if you have to take it in the mechanic wont have to think about it and costs you less at the end of the day .

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Exactly. Thank you pete :thmbsp:

For anyone concerned that I am building a new car, one part at a time, I would point out that at the time of my last post I had replaced ONE single part. That was the TPS that had a visible, physical crack. Several other parts had been inspected, tested, or cleaned, but not replaced.

Excluding the cost of the TPS ($38), the grand total invested as of today, including the remainder of the Rock Auto order with shipping, and a can of TB cleaner locally, is $63 and some change. The fuel filter is recommended to be changed every 30k, the old one had 29k on it. The plugs are supposed to make it to 100k and mine had only 68k, but now that they are out I am glad I went ahead and changed the plugs because one of them was not looking healthy.


AK is wonderful place because there is a sense of community here. A bonus is that knowledge in many areas outside of audio is represented, i.e. automobiles, photography, DIY in general, cooking, sporting, musical instruments, etc, etc. Those who are generous enough to share their time and expertise helping others make this place truly special.

thread and project summary as of now

Since the thread may be a little confusing, and I may have contributed to that confusion by including too much information, here is a brief summary of what has been done and in what sequence. As of right now, the engine has not stalled again since August 19, which I reported in post #91.

But, since the problem was intermittent, and had only been happening occasionally, it may be a bit early to declare victory. I definitely feel optimistic though.

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-reported intermittent engine stalling ONLY when stopped, in gear, brakes engaged

-tested for trouble codes - found none

-tested fuel pressure regulator diaphragm by removing vacuum hose and checking for gas leakage - dry

-visually inspected all vacuum hoses - found only two hard plastic hoses. hoses and all connections found to be in good shape

-cleaned the IAC valve, its chamber, and the throttle body - found almost nothing in the TB, the IAC valve and its chamber did have a small amount of carbon-like build-up. Before and After cleaning pics

- verified that my OBD-II system was functioning properly two different ways. First, went to two parts stores that do free trouble code testing, both reported zero codes set (same as my code reader said) . Then disconnected the vacuum line off of the fuel pressure regulator, and also pulled the electrical connector off of the IAT sensor and drove the car. A code was set, verifying OBD-II function.

- verified IAC valve basic functionality by removing electrical connection with cold engine, then observing abnormally high idle speed. Re-establishing the connection restored idle speed to normal.

-observed and reported a crack in the body of the TPS

-ordered new TPS along with new plugs, fuel filter, gas cap

-engine stalled again (as mentioned above)

-installed new TPS

<new information since my last post below>

-Disconnected and cleaned all main power cables including battery, main ground, and a ground strap from block-to-head. None of the connections were loose. But all of them had some degree of corrosion on their contact areas. I don't know if any of this may have been contributing to the issue. But, had I known how they looked, I would have done this long ago, and am glad that I took the time to follow up on this suggestion from early in the thread.

-installed new plugs, fuel filter (real PITA to get to in this car) and gas cap


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Better pics of the crack in the old TPS. My guess is that this happened during the accident a little over a year ago, it may have been gradually getting worse. Another guess is that this damage would not have caused a vacuum leak, but may have had an adverse effect on an electrical connection. In any case, it had to be replaced even if it had nothing to do with the stalling issue.

Anyone with a better informed opinion have any thoughts on this?

I installed fresh ACDelco 41-834 "Double Platinum" plugs. No anti-seize, yes dielectric grease, torqued to 15lbs.

Here are the original plugs with 68k miles. The maintenance schedule says to replace them at 100k. But I don't like the looks of the 2nd one from the left. The gap on this one is noticeably wider than the others and it looks like the little pip on the outside electrode has burned away.

Sincere thank you's to:

Darksyde, goat67 (I once owned a gorgeous black/black/black '67 GTO BTW), grillebilly, mhardy6647, beanoil, botrytis, Shadowdog, Eric H, petehall347, nasadowsk, quaddriver, Mid-Fi, Denten, olson_jr, Gazdatronik, 68custom, and D Zoot


Cautiously optimistic that the issue has been resolved. Will report back either way.

I hope so too, the intermittent ones are the worst.
What you have done so far besides the broke piece was replace what was scheduled to be done anyway.

I bet you got it!