Starts Up, Stalls Immediantely

What year of car? And what mods do you have done? Also was anything recently done, and do you have any codes stored on the car?

See the "Surging Idle Checklist for help with all your idle/stall problems. Everything you need to find and fix idle problems is in there.

The first two posts contain all the updates to the fixes. At last count there were 24 possible causes and fixes for surging idle/stall problems. I continue to update it as more people post fixes or ask questions.

Could it be possible that your TB idle screw is backed out to much, cause when I first got mine started that happened, try turning up the idle screw a little bit, and see if the problem goes away. And remember to adjust your TPS or check it after you touch the screw. On the TB there is a vacuum line that goes to the coolant tube, I'm not really sure what that is, but could cause some coolant in the tb. Sorry to jump in, but where does the other vacuum line go to?, towards the firewall? Cause mine is capped off, not sure if that could cause any issues with idle?

vac line to the coolant lines at the TB?? You have me on that one. Do you mean the two coolant lines that go to the TB spacer? Thye actually help keep the TB cooler...sounds funny I know but thats what they do.

I would unplug the IAB and see if she will start.

hey ya that's what I mean, on the spacer. One goes to the coolant tube, def. does sound weird that hot coolant air would help keep the tb cool. Are you sure they are both coolant vacuum lines, or is one just hooked up to vacuum?

they both connect into the hard metal coolant lines under the the intake..the one that either goes to the heater core or returns (cant remember which side the lines connect to). The theory is that the coolant will be cooler then the intake manifold so by running coolant in the sapcer it prevents the TB and IAB from absorbing the heat from the upper intake manifold...but what do I know... I'm a jarhead not a thermo engineer so I have to take them at their word. I had disconnected them at one time but noticed a little loss in power.

Mine has just one little vacuum stem coming off of one of the coolant tubes, so I just put a vacuum line from the egr spacer spout to that vacuum stem/spout. So should I run two vacuum lines from the spacer, split it from 2 to 1, then run it to the coolant tube vacuum stem/spout? Are you sure they are both connected to the coolant tube? Or is it just the one near the front of the car? With the other one just being connected to another vacuum source? Thanks!!

you said immediatelly so ill ask does it happen as soon as you let go of the key?

mine did something similar when the ignition switch went bad the key would move back slightly and the car would just die. I could Hold the key to almost the start position and it would run. Sometimes itwould run without me holding it until i started to drive down the road and then it would die.

You should have the one spot on the heater tube that goes to the heater core, and also there should be one on the lower intake back by the firewall.

AnthonyR23 said:

Mine has just one little vacuum stem coming off of one of the coolant tubes, so I just put a vacuum line from the egr spacer spout to that vacuum stem/spout. So should I run two vacuum lines from the spacer, split it from 2 to 1, then run it to the coolant tube vacuum stem/spout? Are you sure they are both connected to the coolant tube? Or is it just the one near the front of the car? With the other one just being connected to another vacuum source? Thanks!!

Click to expand...

OK, I think we confused ourselves... on the TB itself there is a line that goes to the valve cover to draw off vapor and suck it into the airflow and burn it.

Then there are 2 lines on the TB spacer (1 pointing towards the firewall and the other pointing towards the nose) Those are both coolant lines. I dont have a vacuum line coming off any of the lines? Are you SD or EFI? I dont know my SD engine.

You guys with idle problems could same a lot of time chasing your tails if you would go through the Surging Idle Checklist. Over 50 different people contributed information to it.

The first two posts have all the fixes, and steps through the how to find and fix you idle problems without spending a lot of time and money. I continue to update it as more people post fixes or ask questions. You can post questions to that sticky and have your name and idle problem recognized. The guys with original problems and fixes get their posts added to the main fix. :

What codes did you get when you dumped them?
Have you checked the fuel pressure and inspected the fuel filter and fuel lines?

Mine also has a line going from the TB to the Valve Cover Oil Filler. Then two coolant tubes coming out of the egr spacer, mine used to be speed density, but I converted it to mass air, but I only have one spot for a vacuum line to go onto the coolant tube on the lower intake towards the front of the car, I replaced my vacuum lines so just used vacuum hose for these two coolant tubes. The one goes to the coolant tube, but if the other goes to a tube on the back of the upper manifold towards the firewall, isn't that just vacuum. So the front one is coolant and the back one is independent intake vacuum. Is this correct?

5LitrePwr...

If you jumper your diagnostic connector to test the fuel pump can you hear the fuel pump turn on?

Do you happen to have an adjustable fuel pressure regulator? Because if your problem is related to fuel delivery there is a number of things you can do. One being to check the fuel pump circuit with tweezers. If right away you hear nothing, then it is likely fuel pump or fuel pump relay related.

I bought a fuel pressure relay thinking that replacing it may get rid of code 96, which is one of the codes that I still have, but didn't fix it. My car is running though, no stalling with code 96, which could be because I did a mass air conversion, which requires a wire to be run from the pink/black wire on the fuel pump relay to pin 19. So that could be my issue, which may be different from yours. So I have an extra, paid about 10 dollars US plus shipping if your interested. Cause I'm pretty sure they are both good as the car runs the same with both.

Another thing you could do is get a fuel pressure test kit from a walmart or canadian tire. Hook it up to the shraider ? valve on your fuel line, it's looks like a valve on one of your two fuel lines running to your engine's rails. With the fuel pressure test kit hooked up jumper the fuel pump test circuit, and see what pressure you are getting. You should get 39 PSI ish.

If you don't hear the pump turn on at all with the relay replaced, jrich has good tech on this. It could be your fuel pump. If your fuel pump turns on but you have low fuel pressure, ya never know, your fuel filter could be clogged up.

Doesn't sound like you have problems getting spark because you were able to start it up, seems like you could just have fuel delivery issues.

But who knows. Honestly invest in the fuel pressure test kit. Just comes, especially if you have an adjustable regulator, because you need to know where your at. If you check the pressure and you are right on, getting the right amount of fuel pressure. We'll have to figure that out when you get there. But honestly, I would check this out first!

Cheers