Car dies when stopping

ByteMe

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I started the car today and drove it a block to a stop sign. When I pushed in the clutch, the car died and it took a lot more cranking than normal to restart. It then almost died a couple of more times on the drive to work. The idle would hang around zero for a while and then move to about 400RPM. Is that the correct idle RPM? The only thing I can think of that occurred before the drive was that I washed the car on Sunday. It has never done this before.

Does anyone have any ideas on this?
 

Qualitywires.com

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Did you get the engine wet?

Common things to look at.

1. Idle Air Valve clogged or dirty
2. Battery
3. Test your fuel PSI
4. Pull a few plug out to take a look at the condition of them.
 
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ByteMe

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It has a 6 month old battery in it. I don't think I got much water on it as I didn't open the hood. The car has less than 15,000 miles on it. I'll check the Idle air valve & plugs.
 

rory97

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My money's on the idle air valve. Really easy to get to ... much easier than the battery. Pull it off and spray it out really well with carb cleaner. That fixed my idle problem.
 

PhoenixGTS

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I have had that happen to my car before. Unplugged the three big PCM connectors and reset the computer and it went away.
 

PatentLaw

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Idle Air valve as you have less then 6 months on the battery and presumably did not leave any accessories on for a significant amount of time. Plus it has been warm weather.
 

Rollin4

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Clean the I.A.C. Be careful of the rubber O ring not to damage or loose it when taking it apart to clean. Remove carbon buildup and it should idle fine.
 

Bolt

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I had the same problem. I got my car with a battery tender. I wondered why. The seller told me it stalled if he did not run the battery tender on it. I Put a new battery in immediately and never plug my battery into the battery tender anymore. It never stalls anymore. I suggest changing the battery. They are cheep.

Bolt
 

2000GTS

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I had a simular problem start a few weeks ago. Last week the car wouldn't start at all. Turned out to be the fuel pump. Car is at the dealer right now getting a new one put in. I'm thinking this should solve the problem.
 

joe117

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"The seller told me it stalled if he did not run the battery tender on it. I Put a new battery in immediately and never plug my battery into the battery tender anymore."

This is one of the reasons you don't want to use a battery tender.
It will mask battery problems or problems with current drain while sitting unused.
A battery tender can leave you with a dead battery when you go on an overnight trip.

The stall when slowing to a stop in some GM cars can be due to a problem with the Vehicle Motion Sensor.
I don't even know if a Viper has one.

But I did an engine swap one time with a Camero V6 into an MG Midget.
I used the computer that came with the engine and one of the problems I had was rigging up that VMS so it would give a pulse while the car was moving with the clutch in.

I ended up just making a little circuit that pulsed all the time moving or not. It solved the problem.
 
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ByteMe

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I removed, cleaned (already fairly clean), and replaced the idle air valve and still see the same problem. The plugs are good and as I mentioned before, the battery is essentially new and I have had a dead battery so I am familiar with its "tricks". I talked to my Viper mechanic and mentioned my idle is around 350RPM. He said that when the ECU sees the RPM go below 300, it shuts off the injectors. He said to clean the throttle bodies which were cleaned about 6000 miles ago and that perhaps the idle air valve was bad.
 

GTSnake

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when my MAP sensor was loose it would run irratic and sometimes wouldn't even idle. After I tightened it the car ran fine.

Have you tried putting a trickle charger on it overnight just to be sure it's not the battery?

Can you keep it running if you pump the gas peddle? How old is your fuel filter?
 

Joseph Dell

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Any updates on this issue? Still sounds like a battery issue to me but if that gets replaced, on to the next thing.

It _could_ be the PCM if the iac and battery are good. But I'd replace the battery anyway.

JD
 

Jack B

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Just a couple of thoughts:

1. The Viper won't idle at 300. The first bar off of zero is 500, the third bar is 700. The PCM forces the IAC to set the idle rpm at approximately 670.

2. A cheap scan tool will tell you right away what is happening.

3. Closed loop operation is where the pcm learns. This can be both good and bad habits. It may be as easy as pulling the C1, C2 and C3, wait for ten minutes this will clear all the adaptives. Turn on the key and slowly floor the throttle so that the pcm knows where wot is. Then drive it for at least 30 minutes.

4. If that doesn't clear it up like everyone said, the IAC or the battery could be possible culprits. Merely check the battery voltage without the engine running, it should be a minimum of 12.5. If it is, that probably rules out the battery.

5. Here are the remaining culprits:

a. IAC doesn't have to be just dirty, one of the coils could be bad.

b. An O2 sensor could be bad, with a scan tool at idle if the voltage goes over 1.0, the sensor is probably bad and is forcing one bank into a super lean condition at idle, this will stall the car. A voltage of over 1.0 tells us the car is running rich, but with a bad O2 it could be lean, therefore, the pcm pulls fuel and makes it leaner, at some point shutting down one bank.

c. The fuel pump is a long shot, it will affect more than idle, therefore, easy to diagnose.

Once again, with a scan tool by looking at the long-term trim, the O2 voltage and the IAC step position you can narow down the issue.

Good Luck
 
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ByteMe

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Update: Car has run fine the past 3 days, so I am not going to do anything about it for now. Jack B was correct in that the tach on a Viper starts at 500 RPM, so my car is idling correctly around 650 RPM. I do wish I knew what caused the problem, so I'll look into buying a scan tool and checking the items Jack mentions over the weekend.
 
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ByteMe

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Update: Car died this week while warm just sitting at a light in neutral (only 1 of several times I have driven the car since the last time it died). I took it into our local Viper Tech and he checked the codes, battery, oxygen sensor, et al. and found no codes and no problems. I am thinking of changing out the battery even though the one in there is less than 6 months old. Also, what about getting a battery tender? I drive the car every couple of weeks at a minimum and usually once a week for 30 miles or so.
 
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ByteMe

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Update: Had a new battery and a tender put in & have used tender whenever car is parked without driving it for more than a day. After 7 days of driving (various days), it died again sitting at a stoplight in neutral. The Viper tech could not reproduce the problem since it is so intermittant, but he did check the systems Jack B mentioned without finding any problems. I really don't know what to do now. I don't enjoy driving a car that has problems like this.
 

BruceW

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It could be your fuel pump, same scenario happened to me. It would intermittently quit. It was a pain to diagnose because the car would usually start up right away after turning off the key. Finally it quit while a tech was driving it so he was convinced that was the problem.
 

GTSnake

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I would agree check your fuel pump.

Don't give up. It's most likely a very minor issue. Once you get it resolved all will be good again. :2tu:
 
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