jumped off the freeway a couple of days ago, everything was fine, stopped at the lights and revs dropped and it died. started it up, had to keep my foot on the gas a bit to keep the revs up. so i think its the fuel pump, unless you guys have other suggestions..
cheers
Alex

Revs dropping and dying on stopping is often an idle control thing.

Have you disconnected your battery recently, shorted anything out, etc? 'Cause if so, it might just take a while for the ECU to figure out the right idle settings. I had this happen recently.

Otherwise, could be a few things. Idle Speed Controller (ISC) motor fried. TPS (throttle position sensor) not in the right position. Overly low base idle setting, and the ISC not being able to compensate.
I think other things can also contribute to this set, such as blocked breather tubes causing rough idle, making it easier to get a low idle patch and die.

Might want to try some tests, when stationary (ie. parked);-
- no foot on accel, does it die?
- If you turn on the aircon, do the revs increase? Does it die?
- same with lights? High-beam?

After mine got reset, I found that driving with the aircon on stopped it from dropping to a point that it died. Then did a whole heap of different things while driving to attempt to "train" the ECU. Eventually, everything got sorted out.

does you car suffer from a lack of power since it does this? if it's your fuel pump, it would always not be supplying enough fuel and leaning out. the fuel pump runs flat out all the time, and the fuel pressure regulator controls the pressure in the fuel rail.

Sounds like the ISC has gone bung

no loss of power at all while revving, so i was beginning to doubt that it was the fuel pump.. i just want to narrow it down. it starts but dies straight away with no foot on the pedal, havent tried with aircon, car is at gfs house, does same thing with lights on or off though

btw mag86 helped me a bit, i did disconnect the battery terminal to reboot the ECU, and it ran roughly for a few minutes after till i switched it off.. then 3 hours later kept shutting off again.

how much are these controllers to replace? just in case

I think I read that if you put your foot to the floor for 30seconds with the ignition off, this resets the ISC. Might want to try that. Then try putting different levels of load on, eg. aircon, lights, high-beams, stereo, etc., and see if this changes your revs at all. If so, it looks better, may only need some re-training.

I think an aftermarket ISC is somewhere around the $160 mark? I got one a few years ago, but can't remember exactly. Genuine was maybe $100 more.
So definitely check that it's not just acting up first. If you have a multimeter and a .5mm feeler, you can also check the throttle position sensor; read this thread for more info:
http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31580

okay i have had this exact problem and all i can say is it will get worse. Take out your ecu and have a look at it, it will most likely be fried or have bulging capacitors.

Replacing the ecu may not fix the problem but i did but when my ecu got fried it also fired the crank angle sensor. I have had both things fixed and now the car runs fine. Take it to an auto electrician.

so its either the ISC or the ECU, i dont know whats worse :P. im not gonna drive it now, ill wait till the weekend till i bring it home, less traffic that way. are there any other symptoms to ecu being fried? i means shouldnt the car not start at all without ecu?

Dare say it would be the ISC had the exact same problem.

thanks guys, ill have a look around and write up what happens

we replace alot of isc motors on 2nd gen magna's im thinking it could be that

repco has ISC for $128, im gonna call autobarn see if they have them, maybe theyll give me a discount for being AMC, ferntree gully one was it? im gonna browse through the workshop manual, see if i can find where ISC is (unless you guys can tell me) im sure they are easy to replace.

It's kinda on the underside of the throttle body. Just look for whereever wiring is going to, the TPS is on the front, the ISC under and toward the back.

here a few pic so u know where to look

where it is http://img131.imageshack.us/my.php?image=iscmotor9da.jpg


and the isc motor by itself http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=thatit2hk.jpg

I had the exact same problem as you.

Car would start fine, but if you let it idle it would die.

You could rev it and it would be fine, you could even drive it, but as soon as it would idle it would die.

I was sure it was the fuel pump...

You know what it was, one of the vacumm hoses came off.