hey everyone, i have yet ... another technical problem with my car !

the problem is that sometimes when i turn on my car it will idle very low and then stall, keep in mind this is a manual transmission with the car in neutral , so im not just "stalling" it hahha


anyone have any ideas on what this could be ?



all replies are appreciated

later 8)

Are there any strange sounds around? What about warning lights? I could speculate it REALLY needs a tune, alternator's going, out of fuel (:D) etc..

is it only cold starts? when it stalls does it stall suddenly or does it try gasp for air before it dies? it could mean that the FB needs cleaning, or adjust the Idle speed on the TB with a phillips screw driver.

i have the same problem in my 3.5L TH 4 speed auto... the battery however did die. and has been jump started by another magna. I've been told to try 2 things. Firstly fill her up go for a long drive, may have just reset the computer and needs to be driven hard for a few hours.
i have somewhat teprearily combatted this problem by leaving te air con all the time. then if the long drive don't work i'm gonna get a new battery. if that don't work i'll take it to my mechanic. I'm getting the new battery any way cos the old one seems to be as old( as the car 4-5 yrs)

Is your TE a 4 or a 6?

My old TS V6 used to do this on occasion.

i.e. If I didn't drive the car for a while, or if the battery was disconnected, it sometimes happened.

Try this:

With the car in neutral, rev the engine to 3000rpm and hold it for about 10 seconds.
This will reset the computer. You should notice an immediate difference in the idle..

Now take it for a good drive...

If that does not fix the problem, you may have a fuel problem, check fuel lines, filter, etc.

With the car in neutral, rev the engine to 3000rpm and hold it for about 10 seconds.
This will reset the computer. You should notice an immediate difference in the idle..


That's very interesting... ! Do you know exactly what is reset within the computer?

[quote:8dbdc2172c="VRX_MY02"]With the car in neutral, rev the engine to 3000rpm and hold it for about 10 seconds.
This will reset the computer. You should notice an immediate difference in the idle..


That's very interesting... ! Do you know exactly what is reset within the computer?[/quote:8dbdc2172c]

A few different things I believe.

The car continually adjusts to the way you drive it. By revving the engine like mentioned above, it alters timing, fuel ratios, etc - resulting in a higher idle speed - thats what I have been told - it worked for me :!:

That's interesting before jump starting the battery i have, i put someone elses in and it was doing the same thing starting and driving but stalling in neutral... wot happened is that i had left my parkers on to shed light on someone crashing :oops: then when went to start the car all it did was click click click... but still had power to all lighting etc.... then put another cars battery in correct battery yadda yadda, took for drive with other battery for a while, would go but stall when in neutral with no aircon on(aircon for keeping revs higher).then jump started---> Came back to life however would die without aircon... also once i did the jump start i drove home 1 hour or so keeping my car between 2000-4000 revs and still died when aircon is off in neutral and below 500-600 rpm. drove tonight and it's dying every chance it gets thinking prolly just need a new battery so i'll try that when i get the cash next week. Have also held the car at each 1000rpm interval for more then 10 seconds each. That didn't fix it either.

99% of the time idling issues are related to either

(A) Leak in the hose betwen the air flow sensor and the throttle body
(B) Wrong type of pod filter on the car

And the most commen one is

(C) Idle Speed stepper motor either being lazy or burn't out.

I have seen new magna's with lazy stepper motors 7000km old so its not uncommen.

This has happened to me and my friends tj as well, and in both situations we just bought our cars, and both the batteries died a few weeks later.

Change your battery over to a new one with about 450cca, cold cranking amps and you should notice a difference.

hey mitsiman, i think it may be the idle speed stepper motor, because the car idles really eratically these days,

an example is this morning ( not too cold) the car idled at 2000rpm , and not just for 30 seconds, but for about 3 minutes !

also, my car sounded like it had a lumpy camshaft ...as the revs kept on bouncing from about 1400-1700 whenever the clutch was in or whenever i put it in neutral .....

is this typical or a lazy or burnt idle speed stepper motor? or could it be something else ?


all replies are appreciated ~!

later 8)

Sounds exacgtly like a stepper motor yes

in the mornings my car idles at 2k as well once i goto drive and back to park its fine? go figure, damn another $170 for me on an idle speed motor too :P

btw with the battery when mine died, i swapped it with a newy and it kept dieing, idling out and conqing, it fixed itself after about 1 hour and some decent driving

apparently the ecu resets the idle speed when u lose power :)
so its like oh shit where am i spose to idle at? and dies it figures it out after u drive hard, and sit at the lights after a while.

well well well. may have just fixed mine after striping down to the TB and finding no change there just found that idle screw wound it out and increased the idle turned off the aircon which usually makes it stall strat away no stall take it for a drive. No stall piss me off.... hopefully that is all the problem is will be cheaper at least but. Crap i been annoyed like hell last 2 weeks.