It keeps cutting out for no reason, with no apparent pattern. It always starts again (eventually) but it's a nuisance. THe autobox warning light is on a lot of the time but has always been, also we had a Cavalier for about 18 months with the light always on and it never made any difference.
Thanks in advance.
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Could be a number of things, but unlikely to be the autobox IMO. Do you get an engine management light on? If so, take it to your local independent diagnostic place and get the codes read. Is very difficult to give specific advice - could be an ignition problem, but far more likely a dodgy sensor somewhere in the engine bay.
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Idle control valve??? Is it at stationary traffic? Notice any change of the idle when waiting at junctions etc?
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Good point about idle control valve, although this usually goes before 9 years have passed, unless it's recurring because the car's not yet had the oil separator modification (big design fault for which GM accepted no responsibility, and costs £300).
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I had a 1985 Mitsubish Magna auto a couple of years back (not in the UK) and every now and again it just seemed to stall, especially when I was pulling out of junctions in Sydney. The car was a general nightmare and it was always in the garage, losing water etc which they never found out why. I eventually gave it to a friends brother who discovered there was a problem with the Head gasket (makes sense with water loss). There was never any water in the oil or milky looking oil. I've never owned a Automatic again.
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have a look at idle control valve & see if suffix ends in X if it doesn't replace. Buy some carb cleaner & remove air intake pipe at throttle body & wash out using a toothbrush & opening the throttle, mind fingers & EYE'S!!! ( from slashes of carb cleaner).If idle valve already ends in x remove & dismantle & clean in thinners, ultrasonic bath even better. In the end of the solonoid there is a brass sleeve shake to see if sleeve free & wash with WD40. Reasmble & enjoy. If your really competent remove the whole throttle housing & drill all the crud out of the vacum pipe holes as well.
Thats for if it stalls. If it cuts out hot & difficult to restart the crank sensor could be past its sell by date.
With it in park start & rev up & if it won't rev past 4000rpm approx without hunting the cam sensor signal could be poor & my advice would be to replace both cam & crank sensor together.
9 times out of 10 when one goes the other follows
Doc
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Details of how to clean the idle control valve can be found in the following link:-
tinyurl.com/28cwyh
The autobox warning light is on a lot of the time but has always been, also we had a >> Cavalier for about 18 months with the light always on and it never made any difference.
Did you not notice how much the car struggled to pull away when the light was on? The reason for this would be that the gearbox has gone into limp home mode and will be trying to pull away in 3rd gear. Common fault is the selector switch on top of the gearbox, or it simply requires an oil change. You really need to get this sorted out before doing the gearbox further damage. Pay someone to read out the fault code.
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