As I carpool, I leave my Van at a grocery store about 1/2 mile from my house during the day. Twice in the last couple months as I am making a left about 50 feet from my house and cruising to my house, my steering wheel has locked while my engine dies.

The first time, I put my van in park and it started right up, and I pulled into my garage. No problems the next time I drove my van so I thought I might have done something to kill the engine. The 2nd time this occurred, my van started back up and then died right away. I did this once more and gave a little extra gas so I could make it into my driveway.

A neighbor witnessed this and came over. We tested the battery which was fine. Tried starting the van, but it didn't start. tried again, it started & died. tried it again and it lasted a little longer. I backed the van up a little bit, started it, and it started running ok. We discussed that it might be the fuel filter which I had overlooked replacing for at least a year & half.

Apparentlyin the97's the fuel filter is part of the fuel assembly and the whole fuel assembly must be replaced (please correct me if I am wrong).

Any opinions on whether the issue is somehow related to the fact that I am driving a vehicle which has sat (usually in about 90 degrees), engine is cool, and the issue seems to happen a couple minutes later when the engine might just be warming up...yet I am approching my house and not giving much/if any gas.

I have experienced no problems when the engine is warmed & in typical driving conditions.

The van is currently in the shop and I am fearful of a call with a high repair cost. Based on some other similar posts, I will ask if they checked the fuel pressure. Anything else I should ask?

thanks.

 

You're correct about the fuel filter being a part of the fuel pump in the tank.
The best thing to do since you are not in possession of the van, is to report back here what the shop tells you is wrong. We can then give you an idea of whether or not they're diagnosing it accurately.

 

Budd,

Have you tried to get the vehicle problem codes? To do this, turn the key on/off three times without starting the engine and leave the key to on. Next and quickly glance at the digital odometer display in the lower left of the gauges. You will see a Pxxxx or a Pdone. A Pdone means things check out just fine. Any Pxxxx where the x's are numbers means a problem.

Once you have that information, post your findings here. We can be of greater value to you once they are known.

Chances are, the shop will do the code reading. It could be a bad ignition coil as I had that similar problem that you have described here.

Peace!

Stev

 

They got back to me, and as expected could not get the problem to happen while in the shop.

They indicated the air intake was pretty dirty & recommended a flush. They also recommended a few other regular maintenance such as cleaning the fuel injectors, and they are going to clean the K&N air filter.

They said they tested the electrical charge (in and out) which was fine, and that the fuel pressure was fine.

based on these tests, they didn't want to go the route of trying to check the fuel assembly given the high cost of getting to itsince they didn't have anything to tell them that was where the problem was.

Basically do this routine maintenance/cleaning and see if the problem occurs again.

thanks again for your advice.

 

sounds like your idle control valve is getting dirty aka IAC valve... it sits on the back of the throttle body and is held in by 2 screws... have the shop take it & the tb off and clean it real good, they get dirty over time and are the main reason for stalling. if the problem persists after the cleaning, look at swapping it out.

 

Steve05,

it only stalls once about every month....typically when the engine is just warming up (after being driven a couple minutes) and it just happened again about a week ago...although this time it happened when trying to start it in the morning...and once again it seemed to 'break through' whatever blockage of fuel there was and then drove fine.

does that still sound like it might be related to the idle control valve?

 

yes, sounds exactly like the IAC valve.. it will get progressively worse, when it does start to get worse you can yank off the TB & valve & clean it. that should take care of it. 2 other possiblities would be the crank position sensor and the coil... both of which can cause stalling, generally it'll happen as your driving and not necessarily from a stop. the iac issue is mostly seen when putting it into gear, F or R... either one or both.

 

Well it happens while I am driving....typically as I am slowing down, foot off the pedal, rounding a corner, and usually at a very slow speed. Not when putting it into gear (F or R), so maybe it's not the IAC valve? But the crank position sensor and the coil?

I just had the same problem 2 days ago, and then it happened again the following day (first time it has happened close together, usually it happens once a month.). Taking it in today.

 

That sound like an incorrectfuel mixture problem. The two common components that control the fuel mixture are the O2 sensor and the TPS (throttle position sensor). I'd go with the TPS over the O2 sensor since the O2 sensor will throw a code very quickly and you're not getting one and the TPS problem can vary based on throttle position.