With less than 40K miles this car stalls occasionally while idling. I would like to get an idea of what is happening BEFORE I take it in for repairs as I am a 77 year old senior woman on a very limited income. I don''t want to get ripped off. Thanks.

 

Based upon this very limited information I would hazard a guess that the battery was recently disconnected and the car''s computer wasn''t subsequently properly retrained and/or there is a vacuum leak. Neither of these problems should be difficult/expensive to fix.

A little more information might be helpful, e.g.:

Did this stalling at idle just start happening spontaneously or was it precipitated by some other event?

Is the "service engine soon" light illuminated?

 

Thank you. Yes the service engine soon light is illuminated. Can you tell we what kind of service this indicates is needed when that light comes on.





Just stalls spontaneously. Due to an illness it wasn''t driven for about 2 years. But has been driven during the past year.





Good to know what it might be all about before taking it in.

 

Is the light on continuously? This would indicate a continuous, rather than an intermittent, problem. Anyway, the fact that the light is illuminated at all means that the vehicle''s computer has detected a problem with one or more emissions-related sensors. If you go to a local parts store, such as Autozone, they''ll read the malfunction code(s) for free. Call one and ask.

My guess is code 45, running rich, probably caused by a vacuum leak, but knowing the actual code(s) would narrow the range of possibilities.

When was the battery last disconnected? I suspect the computer may not have been correctly retrained, a problem that would be compounded by a vacuum leak.

Good luck.