Same old question

[sandb937]

Let me start by saying that i have tried searching and i am really not sure of what anything really is. The problem that i am having is my car keeps stalling. The one thing that i havent seen anyone put down is the lights in the panel that come on. The one that i see is yellow and looks almost like a house with three or four vertical bars inside of it, it is just under the tach on a 91 talon. It happens mainly when pressing the clutch to switch gears (car kinda jumps a little then stalls) and happened a couple of times when in neutral with parking break on and clutch let out. I think that from what i have found out by reading that it could be either the ecu or icu (or something like that), but my problem is that i have know idea how to check either one of them. I am a novice when it comes to working on cars but not afraid to do anything. i just dont want to get the run around from a dealer. So if you can reccomend what it might be and how i can go about checking them, in detail please, and maybe an idea of how much it might cost, would be great!!!!!

 

[project4g63]

Well as for the light I believe Defiant usually says it best with this:

 

[sandb937]

hummm!!!! not really funny, but thanks anyway

 

[TalonR]

My car was doing the same thing with the light...I believe that it is the low coolant light..Look in the owner's manual it should say..As for mine I took it up to the mountains and the car over-heated, but after that it went away and the light never came back on.......Not an answer, but as for the light it is........

 

[sandb937]

well i dont have an owners manual to check but i did check the coolant about 2 hours before it started stalling. the level was fine. the car has never over heated.



as a side note though, i forgot to mention that the car smelled like it was running rich, iguess, lets just say that it had a real pungent odor, seamed like it was comming from the exhausht right before it would stall.

 

[oldman]

http://www.vfaq.com/index-main.html look under electrical for ECU.

 

[oldman]

ECU cost:$1000 new from dealer, $450 rebuilt from dealer, $200 used from junk yard, $120 used from www.DSMtrader.com

 

[sandb937]

well that really help out a lot. the only thing is in the artical it mentioned that you would hear a clicking noise comming from the dash. but i did not hear any clicking noise. do you think that it still could be the ecu problem?

 

[oldman]

I don't know for sure but I did'nt hear any clicks on my either and it was the ECU. Check it anyway and change the capacitor even if it's not the ECU, it's pretty easy. I picked up the caps at a local electrical parts store for about 77c each..

 

[sandb937]

would i have to buy the soddering gun or is that something that i can lease? also do you think that it might, could be something else

 

[oldman]

I borrowed a soddering gun from work. I don't think they cost much.
My car was having idle problem and dies when I put it in nuetral. I played around with the ISC and raised it to 800rpm. that kinda solved the problem. sometime it comes back sometims it does'nt. Twice the car reves to 6000rpm on its own while I'm drving, I had to shut the car off and pull over. restart it and tab on padal and it would come down to 800rpm. a month later my car died , no spark.....ECU. Is your problem consistant?, does it die all the time you put in nuetral? A guy from CA told me these are syptems of a ECU going bad. If you act now you may stil clean the board and chang caps and save your ECU. But 1st thing 1st,take out the ECU and see if has leaking caps, see if smells like your girlfriend

 

[sandb937]

thanks for the help oldman. As far as now the problem does not seam to be real consistant. I did happen 3 or 4 times when my wife was driving it. Mainly when se pressed the clutch to switch gears. it happened once to me in neutral. both times it seamed to happen when the air was on. I ran it all this morning to work with the air off and it seamed to be running fine. So as of yet it still seams to be sparatic.

 

[oldman]

You're welcome. good luck.

 

[sandb937]

i was just reading a web site that said he following:

Symptoms:
Any idle problem (high idle, low idle, stalling...) may be the result of a troubled ISC. If you have a sudden idle problem, this is a good place to start.

i was wondering if this may be a cause or if i should still consider the problem to be the ecu. is there a way that i can check these

 

[oldman]

One thing at a time. Check the ECU first, if it's leaking, you can see it and smell it. I don't know how to test ISC, only know how to change it. Someone else would have to help you with that.