1996 Chrysler LHS, stalls intermittently at slow down or stop.

Tiny
KEITHVSG
  • MEMBER
  • 1996 CHRYSLER LHS
  • 126,222 MILES
Car starts and runs well, cold or hot, level or grade, plenty of power all instruments indicate normally, all ancilliaries operate normally, no check engine light. Intermittently the engine stalls when slowing down, straight ahead or turning or stopping. Immediate symptoms are that the oil pressure light illuminates, the tach drops to zero and of course no power or throttle response. The engine restarts without problems after a stall and runs with its normal smoothness. I believe that the problem is electrical or power-train computer related, since the same symptoms have been demonstrated with two different new, factory remanufactured, engines.

This problem has been happening for over two years. The car has been in and out of the local Chrysler main dealer's shop many times during that period. In every case the dealer reports no stalling on diagnostic drives, unable to reproduce the problem, no fault found, no error codes set. The car has just had a new factory re-manufactured engine fitted, within 62 miles on the new engine I have already experienced one incident of engine stall when stopping from low speed at a car park exit.

I'm not a lead footed or heavy handed driver, that's for fools, I adhere to Stirling Moss's dictum that the mark of the good driver is how smoothly he or she can drive while proceeding at a speed appropriate to weather, road, journey and traffic conditions.

I really like this car, it's the nicest US designed and built car that I have had in many decades of driving and I don;t want to part with it; but this unpredictable stalling is making me very uncomfortable in respect of safety in traffic. I'm very unhappy with the inability of the Chrysler main dealer to diagnose and fix the problem, even while I sympathise with his difficulties in locating an infrequent, intermittent problem. The vehicle has been very well maintained during its life and still looks like new, so the problem is not the result of neglect.
Any help that you may care to offer will be appreciated.
Thursday, September 5th, 2013 AT 3:06 PM

3 Replies

Tiny
HMAC300
  • MECHANIC
  • 48,601 POSTS
Check your fuel pressure with a gauge as you didn't mention that and then clean throttle plate with choke cleaner on both sides andiac hole if you have one. Make sure all duct work from air cleaner has no holes in itnor incorrectly installed.
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Thursday, September 5th, 2013 AT 4:45 PM
Tiny
KEITHVSG
  • MEMBER
  • 2 POSTS
Fuel pressure has been checked and is within specification limits, no fuel pressure leak-down observed. Ignition system has been checked, no fault found. Throttle bodies have been cleaned and synchronised. All induction duct work is correctly installed and has no leaks.
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Friday, September 6th, 2013 AT 11:28 AM
Tiny
HMAC300
  • MECHANIC
  • 48,601 POSTS
There are only a couple of things I can suggest one is a wiggle test on crank sensor as it may be making poor contact and cutting out as well as cheing resistance of crank sensor or removing it and cleaning it then reinstalling. Another is what they call DI standing for drive index which means some of the fuel grades that people use is the wrong type. So the pain in the butt that this would be would to try different fuels meaning brands and if the car calls for mid or premium if you are using that to try a different brand as well as grade. If you live out west keep away from the 15% alcohol grade fuels as they will evaporate faster and cause driveability problems similar to what you are having. These are ok to use in flex fuel vehicles but i'm sure yours is not. Other than that I can't think of anything that would cause this unless there is a some type of connection/corrosion problem at pcm.
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Friday, September 6th, 2013 AT 12:05 PM

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