Engine occasional stalls

My car recently started giving trouble. Some times whenever I start the engine it starts and then dies if I try to take Revese or break. I can see that it does not idle and I can see the needle at below and vibrates fast.

This happens only some time say once in 2-3 weeks. Once I start driving, it runs fine and no issues.

My local mechanic told me that it could be air flow that butterfly release some thing like that.

I had put new battery. So, it should not be battery.

It is not like it happens only in the morning. Once it happened after I start in the morning drove and parked only for 30mins. When I came back, it started to give me the same problem. I just have to start couple of times, until I am done with the reverse thing. Once I am D, push the gas pedal and runs fine, it does not die at all, while running.

Hope this info is enough.

My car vibrates really bad when I idle. It's really bad when I'm in drive. When I put it in neutral it's not as bad. When I excelerate it some times sputters and acts like it's gonna die. When I put it in reverse it does the same thing. My car is a 1998 Toyota Camry.

My car alarm has shut down my car and I don't know how to start it.

Engine stalls when waiting for redlight. So we replaced the IAC (new one from dealer), it worked for a few days then stalls again, seemingly at random.
Then the local mechanic replaced the fuel filter and fuel pump (new) because the pressure was not up to par.

Then after a few days the engine stalls again. The symptom is always engine behaves perfectly when driving, but stall occured when the car is stopping. Usually the engine just plainly stalls, but a few times the rev will increase to 1500-2000rpm, hang at that range for 30 sec, then rpm dropped and the engine stalled.

Twice, the engine stalls when I engage the AC, but I can always restart the engine afterwards. And the AC compressor appears normal with good cold air and no abnormal noise. But after this two time stall, it did not stall again regardless how often I cycle AC on and off within the next 30 minutes.

I am puzzled.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Jacob and Nickolas:
I apologize for the late reply. I some how did not see your email.
1. Vaccum appeared to be normal.
2. EGR valve appeared to be normal. But how to easily check the EGR valve?

By the way, the symptom was as follows:
1. Highway driving was no problem. Engine is smooth and powerful as a normal engine.
2. Idle appear to be normal if the engine does not stall.
3. When engine stalls, the idle rpm sometimes will shoot up to 1500-2000 rpm before dropping back and stall. But I also have observed the engine just stalls without raising rpm.
4. The engine stalls only during idle, oftentimes when the brake was applied. I thought the vaccum booster may have a leak, but it does not appear to be the case since idel was smooth most of the time. I started suspect Throttle Position Sensor (TPS).
5. I even changed the EFI relay, but did not make any difference,
6. There was NO CEL (Check Engine Light).
7. Could the fuel pressure regulator that is bad?

Thanks

eric

I do have a handheld vaccum pump that has built-in gage. Do I just connect the pump inlet hose to the vaccum brake booster and start pumping out the air and see if vaccum holds?

Sorry, it took me more than a week since I was out of town for a week. I checked the power brake vaccum booster while the engine was still warm. The vaccum booster appeared to be OK, holding steady vaccum at 15" at least. Also, engine itself has steady vaccum. I used the MityVac handheld tester to perform the above test.

OK, I will look into the fuel pressure thing since I have a fuel pressure gauge. I had my 86 BMW 528e fuel pressure regulator went south on me once. But the symptom was engine bucking, hesitation much more constantly. But for this Camry, the engine ran just like a normal engine, you could drive it on freeway for an hour and there wouldn't a problem. So I kind of suspecting the problem lied elsewhere.

Also, since the engine dies when fully warmed up, could temperature sensor played a role? I even reasoned that if the temperature sensor was bad, the engine will run really rough since the ECU will be metering wrong quantity of fuel.

Also, check engine light came on recently with P1133 (oxygen sensor?) And P0110 (air temperature sensor?). But neither would likely cause the engine to die like that.

Instead trying to test the fuel pressure (when engine stalls), would it be easier to just swap the fuel pressure regulator? Since the fuel pump and filter both had been replaced, the only thing that could affect fuel pressure is the regulator.

Is the pressure regulator located at one end of the fuel rail? Is it a Bosch type similar to those used in other vehicles?

Another thought before checking fuel pressure:
1. If fuel pressure unstable, it should have reflected during freeway driving, too, right? Since that was not the case, I sort feel the fuel pressure may not be the culprit.
2. The engine stalls during idle, even though the OBD-II indicated that P1133 or P0110, but either of the sensor should not be a show stopper that causes engine to install without exhibited some sustained, rough idling. So I sort rule out this two as root causes.
3. How about TPS? Since engine idle will flutuate before stalling, could TPS play a role?
4. Finally, could ignition play a role?

Thanks

Well, here is the final result:
For this particular Camry engine stall, the problem was finally traced down to TPS and Coolant Temperature Sensor. After both were replaced, the Check Engine Light extinguished, and the car is running normally.

Apparently the TPS was not sending the right signal to the ECU consistently, so is the temperature sensor. So ONLY during idle, the ECU sometimes sensed the TPS indicating the throttle was "opened". When ECU goosed the gas a little, the engine RPM shot up to 1500rpm, then ECU quickly sensed (guess it must be through the O2 sensor) the gas was too rich, then backed off (way off), since the throttle was closed to begin with, there was not enough fuel air to sustain the idle, and the engine stalled.

Restarting was difficult because the temperature sensor was not working. And VOM measurement showed the resistance was not right, either.

So guess replacing the ISC and the fuel pump was not quite correct.

So glad I found this thread! I have been experiencing the EXACT same symptoms with my 1997 Camry, and have replaced fuel pump and filter, IAC valve, tested EFI relay, checked fuel system pressure, checked EGR and all vacuum lines and ran a can of SeaFoam through the throttle body, all in vain. I've been pulling my hair out and losing sleep trying to figure out why my car stalls random and inconsistently at stop lights while idling in drive, but runs fine at other speeds. Thank you both EHUANG99 and JACOBANDNICKOLAS for chronicling your troubles/solutions, and for leaving them on here to be found! I've literally watched every video on youtube about Camry idling problems and read articles all over the internet, but this thread seems to have solved my problems and my engine is back to running smooth, all for a total of $53 for both sensors. Thanks again!