Will not stay running?

DEWILSON91966

MEMBER
1997 PONTIAC SUNFIRE
2.4L
4 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
220,000 MILES

When I go to start it it will run for a second then shut off. Blinkers, wipers, and radio work but it just cranks over. None of the dash lights come on. When I fiddle with blinkers and wiper switch for a while then the dash lights come back on and the car will start. It will be fine for awhile and then the same thing will happen again. The last time it wouldn’t start the only thing I had to do was pull the wiper switch towards me and the lights came right back on. Any idea on what could be causing this problem?

1 Reply

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

This is almost always the idle control valve is sticking. Basically this valve moves to allow the proper amount of air in to keep the engine running. When it starts and stalls that is normally because there is just enough air in the intake already to get the engine to fire but then the IAC does not allow enough air to continue to come in to keep it running so it stalls.

You can try and clean it if you want but I would just replace it.

Here are guides that will help with doing all of this:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-a-idle-air-control-valve-works

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/idle-air-control-valve-service

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-replace-an-idle-speed-control-motor-iac

Below is the info from the manual that will show where it is and how to replace it. This will help with removing it to clean it as well if you want to do that.

Please run through this and let us know if you have other questions.

Thanks

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