So I’m driving my 2002 dodge neon, just over 80k miles on it and I step on the brake and it kinda shudders noisily. It just started recently, and there wasn’t any major shifts in temperature at the time. Today, i step on the brake and it shudders to a complete stop. everythings still running but it won’t go. I turn it off and on again and its shuddery but I get to where i was wanting to go. I head back to my hotel and it worked perfectly, well there was a slight shudder on the way out of the parking lot but I pushed the brake down quick and a little harder than usual and it worked fine. My dad (not a mechanic but is rather good at fixing car problems) has no idea whats up. he checked the brakes and all the fluids. he even replaced the brake fluid.
He should clean the idle air control valve and the throttle body. The throttle body is probably plastic, so no harsh chemicals should be used. I like to use electronics cleaner on plastics (since they have to be plastic safe), but a little warm water and dishsoap or the like would be fine.
As a test, he should also pull the vacuum line from the brake booster, cap it off and see if that changes anything. If he does this, the car should not be driven on the road as the brakes won’t work right. Driveway or big, non-crowded parking lot.
When you said that everything was still running, are you sure about that? My gut feel is that the engine stalled.
Does your check-engine light come on at any point during these episodes? If so, you’d want to have the codes read, which in most states can be done for free at an auto parts store.
The radio and air seemed to still be running… and I didn’t see the check engine light come on. Although the car was pretty still, no hum of the engine at all.