My car won’t stay running. We’ve replaced the spark plugs, the air and fuel filter, the idle air control and beat on the catalytic converter (lol I know it’s bad but it did make a difference). Honestly I got the car for free, and I don’t love it but it is a necessity. I don’t want to through a bunch of money at it if it isn’t an easy fix. Any ideas?
“Won’t stay running while its in gear” doesn’t say nearly enough. There are lots of ways that a car stalls.
Please describe exactly what happens - at idle, when you put it in gear, when cold, when hot (if that makes a difference). If you have a tachometer, knowing the rpms while at idle & out of gear would be helpful.
At idle and cold it runs ok. I don’t have a tach unfortunately. It seems like when it warms up is when the problem happens. It ran ok for a little bit and then the problem started again. I have thought that it might be a vacuum leak but I have no idea where to start looking or how to go about that process.
“Please describe exactly what happens - at idle, when you put it in gear”
In other words: “I start the car and it…[fill in the blank]. Then I put it in gear and it…[fill in the blank]…I come to a stop sign and …etc.”
Either your engine is just running like crap & can’t handle the load when you put it in gear. Or your torque converter clutch could be stuck on & stalling the engine. These are two very different things and the first thing is for you to say enough for people to guess which it is.
Usually when an engine stalls when the vehicle is put into gear, there’s a problem with the fuel pressure.
Tester