Hi folks. I have a 1999 hatchback GT thats starting to show some symptons of engine problems.

It has 108,000 miles, and just had a major tune up at around 106,000.

The problem is, maybe like 2-3 times a week, as soon as I turn the ignition, the car will fire right up, and almost immediately the RPM will drop to 0 and the engine will die. Sometimes it doesnt die right away, but the engine will struggle and the RPM will continue to drop to 0 and the engine will die anyways. This will happen over and over again unless I press down on the gas a little to keep the RPM up. After holding down the gas for maybe 20 seconds, I can let go and the car will idle fine and its all good from there.

Also, alot of times, the idle will be very very low. like around 400-500 rpm. I can feel the engine vibrating the entire car. After driving around for a little the idle will return back to around 1000 and everything will be fine. But sometimes if I press the gas too much too soon, the RPM will once again reach 0 and the engine will die.

any ideas what kinda problems I could be having? I would be very thankful for any kind of insight.

IAC, TPS, vaccum leak, Distrib coil failing, bad gas in tank??, fuel filter, fuel pump not giving enough, fuel press reg.

on the home page of this section in the stickies theres a thread to a pdf i think that tells you how to test the distrib coil with a multimeter to check for ohms hot and cold

I would clean the throttle body first, check vac lines, inspect IAC and TPS

yea sounds like an IAC

u said u had a major tune up?...what u mean by major tune up? i think its just a problem with your cold start, specially if u had a 'major tune up'. Or simply fine tune the idle, by stretching ur accelerator cable. sorry i don't know the exact english term for the 'stretching accelerator cable' is it the same thing as IAC?

thanks for the replies everyone!


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is this hard to do?? I've never really worked on cars before, this would be my first time.