AWD stalling at idle

[leadfoot6]

Hi guys, just after some advice. Our TL AWD, which we've had for more than 10 years, occasionally stalls when idling e.g. waiting at traffic lights. It just cuts out and you need to re-start it, but it re-starts straight away.

Over a 2 year period I had similar problems which got worse.....stalling more and more often until it became very very frequent and eventually dangerous.

It was the Air Flow Meter(AFM) which did ultimately show an error light on the dashboard.

A local mechanic plugged in his sensor and showed me the codes and gave me free advice - see TIP below.

2nd hand AFM 6 months ago.....not a single instance of stalling since.

You might be in the early stages of the AFM about to fail.

TIP>> If AFM does actually fail and the car wont restart, pull the AFM connector which will allow the car to be gently driven for a few days until you can source a replacement.

Cost $87.....Priceless.

[xenoAWD]

Thanks leadfoot, I'll look into this as well.

Did yours stall predominantly when stationary, or also when cruising?

Cheers

[leadfoot6]

It only ever seemed to stall on light throttle at low speeds when moving, not at cruising speeds where more throttle was used, or revs were up a bit even if on closed throttle.

On the final day, I got the check engine light on the dashboard first thing that morning, it was stalling continuously until I was able to coax it to higher speeds, at which point it did not stall.

But when back to idle or low speed, it started behaving very badly.

It was lucky I was able to coax it to the mechanic for the code readout.

I live in the country, so lower traffic density allowed me to "work around" the problem to some extent.

If this problem had have become bad in city traffic, it would have been a tow truck job.....until the mechanic told me to unplug the AFM sensor plug, which allowed me to drive gently for 3 days whilst waiting for the replacement sensor to arrive in the mail.

Whilst the sensor was unplugged, it did not stall once.