stalling

[newuser1990]

I'm currently looking into buying a 2005 corolla and had a few questions. First, the current ower says that he has issues with the car stalling after he drives it, when he comes to a stop. Could this be due to a bad o2 sensor or is it a bigger problem all together ?then where is the o2 sensor located so it can be replaced? A picture and a little advice would be most appreciated. Are there ay easybixes. I am a boke college kid trying to help out my family with this car.

[sarsman45]

Does he have problems starting her up? It sounds like a really dirty throttle body/blocked air intake from the engine filter (or a combo of both) or fuel filter/pump issues.

To check the throttle body, you need to remove the air intake hose connecting the throttle body and the engine air filter box. If the throttle body plate is black as night, then it needs to be cleaned as carbon deposits can mess with the idle of the engine. Also, if the previous owner didn't change the filter, have him pay for a new one before you get it. But if he doesnt even have an engine air filter, do not buy the car. The filter is there to prevent rocks, dirt, etc from entering the engine during air/fuel mixture. Anything other than air will/could mess up the combustion chamber.



Usually O2 sensor problems throw up error codes (Check engine light) and only screw around with the mixture of gas/air ratio.

Need more concise info to help.



also, to TN

[newuser1990]

To my knowledge there is no problem starting up the car. Where can I locate the filters you suggest I check ? And wt o u recommend to clean them with?

[sarsman45]

The air filter is in the upper half of the driver side next to the fuse box. Its a giant-ish black box held by, IIRC, 10mm bolts. You loosen those and pull the upper air box to check the engine air filter. New filters are white and gradually get darker over time and you would replace them every 15-30K miles, depending on what the car has been driving through.

The throttle body is accessible if you follow the black box's hose towards the engine where it meets up with a silver/aluminum body (this is the Throttle body). Loosen the clamp connecting the hose and throttle body using a Philips head and pull off the upper air box w/ the hose (make sure all connections are free before this as you can rip out more expensive hoses from the car). You will see a butterfly valve that may or may not be clean (clean is copper-ish color and will get dirtier as carbon deposits adhere to the butterfly plate.

Take a bottle of Throttle Body/ Carb cleaner (make sure its engine safe and read the instructions too!) and a toothbrush/cloth to clean the valve and surrounding area (don't spray plastics as this stuff will destroy it). To access the other side of the TB (don't do this if you don't think you are able to) you need to turn the key onto the on position and place a heavy object on the accelerator pedal to open the valve as this model is a fly-by-wire system and will not open by pushing on the valve (which will most likely break the valve). Wipe it down and allow to air dry a few minutes and re-assemble the system.

When you start it up, it may take longer to get it to turn over as the cleaner is flooding the system so you may need to step on the accelerator to force more air into the system before it starts. The car will idle/vibrate funny for ~20 minutes before the system gets the cleaner out. Hopefully this will help the stalling issue as the fuel pump/filter system is stuff I wont touch because of the hazards involved in taking out and checking the system.

Hope this helps, and if you need more info, just ask and search this site as there are more experienced DIYers and mechanics than me.

[newuser1990]

Ok that is extremely helpful. This will be my project on christmas. One more thing. Do I get the carbon cleaner in the actual tb?

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[sarsman45]

Best thing to do is to get CRC Throttle Body and Air Intake Cleaner at like Autozone/O'Reileys/etc and spray onto a cloth first and rub off the TB sides first. Go easy on spraying it inside the TB as too much will really flood the engine, but in my experience I've never had problems with spraying inside the TB. Just dont spray into the engine through the TB and only go for problem areas and work from there. A can of TB cleaner and go for 4-8 cars if you are liberal with it.


Also, you can clean the MAF sensor while you are working on the air intake system. This will require a different bottle designed for the MAF sensor (located by the air box on top) and will require a philips head to take off 2 screws. Read all instructions on the can, as you dont want to f- this up (a MAF sensor is over $100).

Take it out, spray down the sensor in the inside (2 resistors IIRC so be careful) and let it air dry (20 mins to be sure) and then put it back in. There are threads all over about TB cleaning and MAF cleaning. Using TB cleaner on a MAF sensor is not a good idea as the cleaner will eat at the plastic and may mess up the electronics in the sensor itself.

[newuser1990]

Thank you so much, ill be working on the car this up coming weekend. I will let you know how it goes. Once again thank you so much. Hopefully this is the problem and I'll be behind the whell of another corolla on Christmas :-)