Kind of a long read, but please read and help me out guys!

I need your help guys. I already took it to my mechanic and he can't pinpoint the exact problem.


I drove my car last friday to work, and going to work was no problem. Then the issues begin:

When I went to lunch to Subway, I decided to floor it on third gear, after 3500 rpm the car kind of did a sharp stall and I had to downshift back to second and then third.

Leaving work after I got off the expressway, @ third gear the car just suddenly loses power and I have to wait until I go to a complete stop to restart the engine. Very embarrassing. While I'm getting the car to a comoplete stop I hear sounds from the muffler like a gun shooting noise....

Almost home from a red light, I shift to first, and then the car hesitates, shakes and dies. Have to restart. IDK what this is? Anyone have this problem?

I see it as four possibles:

one, maybe I shift a little bit too fast(doubt it because I'm not jerking the engine or tranny btw shifts)

two, bad injectors causing major misfire?

three, bad muffler, catalytic?

four, bad VTC?

Sorry for the long read, but I really need your help so I don't have to pay a mechanic to find out what the problem is. Thanks and God Bless.

 

how is your battery?
does the car idle smoothly and solidly?

 

Did you check the engine bay for anything obviously out of the ordinary (connections, vacuum hoses, etc.)?

 

I had a similar issue on another car (although it was a Buick). It turned out to be the crank sensor. Might be worth at least checking into...

 

First, check to see if there are any ECU codes (doubtful, but you should check).

Second, you will have to see if there is anything obvious (hoses, wires, connections, etc.)


One bad thing about these cars is that they are getting old and there are a lot of sensors and electronics that can malfunction. It's really tough to diagnose because the computers don't really help much like an OBD2 car. Unfortunately, you have to do a bit of deductive reasoning and trial-and-error replacement.

Did the car "stall" kind of electronically? Like it went from 3k rpm to dead while you were accelerating?

This sounds kind of like the problem members have had with bad coil packs. Mine did that, especially when I accelerated really hard. One of my rear coil packs was bad. Injectors and coil packs are common problems and a pretty good place to start.

 

other than needing a new muffler, it sounds and rides good. Even on idle. When I rev it up on neutral, no signs of misfire.

 

yeah, that's it. Before the problems started, I tried to floor it on third gear, the car did a sharp hesitation and I had to downshift.

After that when on 3rd, the engine would just die, and the rpm went to zero. I couldn't do anything but brake to a stop and restart the car. And then after five minutes at a light, putting it the first, the car jerked and died again. It's embarrasing and I want to take care of it.

 

With the car dying out while in motion it can be a number of things, such as a bad MAF, IACV, injectors, or injector plug/harness, coil packs. Def not 1, 3 or 4 from your list.