Ask an expert

After around a ten kilometre drive, once the engine has sufficiently heated up, the car is prone to stall while in sustained low idle. Often this will catch me out while I'm in slow moving traffic queues. Often the time limit for a low idle in "drive" is 5 mins. I'll restart the engine, then I'll have to put it in neutral(or "park") as putting it into drive will simply cause it to stall in a couple of seconds (essentially it's now getting worse). If I pump the gas immediately while in drive I can keep it going but once the first stall occurs it just can't idle any longer in "Drive". I recently replaced the ignition coils as those were an issue but the stalling seems to be something else. ---- One other interesting point is that there is also a slight fluctuation in the revs while idling. Every 3 seconds the car revs will just slightly dip in power for a moment. Could be linked perhaps?

Hi there,
It sounds like you may have an idle control or misfire problem, does it improve if you have the aircon on?
There could be a number of issues at play and the car would need to go to a workshop for investigation. You could have a vacuum leak, stuck thermostat, dirty air intake/ idle control solenoid, worn sprakplugs or leads ect.

Hi there thanks for the reply. One more thing it could be a side issue or could be linked, the fuel gauge when I got it had a few issues has only recently stopped working altogether, permanently sitting on full. Just thought I should mention.

Hi there,
Unless your car is running out of fuel, there is no connection. The gauge is linked to the fuel tank sender at the back of the car and pretty much nothing else.