VN stalling when selecting R or D

[J_D]

Hi all.

I am having a prob with my VN stalling. It stalls when I select gear and it does it when its hot and cold. I dont have the steering turned at the time. The only way I can take off after selecting gear is if I hold a few revs on it with the accelerator. Ive looked on here for answers and have done the following to try and fix the problem, cleaned throttle body and IAC valve, checked for error codes (only got code 12, all good) and checked the brake booster for leaks. It does idle rough but thats normal for these cars ive heard. The car doesnt stall any other time, like taking off from lights etc only when selecting gear. The trans was rebuilt 3 years ago and has no delay in changing so I dont think this would be the problem. When I cleaned the IAC valve I just put carby cleaner down the holes and didnt remove the valve as I didnt have a torx driver to get it off and it didnt look that dirty. Do you think I need to take the valve off to clean it properly or is that sufficient to clean it.

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

[pandaman]

Off the top of my head I'd say your IAC valve aint doing what it should. Might be worth taking a closer look at it. It could also be a fuel problem, but lets keep it simple first hey?

[J_D]

Thanks. Ill need to buy a torx driver to get it off, would you happen to know what size it is.

[pandaman]

Thanks. Ill need to buy a torx driver to get it off, would you happen to know what size it is.

Sorry mate, I've never had to take mine off. Ya might wanna wait for some other opinions as well, It's entirely possible that there is something very obvious that I haven't thought of. Supercrap auto is good for cheap tools, as long as you don't expect them to last too long. I've been meaning to get a set of torx bits as well actually, and a set of ratcheting ring spanners and a quarter inch drive torque wrench etc. etc.

[Nikkojoe]

Take it off and give it a good clean. Also gotta make sure its adjusted right otherwise it will stall.

Also i would reset the car by removing the eng comp fuse in the engine bay to clear the computer memory. Put it back in, make sure everything is connected and on then start the car. Make sure that when you start it, rev it to 2500-3000rpm for 30 seconds to reset the IAC valve. When you are rev'ing it, you will notice the rpm start to drop (that tells you the IAC valve is adjusting), so give it some more revs to maintain 2500-300rpm.

It should work, i have done it a few times now. Just followed the info out of gregories manual....

[pandaman]

Take it off and give it a good clean. Also gotta make sure its adjusted right otherwise it will stall.

Also i would reset the car by removing the eng comp fuse in the engine bay to clear the computer memory. Put it back in, make sure everything is connected and on then start the car. Make sure that when you start it, rev it to 2500-3000rpm for 30 seconds to reset the IAC valve. When you are rev'ing it, you will notice the rpm start to drop (that tells you the IAC valve is adjusting), so give it some more revs to maintain 2500-300rpm.

It should work, i have done it a few times now. Just followed the info out of gregories manual....

Actually, you don't need to hold 3000rpm for 30 seconds, ten is apparently as much as is needed according to the gregory's manual I've got here. A lot of people actually just let it work out it's happy position at idle by itself and it tends to do ok. If you do a search for IAC adjustment there's a thread from a few months back where someone explained what the 3000rpm thing was about, I think it was greenfoam who found a reference to 3000rpm in the memcal somewhere? The only reason the IAC valve should need actual physical adjustment is if the pintle is in a seriously wrong position which shouldn't be possible unlesss it's been taken off and installed wrongly previously. So if cleaning and resetting it doesn't work, it's probably something else that is the problem.

[Nikkojoe]

Yeah sorry its 10seconds, got too carried away with the 3 from 3000rpm lol

Its always a good idea to check it. They can sometimes stuff up and move into an incorrect position (my vn for refference, would always move above 28mm after i always made it less than 28mm). Also, bought my new IAC valve from holden, checked it and it was more than 28mm. Adjusted and installed it and it worked like a charm.

Also he hasn't taken the IAC valve out yet, so it could possibly be clogged up and may be getting jammed. If that fails, then i would possibly check fuel filter....

[pandaman]

Yeah sorry its 10seconds, got too carried away with the 3 from 3000rpm lol

Its always a good idea to check it. They can sometimes stuff up and move into an incorrect position (my vn for refference, would always move above 28mm after i always made it less than 28mm). Also, bought my new IAC valve from holden, checked it and it was more than 28mm. Adjusted and installed it and it worked like a charm.

Also he hasn't taken the IAC valve out yet, so it could possibly be clogged up and may be getting jammed. If that fails, then i would possibly check fuel filter....

yeah, I have heard of new ones from Holden having the pintle pre-set too far out come to think of it. I'm not so sure it would be the fuel filter, because that should also cause issues when he gives it a belt from a standing start, can't hurt to change it though, it's a 15 dollar item and ten minutes work if you're in a hurry.

[slayer]

whats a IAC valve

[pandaman]

whats a IAC valve

It's pretty much a more advanced version of a choke controlled by the computer, it controls airflow to give a smooth idle.

[slayer]

kewl where is it located as im havn a simular prob with my car

[PaRaDoX]

mine used to idle crap and stall, using a chip foam made for me, he increased the idle rpm, dosnt do it anymore

also idles @800rpm not 400

[vnnickvn]

a friend of mine had this problem on a vl and had to get his fuel pump and oxygen sensors re done.. cost like $800 all up but no more stalling.. had a similiar problem in my vn, but it only happend rarely so i never got it fixed

[J_D]

Thanks everyone for the comments. I reset the computer and held it at 3 grand for 10secs which seem to have worked.

[Youngblood]

reading the book, one of the first things it says is to check battery terminals, earthing points, etc. try cleaning terminals and battery posts and let us know how thats works, got this problem on my car but cant be bothered fixin it yet, will get around to it soon.....i hope.

[J_D]

When I got the car the earth strap to the coil packs was undone and the one from the battery to the body was snapped. The idle improved a lot when I fixed those but was still stalling and resetting the computer fixed the problem.

[Youngblood]

AH...well atleast we know now that it does have a fair impact on idle having poor earth. Ill do my battery first then computer second, just so i know what the problem was. cheers

[seveprim]

um I would pull the kick panel on the passenger side find the ecu diag plug ... with 2 cents worth of wire (see gregorys manual) and find out what the ecu flashes up .. it will tell you if any sensor is catus, much easier then guessing, it sounds electrical... I be checking the gear shift sensor(forgot the tech name but think it is start inhibitor) , even thou it shouldnt effect once ya started but as the problem is gears I wonder ?