NEED HELP! Car Stalls

[tky2sol]

Hi all

I need some help. Just earlier, I try to go out to lunch and I could not start my car without some aid. When I turn the ignition, the car will not start. I have to step on the gas pedal to start the car. Once the car is started, as I slowly release the gas pedal, the car will die. This has never happened before. Can anyone give me an idea as to what may cause this abnormal behavior? Also where should I start looking for the problem? btw, when I get the car running with aid from my holding the gas pedal, there is NO Check Engine light on, meaning there's no error code thrown at me. Of course, after I let go, all the light went on, Check Engine...Battery...blah blah blah.

Please help.

2000 5S-FE Automatic. Engine mods only drop in TRD filter.

[tky2sol]

Update.

Just walked over to a local mechanic shop and the guy was nice enough to walk back with me to check out the problem. Drove my car over to the shop for a quick and easy diagnosis cause the mechanic had an idea what was wrong. He got a screw driver and stuck it into where the idle controller sensor is and give it afew smacking. Started the car and voila, starts right up! Conclusion is the idle controller sensor is malfunctioning and needs replacement. Just the piece alone is going to cost me 240 so plus labor, it'll be roughly around 3benjamins. Seems like this problem occurs alot with 5S-FE engines. Happened to Kenny's 5spd Camry and the mechanic fixed many many Camrys with the same problem..

Anyways, anyone wanna throw in some input, personal experiences, that'd be great.

-Tony

[indiglosolara]

Yup.. its a common problem on the 5s-fe engine camry's.... its kind of a wear and tear item so can't really blame it. with all the miles racked up on a car its bound to happen one day....

[HKSV6SLE]

my old solara had a similar problem.

[thealkimo]

i used to have that problem too and then i sprayed some carb cleaner into the intake manifold and the problem seems to have disappeared...

[Turbosolara]

I am sorry i couldnt help more, i never had the problem!

[WTF??]

Idle Air Control (IAC) Valve is pretty common now

I got hit with it, so did kondo and several others to include you... it was frustrating!

And as Thealkimo said, cleaning the throttle body is a good idea... theres a thread in the DIY section about how to do it

[2000silverstreak]

How old is your car and mileage? That should be under warranty.

That has happened to me too but not on my Solara.
For me it would just seem to search for the correct idle, then stall when it got too low. But that was on a mustang and it was covered under warranty.

Good luck with the fix!

[tky2sol]

Thanks to those who replied. Just got my car back today afternoon. The mechanic had the valve replaced. I just had a weird thought...maybe and just maybe Toyota "purposely" design that valve poorly and slapped on a expensive price tag to it.. Hmmm... Anyways, the shop mechanic was also nice enough to flush my radiator clean and replace the radiator fluid cause the color was near black. If anybody is in the Temple City and want a real good servicing, Foreign Motors. Ask for Zack.

-Tony