1990 Montero LWB LS, 3.0

Ok. When I start my car in the morning, it idles normal, and no problem starting it. As i drive the car, and it gets warmer, the idle drops to around 300rpms, barely staying on. What happend was I parked the car at a Home Depot, and when I got out of the store about 15 minutes later, I started the car, and droped to 300rpms, and as I was backing up, it stalled on me.( All the lights were still on in the car, but I couldnt turn the steering wheel or press the Brake down. ) When I tried to start it up, it started, but droped back down to 0 and stalled. I had to keep my foot on the gas and brake to get the car to backup, and keep my foot on the gas and brake as I shifted it from reverse to drive. Once it got going it went back to idling at the 300rpms. This has happened numerous times. Maybe fuel is having a hard time getting through somewhere? Where do I start?

Thanks! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Could be a number of things... Once it's running at speed (not idling, but driving down the road) does it run OK? Does it restart immediately once it has stalled? If it restarts OK, and runs OK at speed I would look at the electrical first before going down the fuel-supply route. I had a similar problem with my Raider a few years ago -- it would run fine, but idle roughly when stopped, and would sputter and choke (but wouldn't just stall out). It turned out to be a cracked rotor in the distributor that was providing an intermittant short to ground. I'd check plugs, wires, cap, rotor. Then I would probably turn to the IAC (Idle Air Control) motor and check the coil resistances to see if they are in spec. You should be able to search past posts for more information on all of these -- especially the IAC. There's lots of troubleshooting info, and lots of folks to help with it <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Another good data point for us... where are you located? Outside temperature can play havoc with some of the sensors if they're going bad...

Eric W.

About 3 weeks ago, my car wouldnt start at all, and I had the distributor replaced by the dealership. But as they were figureing out why my car wasnt starting, they instepcted the wires and caps, so im pretty sure that the car is OK in that area.

OK, so the dealership had it running OK 3 weeks ago once the distributor was replaced? I'd still pull the cap and check the condition of the rotor and look at the condition of the cap yourself. Signs of arcing? Then I'd go the IAC route next. There's been some recent posts about problems with the ECU as well. While it may be a fuel problem, I suspect it is somewheres in the electrical system. Hopefully others more knowledgeable then myself will chime in here soon.

Eric W.

If it was a fuel supply problem severe enough to affect idle speed, you can bet it would really affect running speed when the engine demands even more fuel. Could also be a vacuum leak, in fact check your brake booster to engine vacuum line. You stated the pedal was very hard to press. The brake booster should hold some reserve of vacuum for a couple of power assisted stops with the engine off. When checking the brake booster vacuum hose, disconnect both ends and inspect it thoroughly. Stick your thumb over one end (engine side) and try to suck on the other end and create a vacuum and make sure it's holding vacuum as well. On my 2.6L, the engine side of the hose looked perfect from the outside, but once I disconnected it and looked inside, it was obviously bad. The whole inner hole was cracked everywhere and hard as a rock.