I start the car and turn in reverse it stalls

ABERNATHY1968

MEMBER
1998 BUICK CENTURY
6 CYL
100,000 MILES

I have a buick century 98 when I start the car and turn in reverse it stalls but not often just at times and when I am driving to go faster at time not ofter it seems to loose a bit power and then when you push the gas on it it clear out.
also I smell gas fumes at times.

1 Reply

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

Does it only stall in reverse? Try putting the vehicle in neutral and then start the engine and drop it to drive and see if it stalls in any gear or just reverse.

If it stalls in any gear, then here is a guide that will help getting us started:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/stall-at-idle

However, we need to assume that we have an issue with the torque converter issue. Basically, what happens is when the converter gets stuck on, when you start the vehicle and put it in gear it will cut the engine off.

However, it sounds like you are able to get the vehicle started and drive it so we need to then check the base engine operation as well.

This means we need to start with checking for codes even if you have no check engine light on.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/checking-a-service-engine-soon-or-check-engine-light-on-or-flashing

Based on all this I suspect the issue is the purge valve is sticking open and it is causing the engine to flood and stall.

This means we need to check the purge by removing it and seeing if the valve inside is sticking. It will look like there is a large amount of chalky material inside of it which is the charcoal that gets broken down due to the canister having fuel in it.

Please see the info below on this and let us know what you find. Thanks

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