Intermittent engine stalling when humid outside

JKENN3070

MEMBER
2007 CHEVROLET MALIBU
2.2L
4 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
143,000 MILES

If the car sits for a couple days, it stalls when I depress the gas pedal or turn on the A/C. This problem only seems to happen during the spring and summer when it's humid outside. If I drive for about 20 minutes, the issue seems to resolve itself. There are no check engine codes when it happens. The car has no issues when it's cold outside. Dealer replaced mass airflow sensor and throttle body, but the issue still persists. What is causing this to happen?

5 Replies

ASEMASTER6371

MECHANIC
52,797 POSTS

Good morning,

The dealer has covered the basics by replacing the most common issues but if they were bad, it would have coded.

A common issue for this is the EGR valve sticking open and creating a large vacuum leak. Do you know if they checked this?

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/engine-stalls

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

Does the engine start right back up and you can keep going?

Roy

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Thursday, July 18th, 2019 AT 5:19 AM

JKENN3070

MEMBER
3 POSTS

Yes, it always restarts. There are no check engine codes. Problem arises if it rains a lot and the car sits or high humidity while it sits. The problem usually resolves after driving for about 20 to 30 minutes.

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Thursday, July 18th, 2019 AT 5:56 AM

ASEMASTER6371

MECHANIC
52,797 POSTS

Okay, you need someone to drive the car and have them experience the issue first hand so they know what direction to go for the diagnostics.

This could also be a crank sensor.

Roy

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Thursday, July 18th, 2019 AT 7:07 AM

JKENN3070

MEMBER
3 POSTS

The experts at my local GM dealer are clueless as to why it stalls. I don't have any faith in their troubleshooting abilities. I Googled and came up with the CPS being the possible issue, however I don't want to just blindly start replacing parts with the hope of fixing it.

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Thursday, July 18th, 2019 AT 7:43 AM

ASEMASTER6371

MECHANIC
52,797 POSTS

You need a shop that will do a proper diagnostic.

Google has ideas only and is not a real life issue.

I agree with the crank sensor. That's what I posted. A good tech with an advanced scan tool to monitor the activity of the sensor especially when the event happens to see if it is the sensor dropping out.

Roy