Shuts off when coming to a stop

LEOVOMENDEZ

MEMBER
1998 TOYOTA COROLLA
1.8L
4 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
192,000 MILES

Right before I can brake completely is when it happens as I can feel the brakes get hard. It has happened three times. All coming off of high speeds of 65+. The car turns on right away and drives off like nothing happened. If I drive with city speeds. Nothing happens. The car doesn’t shake or stumble or anything before shutting off. It just shuts off. I don’t even think it shuts off like when you turn the key because you can’t feel anything. What are the probable issues? Thank you.

5 Replies

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

I can almost guarantee that this is the torque converter is not releasing when coming to a stop. Basically as you slow down the torque converter clutch should start slipping and then when you are moving slow enough it completely disengages. If it does not then it will stall the engine. Think of this as if you had a manual transmission and you came a stop sign and left it in gear but did not push the clutch in. Once you were moving slow enough the engine would just stall. This is basically the same thing that is happening here.

I attached the process on how to test it but that requires removing it, I would just replace it or have it replaced if it were me.

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Wednesday, July 15th, 2020 AT 5:45 PM

LEOVOMENDEZ

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26 POSTS

Thank you. Very helpful. Could it be any other issue? Is it fine to drive at low speeds? Or will it also happen?

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Wednesday, July 15th, 2020 AT 6:00 PM

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

On older vehicles like this the torque converter normally only comes in at highway speeds so it is unlikely that it would happen at slower speeds. One way to test this would be if you have an Overdrive switch. It could be called Overdrive off switch and when it is pressed, you have an Overdrive off light on in the cluster. I attached the info on this.

If you turn the Overdrive off and then drive it at highway speeds and come to a stop when it normally would stall, it should not stall if it is the converter.

Unfortunately it can be other things but based on my experience this is the most likely cause if this happens after getting off the highway. I have seen a number of times on different vehicles.

Let me know if you have other questions and if it still does it when the Overdrive is off. If so, we can get into these other possible causes.

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Wednesday, July 15th, 2020 AT 7:11 PM

LEOVOMENDEZ

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26 POSTS

I do have the Overdrive button and I will let you know what happens when I turn it off. If that “solves” the issue, am I able to drive the car like that? Is it temporary? Long term? Is the converter a must fix? Thank you. Excuse all the questions.

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Wednesday, July 15th, 2020 AT 8:00 PM

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

Don't worry about all the questions. That is why we are here. These are all excellent questions.

You can drive like this but I would recommend trying to limit the highway driving if possible because the RPM's will be higher and you will burn through the gas very quickly and it is not the best to run that long at higher RPM.

It will be okay for around town driving. You probably will not even notice it. I would not allow it to go long term but it is okay to put off as long as you are able to drive as described above.