I was hoping that someone might be able to shed some light on my recently acquired problem. The other day when we were driving home from errands we pulled off the off-ramp and our car died. We started it up with no problem but as soon as we put it in gear it died again. We tried about four times to no avail. We ended up pushing it a block and by the time we got it to the parking lot and put it in gear again, there was no problem, we ended up driving home with no more problems.

It was very hot outside at the time and although the gauges all read fine, my brother said that it is possible that it could be the torque converter. The car is a 94 cavalier, with a V-6 and automatic transmission.

Any ideas out there...I would really appreciate your expertise.

Thanks

Sorta sounds like a lockup converter not unlocking....

Yep, that's the infamous TCC Lockup Solenoid. When all is said and done it's about $50 to fix it yourself. No big deal, they all go out on those tranny's, I know mine did.

Do a search and you'll find instructions.

Thank you everyone for your replies, hopefully we'll get this fixed real soon.

Let me know if you need more help on the fix.

Well, we unhooked the TCC Selenoid to see if that was the problem, and it hasn't died since. However, maybe this is a different problem, but now when you come to a stop (in gear) it doesn't keep an even idle. It revs up and down for about 20 seconds until it finally steadies out. Any ideas on this problem?

We were thinking maybe it was the Throttle Positioning Sensor or something like that.

I appreciate anyone's input as we are not very compentent when it comes to cars! :)

Thanks again, for your help on the torque converter.