'99 ZX2 dies when you press the brake

[retsigerlehcar]

I'll give you the recent history of this car. Several months ago on the way home, the car instantly overheated and died. We towed it home and it would still start, but was very rough. At that time we replaced the head gasket, along with several other gaskets, and found out the manifold was cracked so we replaced it also. It had a leak in a water line, that was fixed also. I'm not 100% sure what else my husband has replaced other than spark plugs and little things like that. But we got it running again. OH, we also replaced the entire exhaust, because it had also been torn off by an idiot that dropped it off the back of a trailer.

So after we got it running again, my husband noticed a lot of gunk in the antifreeze. They flushed the radiator and found that it was clogged really bad. But after the flush they were only able to get about 1/3rd of the amount of antifreeze in it. It seems to me like it must still be clogged but I'm not sure about that. I don't know if any of that has anything to do with our most recent problem, but thought I would put that on here just in case.

Now, after the car warms up it dies everytime the brake is pressed. If you are able to press the clutch, brake and give it a little gas all at the same time, it will stay on. Anybody have any ideas about what else is wrong with this car? It's a 5 speed, 200k miles, we've owned it for 5 yrs and never had troubles before. It has been moderately maintained as far as oil changes, etc.

[450HP]

Originally Posted by retsigerlehcar

So after we got it running again, my husband noticed a lot of gunk in the antifreeze. They flushed the radiator and found that it was clogged really bad. But after the flush they were only able to get about 1/3rd of the amount of antifreeze in it. It seems to me like it must still be clogged but I'm not sure about that. I don't know if any of that has anything to do with our most recent problem, but thought I would put that on here just in case.

This concerns me a bit as I wonder if the last owner dumped a bunch of radiator
stop leak in the cooling system to get the car running halfway decent to sell it or
trade it in.

Meaning that the head could have been starting to crack or the engine could have
had a bad gasket for a while causing the head to crack later on.

If this is the case, there could be a lot of that stuff still in the cooling system.

Does the engine temp run hotter or colder than normal?

Now, after the car warms up it dies everytime the brake is pressed. If you are able to press the clutch, brake and give it a little gas all at the same time, it will stay on. Anybody have any ideas about what else is wrong with this car? It's a 5 speed, 200k miles, we've owned it for 5 yrs and never had troubles before. It has been moderately maintained as far as oil changes, etc.

Sounds to me like there is a vacuum leak somewhere and when you step on the brake
pedal (which is a hugh vacuum draw if the car has power brakes) is enough to kill the
engine.

Since you are able to rev the engine a little and keep it going further confirms this.

Hope this helps...

Scott

[retsigerlehcar]

We've owned it since '03, could the previous owner have used that much stop leak without us knowing about it before now? Also, the mechanic at the dealer we bought it from is my brother in law and I do trust him. We checked for cracked head when it first overheated and it wasn't cracked. The temp is running the same as it did before we ever had problems. Although it does take longer to get to that point than it did before the problems.
I'll have them check for a vacuum leak, we've had that problem in the past so maybe it wasn't completely resolved.
Thanks.

[450HP]

Knowing more of the car's history, I'd have to say that it's pretty unlikely that the
cooling system could be clogged by stop leak.

If you had it checked the first time it overheated and a cracked head didn't show
up then, I'd say you should be okay.

It would take quite a bit of stop leak to break loose and clog up the system which
would mean that the first time it was checked, you would have most likely found
a cracked head at that time.

Still, it could be a possibility however remote it might be.

It still concerns me that the car doesn't hold all the antifreeze that it did before...

Sometimes air can get trapped in the cooling system, especially after a full system
flush, but I've never seen one where you could only get 1/3 of the coolant back in.

On some cars there are bleed valves to release the trapped air and fully fill the system.

Might want to check into that to make sure it was done.

Scott

[v_lestat]

Because of the pressurized systemn of a water cooling setup the water veins withing the engine can and often do get air stuck in them.
what this does is of course reduce the amount of fluid you can put into it, but it also greatly increases your overheating potential.

But you would have noticed the car overheating immediately. if you are driving it around now and its not overheating then air in the engine isnt the cause. Air in the radiator is an entirely different animal and yes it sounds like the veins in the radiator are severely clogged.
what happened when it was flushed, but not properly checked, was that the gunk and crap inside the radiator got moved around and just clogged it up.

personally i would replace the thermostat, radiator, and hoses(if need be)

A radiator flush isnt nearly enough to clean a radiator.
take it to a place that knows what they are doing and they will boil the radiator in acid (for the lack of a better word) and it will make the inside of the radiator cleaner than anything else ever can.
they will also check for leaks and do a pressure test to make sure that its holding the rated pressure of that particular radiator and also for rated fluid capacity.

as for the car dieing when the brakes are pressed.

the other gentleman hit it right on the head. it sounds like a vacuum leak in the vacuum backup of the break system.

right against the firewall under the hood is those round, yet flat shaped device. its also hooked or sitting right beside the brake fluid container.
that is what helps your brakes clamp down.

what can happen is if that diaphram is bad inside, or the hose coming to it, when you hit the brakes,, well,.,, there ya go, the vacuum leak goes into full effect and the car can't handle it thus it dies.

if the diaphram is bad then thats an easy thing to fix and can be done cheaply.

with the car overheating the way it did, you may have done some damage to some other vacuum hoses also, so have a full engine check done along with a full vacuum diagnostics.