94 kills when shifted into R or D

Today when pulling up to a red light car started jerking (like when you need to downshift on a clutch-but this car is automatic). When I finally came to a stop, car killed. Now the car will start up fine and run good in Park or Neutral but when shifted into Reverse or Drive it stalls immediately. Any suggestions or ideas? I hope someone can help - it's only the 2nd time I've driven the car!!!

I just found this thread http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=65018&highlight=stalling
which describes exactly what I experienced today. Hopefully thats all it is - not anything major!

I may have to look into this. My car has stalled a few times in reverse with the wheel fully turned. Ive also been getting a "RPMs too high" engine code but I have no clue WTF that is all about.

Certainly sounds like a TCC solenoid or fuel problem. Let us know how long you were driving it, and how fast you were going.

psycho, perhaps a timing chain?

Today when I experienced this I was approaching an intersection and decreasing from a speed of about 45-50mph and had just started driving 15 minutes prior to that.

search the forums for 'TCC'

hey , your cavalier has a bad, *tries to think of the name* but my 93 cavalier had that problem and they pulled a relay out that helped the fuel management, forgot the name of it, but if you take it to a shop and explain it to them the most they will charge you is like 15 bucks of their time, because its a 2 minute job, when i took mine to the shop for that, he was like oh its this *unplugs some crap* and never had a problem since *2 months afterwards*

search the forums for 'TCC'
He's got the nail on the head. From speeds around 55 or so the TCC locks up to save gas mileage. The Solenoid controls the locking up of the two halves of the Torque Converter and is known to go bad in the 2nd Gen J's. The solenoid is located at the bottom of the valve body assembly on the tranny which you get at through the driver's side wheel well. Its a cheap fix and the only parts you need to pick up are a gasket, some tranny fluid, and, of course, the new TCC Solenoid. The only other things you need are stuff you should already have if you're doing car repairs.

I am curious, I never heard of reverse stalling out the car with a shot TCC. I guess, given the structure of the drivetrain it makes sense, so I guess no one ever really tried putting a car stalled out from the TCC problem into reverse at a stoplight.

Oh yeah, if you go outside now and try to drive it, it should be fine as the Torque Converter should've unlocked itself. Drive it around a bit at highway speeds then come to a stoplight, see if it stalls again. If it does, your TCC is gone.

93njcavalier - I'm betting they pulled the sensor on top of your transmission, didn't they? That controls the lockup of your Torque Converter, which is basically your 4th gear. Without it, you'll notice ultra-crappy gas mileage if you travel on the highways much. You should get it fixed, it only took me about 30 minutes in my home garage. When you're done with that, go back to that garage and tell them not to be such douches and to actually fix shit that needs to be fixed.

Just got my car back and it was indeed the TCC solenoid. The tow was covered under AAA and the garage didn't charge me anything because they didn't replace it, they just unhooked it as I don't do alot of highway driving.