today was the first day with snow on the ground. i was going out in the truck, and it started fine. ran fine till i got to a straight stretch, and since its the first snow ive seen in this truck, i wanted to test the brakes. so i hit the brakes hard, the abs works (i guess) and then the engine stalls. this is an automatic btw. but i was like oh well. maybe the engine's too cold still, so i crank it again but it wont start. so i floor the throttle and then crank again till it starts. but once i let the revs drop a bit, it stalls again. so i start it again by holding the throttle down, and warm the engine up for a bit keeping the revs at 2000.
once its warm, i drive it a bit, and its fine until im driving at 25, and i let go of the throttle. (no brakes yet) and then coasting, the engine speed drops down to under 500, sputters, and dies. i do this a couple times and when i give it a little more gas the engine keeps running. only when i keep the revs above 800 the engine wont stop. it being an auto, its a little complicated when i want to shift into reverse and whatnot. i go to a friends house, and he wants to see my coldair intake which i installed hmm... a week ago i guess? and i notice the filter has fallen off. not bad installation but faulty product. ill get a pic up eventually. damn cheap filter off ebay. im gonna get a k&n soon i hope. or i need to.
well anyways, i duct tape it together for now but it the engine still stalls once in a while when im hitting the brakes.
this engine has been running flawlessly until today. what's gone bad? the filter had been put together with glue and i guess the glue wasnt rated for cold temps like here. and it came apart. but even after it was put back together it still stalls... even when the engine is running temperature.

on a side note, there seems to be air leaking out from between my tire and wheel. just started today. unno why. it was fine yesterday. just started today. why? does snow have to do with it?

what's wrong with my truck now?
its a 98 4.3l with about 188k miles on it.
bone stock except for the cold air intake and i took off the rubber seal from the back of the hood. (more airflow or i was hoping)

oh and i installed an aftermarket tach which has been and still is working fine.
any reason why it should be doing this?

you might have gotten water down in there from taking the seal off... or you might have somehow gotten a little water sucked into the CAI...

so its a bad idea to take that seal off? and whats a cai?

nvm i know waht a cai is lol but i dont think i sucked any. theres a nice tube going down before the filter and the tube isnt small enough to suck water in unless its like submerged.
so do you really need that seal? i had the seal off in my neon forever and i never had any problems.

I got an idea, check to see if when the filter fell off it did not unplug your air inlet temp sensor or the mass air flow meter, when you are hitting the brakes you are pulling vacuum from the motor and increasing it in the brake booster... i had to do some work on the truck and forgot to plug in in once and when it was not stalling it would rev real high or real low....once I plugged it back in it ran perfectly !

hmm... ill check tomorrow but i dont think thats it... the filter top (or bottom) came off. the tubes are still mounted fine. and when its not stalling the revs are correct.

Put that seal back and put your stock intake back in and see what happens

that seal would not cause any problem. i ran a cowl hood on my old blazer and it was wide open in the back. winter summer when ever. nothing went wrong.

im gonna aim more towards the MAF. im gonna say when the filter broke apart. shit got in there and ruined it. try to unplug th MAF see if it runs any better. remeber. when you unplug it. it will set the service engine light to come on.

The hood seal isant going to do jack. Ive hosed my whole ehgine compartment off many times with no problembs

okay. ill try running it without the maf but after the service engine light turns on, will i be able to turn that light off again?
and im not sure if this has anything to do with it but i think my abs is kinda acting weird too. i had my brakes all replaced a week or 2 ago but i dont know if that means anything. or if abs can even do somthing like this.
oh and after the engine stalls, EVERYTHING shuts off. the gauges, lights, radio, heater, everything. the emergency blinkers dont even work. then after a couple moments everything comes back on. (well except the motor obviously) but after cranking a bit and opening the throttle it comes back to life.
any more ideas?

hmm. i tried without the maf sensor and it ran better. but seems everythign still randomly shuts off. and if the revs are high enough when it shuts off that when everything comes back, the engine still runs, but if the revs are too low when everything shuts off, the engine dies. so i guess when everything turns off it doesnt get any fuel? not sure. oh and the funny thing is, the rubber seal seems to help. i just stuck it on for shits and it ran better, and then i was like might as well try it off again, and it shut off every few seconds. so i stuck the seal on once more and it runs better.
so its some kind of power to the compiuter issue? or no? if so, where do i check?
oh and when i unplugged the maf, the ses light didnt turn on. i unplugged it before i started the engine.
but it did turn on when it shut itself off and then turned itself on again. its like resetting itself. then later when it reset itself again the ses light was off again.
and nvm about the abs. dont think anything's wrong with it anymore..... but hmm.... waht is wrong? and why? i do believe it all started with the filter coming apart... but still.. everything shutting off? that shouldnt be affected...

check the battery cables. make sure they are clean and tight.

ok ill do that tomorrow. just on the battery or are there other places i should check for loose wiring?

try to battery first. if it still does it. i would check the main power wire on the starter and also the ground off the battery

your battery might be low. i know that when my battery was getting low i would have to floor it to get it started and then keep on so it wouldnt stall out. the ABS takes alot of power to use and since it was started recently it wouldnt have enuf charge in the battery saved up to keep it up.

for the SES light check your cigarette lighter fuse, that is connected to the PCM so if that fuse is blown your SES light wont work. you cant pass IM like that either.

huh. really. it was blown when i bought the truck and since i dont smoke i pulled the fuse and took the whole cig lighter/ashtray thing out. but the ses light turned on for a while tho. its never turned on till like yesterday.

guess that one isnt it. the IM place told me thats why i didnt pass lol

well was thinking a bit..... will my truck be running lean right now? can that be helping with the stalling? maybe it isnt JUST electrical.... with a cai.... and it being so damn freezing outside..... and maybe my maf is dirty? what do i clean it with?

hahaha this is my 1rst post ever. For me, And i got reading this thread. I saw you said you used duct tape to seal the intake.Theres a o2 sencor i am gonna guess in there did you hook it into the new intake? And ya... go to like a junker or something amd get rubber hose and clamps duct tape isn't ment for holding intakes on cheers hope that helps. if you have a leak there that would stall you out. i am guessing you hit the brakes t loosens off and craps out on ya l8r good luck

Ive got the exact same problem in my 03 s10. ive only got 70 000 km's on the truck,but ive been told by a couple people it could be Mass Airflow Sensor or a fuel filter. im going to be trying the fuel filter this week and i hope thats the problem

btw the only problem was that the battery connection was bad

holy crap was it ever... it was on the 1st page tho