I'd really appreciate if someone could shed some light on this one.
A short version of what happened: I take my car to my trusty indy shop to get 3 things fixed in the morning, and I pick it up in the afternoon only to find out not only are the 3 problems still there, but there's now a 4th problem that had never happened before -- the car is now idling at 200-300rpm like it's going to die any minute. They can't find anything wrong and claim to have not touched the car throughout the day. They take a look and drive it around, 20min later the car is idling at 500rpm stably. They tell me to bring it back next week and off I go. Car drives fine on the highway but as I'm exiting the highway, it dies while moving and would not start again. The exit ramp was uphill, so I couldn't push. A passing-by cop saw me and called for a tow truck before I asked. The shop closed right after I left, so I couldn't take the car back to them.
Some details:
My car had never had an idle-related problem prior to yesterday, which was when I took the car to the shop. I did not take the car in for an idle-related problem either. The shop claim they have not touched the car throughout the day because they were too busy. One of the techs did plug a diagnostics tool into a port in the engine bay and pressed some buttons on the tool, before I left the shop in the morning. I swear when he started the car with the tool attached, I heard the idle was rough and weak, but I though it was normal when performing whatever he was doing. The guys at the shop insisted that it was a bad idle control valve, but personally I find it hard to believe that the ICV could go from normal to not driveble in a few hours without anyone touching it. The car drove fine on the highway, but as soon as I shifted into neutral from 3rd and released throttle, the engine stalled. All electronics work fine, there's 3/4 of gas in the tank, water temp is normal and no warnings on dash. The engine would fire up, but dies immediately unless I keep revving it constantly, and the rpm drops very quickly.
Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong and what might have caused the problem? Thanks in advance.
A short version of what happened: I take my car to my trusty indy shop to get 3 things fixed in the morning, and I pick it up in the afternoon only to find out not only are the 3 problems still there, but there's now a 4th problem that had never happened before -- the car is now idling at 200-300rpm like it's going to die any minute. They can't find anything wrong and claim to have not touched the car throughout the day. They take a look and drive it around, 20min later the car is idling at 500rpm stably. They tell me to bring it back next week and off I go. Car drives fine on the highway but as I'm exiting the highway, it dies while moving and would not start again. The exit ramp was uphill, so I couldn't push. A passing-by cop saw me and called for a tow truck before I asked. The shop closed right after I left, so I couldn't take the car back to them.
Some details:
My car had never had an idle-related problem prior to yesterday, which was when I took the car to the shop. I did not take the car in for an idle-related problem either. The shop claim they have not touched the car throughout the day because they were too busy. One of the techs did plug a diagnostics tool into a port in the engine bay and pressed some buttons on the tool, before I left the shop in the morning. I swear when he started the car with the tool attached, I heard the idle was rough and weak, but I though it was normal when performing whatever he was doing. The guys at the shop insisted that it was a bad idle control valve, but personally I find it hard to believe that the ICV could go from normal to not driveble in a few hours without anyone touching it. The car drove fine on the highway, but as soon as I shifted into neutral from 3rd and released throttle, the engine stalled. All electronics work fine, there's 3/4 of gas in the tank, water temp is normal and no warnings on dash. The engine would fire up, but dies immediately unless I keep revving it constantly, and the rpm drops very quickly.
Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong and what might have caused the problem? Thanks in advance.