Vehicle stalls alarm owner

Q. I'm the original owner of my 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee and I've tried to take really good care of it. It has 115,230 miles on it, which considering its age is pretty good.

The problem started a while back, but it would only happen occasionally. However, slowly over time, it now happens regularly regardless of outdoor temperature or warming the engine. This problem only occurs when I first begin to use the car while backing out of my garage and driveway and trying to shift into drive on our street.

As I back into the street and shift into drive, the car dies out. Also, if I just back down the driveway and shift into drive to go back toward the garage door, the same thing happens, so it doesn't appear to have anything to do with turning the wheels. It only happens when shifting from reverse into drive.

After I get going in drive, the car performs normally. This problem is really concerning me and makes me want to avoid using the car. It is scaring me.

I would greatly appreciate any help you could offer about what is causing this problem and how to fix it.

A. It will be hard to make a recommendation on this without spending some time with the car, but I will give it a go. I need to assume you are 100-percent current on all your maintenance that relates to the ignition system of the car. I will also assume this only happens once when you leave the house and does not happen again the rest of the day.

Based on all of that, the first thing I would do is a thorough fuel system and upper air-intake cleaning. I would clean the throttle valve real well and then perform an idle relearn.

You also need to be sure the battery is in good shape and it is possible that the car will need an idle control valve, but you want to start by getting everything cleaned up real good and see if it does the trick.

I hope this helps!

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