Stalling/Losing Power While Driving

[avguy]

... so I am at a loss of my VERY basic car knowledge as to what to suggest next. ...

I'm assuming from what you wrote you're not planning on DIY repair work on your Aveo. If that's correct, I recommend that you find a good independent repair shop for your next repair attempt. Ask your friends and co-workers for the name of shops they've used and would recommend. DO NOT take your Aveo to Chevy dealerships - they always overcharge, and often underperform. Case in point: you tell them about random stalling, and they hang on a filter and clean the TB. That was a pathetic effort, but also just about par for these outfits. Neither of the things they did is the solution for a random stall. They know that, but this is an opportunity for them to extract a hefty chunk from your wallet, even they don't have a clue what the actual problem might be.

You need to be aware that random, sporadic problems can be REALLY difficult to diagnose, even for a good professional mechanic. Probably the best tool and starting place for something like this would be to connect an OBD scanner capable of freeze frame data stream capture, and drive it until the problem happens again. If you could find a shop where a tech would be willing to drive your Aveo until the problem shows up again and the required data stream is recorded, that would be great. However, you would need another vehicle to drive while all of this is happening.

Your other choice is to wait a bit until the problem starts happening more frequently, thereby becomming easier for a shop to diagnose. But you probably would be uneasy about doing that, because stalling while driving is a really unsettling and potentially dangerous thing for any vehicle to be doing.

Lastly, if you do take it to a shop, don't give them any suggestions about something that you read on the web, or anywhere else for that matter, about what the problem might be. I could give you ten things it might be, and the next guy can give you ten more. Skip all of that and just let them do their job without wasting their time.

[sarahsponda]

The car is still under warranty so I am going to let the dealership I bought it from fix it (if they can) due to it being free of charge to me at this point. Afterwards however, once the issue is diagnosed it will be DIY. Right now I am not overly concerned because it drives so wonderfully any other time, and the engine truly is in good shape, but its annoying and if left alone could become an issue so I want it taken care of early.