HELP! my car wont stay cranked in 1st gear!

**King** · 02-23-2012, 02:54 PM

For some reason my car trys to quit on me when i am in first gear... i went to autozone and got them to run a diagnostic and it showed that my coolant temperature was low. I got my fluids checked out and the guy said it might be the sensor? I went to a shop and they told me lack of compression sense im running from the heads with little pipe(thats what she said /ba dum tsssss) and no mufflers. Also he said it might be because of the cam buuuut this was all speculation from just taking a glance at it... Then when i brought the car home and lifted the hood i could hear a small hissing noise that lasted about 5 seconds and stopped. Please help!!!

**chris1974** · 02-23-2012, 02:58 PM

what mods have you done to the car?

**King** · 02-23-2012, 03:44 PM

ceramic longtube headers, cam, custom tune, comp cam valve springs and retainers, hardened pushrods, etc etc

**damianj03** · 02-23-2012, 04:21 PM

hissing while it is running or off? have you checked for vacuum leaks?

**Goldcuffs** · 02-23-2012, 04:44 PM

A "coolant temp low" code usually pertains to a thermostat problem. Do you have a lower than stock thermostat installed? Regardless, this will not cause what you are experiencing. Autozone uses a generic scan tool and in my opinion is useless. With out a screen shot of data or fuel pressure readings, or some kind of info, everyone that posts here will be guessing. If you took it to a shop and they said compression just by looking under the hood, you might want to just stay away from that shop.

***pajeff02*** · 02-23-2012, 06:06 PM

Could also be a defective temp sender that is causing the PCM to think that the engine temp is lower than it actually is. This would leave the PCM in open rather than closed loop and could account for your issues.

**tatertot91** · 02-23-2012, 06:44 PM

Jeff makes a good point
Temp sensor is cheap enough to just swap out, I'd see if that helps.

**King** · 02-23-2012, 07:50 PM

Thanks for all the help!
@damian, it was a vacuum! So out of curiosity would the sensor affect the not staying cranked in first? it doesnt do it everytime but often enough to be an annoyance.