My sister's car dies when she comes to a stop, she took it to a mechanic and he said it was her head gasket.

head gasket means over heating right? the car stahling at lights would be or could be the battery?

any help would be great, I'm trying to get a good picture of what I might be working with this weekend and if its even worth trying to fix it.

 

bump

 

not sure, but definitely not the head gasket, mechanic is a douche, how is the idle after startup at warm operating temp.

 

If the battery light indicator is lighting on the dash, then it can be your battery or alternator, or even both. This will cause your car to stall at a stop since the low idle with not have enough rpm to get the alternator pumping out any amps to the battery.

 

She told me that the only light that turns on is the oil light and that is when it stalls.

 

this will come on will it stalls, the alternator or battery will not cause it to stall, you can run the car without the battery if you wanted to, Its not the head gasket (like mentiioned before) unless she sees white sweetish smellin smoke comin out the tailpipe. I would say test for vacuum leaks. are you trying to fix the problem?

 

Sorry to correct you but a car can not run on a battery alone for an extended period of time. Once it drains, and it will, the car will die, and not restart. If the alternator is good, then the car can practically run off it forever as long as the engine is running. Once it turns off, you need a good battery to restart it. Now, pertaining to your problem, if all electrical is good, then you would need to check for vacum leaks or do a pressure test. I agree with you on that.

 

sorry to correct you, I didnt say you can run on a battery alone i said WITHOUT a battery. Only 2nd part of the qoute is correct.

 

Miscommunication, we are both right, I feel better now.

 

correct me if Im wrong, does the brake fluid resi double as something related to the transmision?

The car had coolant, but I noticed the brake fluid resi was way below the recomended level and when the car was running it looked like boiling water. ABS light has been on for a while.

and I pulled one of the spark plugs and it was covered in oil. no white smoke seen.

 

brake fluid reservoir, sorry I suck at multi tasking.

 

if your torque converter does not disengage, it will stall the car every time. should throw a CEL indicating a malfunction in the TQ converter.

one way to test this is to step on the brake, TQ converter should unlock immediately