I have a 2002 Galant with 220K miles. Within the last 3 months, it has been dying when at idle speed. I noticed the RPM goes up and down, and after some researches, I tried to clean the throttle body, replaced the idle air control valve, air filter, but the problem still persists.

Yesterday when I was parking, the car die while I was going on reverse, and the steering wheel locked - very scary situation if I was driving on a busy road.

It's also shaking pretty bad, and 2 mechanics I took the car to said it's a bad engine mount and I shouldn't worry about.

Also, sometimes when I press the gas pedal hard when at idle, the car either dies or doesn't respond quickly.

I haven't done any inspection on fuel components yet. I live in Los Angeles and I don't have my own parking space, so working on cars could get tricky.

 

Did the wheel actually lock (like when the key is turned off) or was it just hard to steer because the power steering system wasn't running because the engine was off?

If you aren't sure try turning the wheel with the key out completely, and then ut the key in and turn it to "ON" but don't start the car and see which feeling matches more closely.

If it's the first one you may have a problem with your ignition switch.

Do you have a check engine light on at all?

Has anyone checked for a vacuum leak?

 

You're right, I was able to turn the wheels, it was VERY hard though.

No, I don't have a check engine light on, and I haven't checked for vacuum leaks. Doesn't a vacuum leak make a whistling noise?

Also I forgot to mention that most of the time after the car dies, it kind fixes itself up. For example, when I notice the RPM is going up and down, and then the car dies, when I start it again, the RPM stays steady. This doesn't happen all the time though.

 

Sounds like it was probably just the loss of power steering. It's hard to steer a non/slow moving car without power steering and you won't have it when your engine dies.

You may not be able to hear any kind of noise unless you know exactly where it is and are very close to it.

I would not rule it out yet,,,

 

Is this something easy to test?

 

Looks pretty easy... Here's a video:


In any case you can pretty easily confirm or rule this out.