Questions and Answers

Hissing Firebird Q. I'm not sure if this is the right place to email for help about my car, but this is the only email address I could find. I drive a December 1990 Pontiac Firebird V-6 3.1 liter. It's got an automatic transmission, fuel injection, and power brakes with no ABS.

Anyway, I have a really weird problem. My car dies if I am just idling and I'm not holding down the brakes, even if I'm just in park. When I am holding down the brakes I hear a wheezing sound inside the car, where the pedal is, kind of like the sound of air leaking from something, almost a hissing. I didn't think that the two problems could really be connected, but they started at the same time, and it only dies when I'm not holding down the brakes.

I don't really have enough money to spend on trial and error, and I certainly don't have enough for the $60.00 dollars the mechanics want just to look at my car, plus whatever it costs to fix it. So any help you could give me would be really appreciated.

Thank you very much.

A. I don't know how much I can help you without spending any money. There are quite a few things that can cause the problem you describe.

But from the loud hissing noise you hear when it dies, I would have to suspect a leaking brake booster. That's just about the only thing that would make a noise like that and kill the engine. I would try taking the large vacuum line off the booster and plug it up for now and try it. You will have hard brakes but if the problem goes away, you found the problem. Then you can make arrangements to have it replaced.

I do not recommend driving the car with the booster disconnected. Only a short drive for testing purposes only.

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