Problems w/my Idle

[Geoffrey97MS]

Hey everyone,
Well heres what happened yest w/my Sport. I was at Wal Mart and when I went to leave my battery had died completely. I finally got it jump started and drove it down the road to my Girlfriends house were I could change the battery. Well I went to Autozone and got a Battery and I replaced the dead one. The problems started then. After I got the new Battery in I started my car and it seemed to be dpoing fine,,it was idleing really low but I didnt think anything of it. Wel I reset all my radio stations and my alarm and went back in. We left a little while later and I can to a stop sign and my car died. So I restarted it and it reved up and then died again. It wouldnt Idle at all. So I started it and reved it up and took off,,,I got to my house and when I parked in my driveway it did it again. I started it again and it almost died but sputtered for a second and then started idleing like normal. Today it is running like normal. If anyone has any Idea of why my sport did that and if it will do it again give me some feed back pls.
Thanks

[scottv]

I'm having the same problem. This is what happened in my case. The subject is a 99 3.0 w/80k.

I left my lights on for 10 minutes while the vehicle was not running. When I got back in and started it was a little sluggish. Drove home about 8 miles no problem.

The next day I get up to leave and the battery is dead. I decided to drive my car instead (was in a hurry). When I got home I hooked up my 6/2 AMP charger and let it go over night. The next morning tried to start and it was still dead. So I jump the MS with the car and it starts.

When the MS is first started the high idle is fine. After it warms up and switches to low idle it dies. I have since installed a new battery (had the old one tested and it failed) and still have the same problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

~Scott

[kstt]

I had those symptoms with an S10 Blazer last year- it was the EGR valve sticking. Just a thought.

[scottv]

I'll look into that too. It's kinda funny that both things would happen at the same time...but it's not out of the question.

[GONZO]

Hi Guys,
All you have to do is get some throttle body cleaner spray at the auto parts and spray some on a rag or paper tower and clean the throttle body area. To do this you have to take the plastic intake tube going to the throttle body off. It is recommended that you don't spray directly into the throttle body. The reason this happens is that the throttle body builds up deposits which the idle circuit and the computer make up for and adjust the idle accordingly. When the battery dies or is disconnected the circuitry starts at a value corresponding to a clean throttle body. This causes the low idle and engine quitting. Not the most technically correct explanation but close enough for government work. Clean your throttle body and problem will go away.

[scottv]

Gonzo,

That was a great explanation! Man, I'm so confident now that I think I'll get outta the office early to get this thing fixed up. I'll reply tonight with the results.

Thanks again!

~Scott

[scottv]

Gonzo,

You're the man!

Did what you said, but being that I couldn't get in as far as I needed to, I resorted to short shots of throttle body cleaner while my g/f held a steady rpm. Changed the air cleaner, hokked everything back up and B-I-N-G-O..she's like (almost) new!

Now off to my transmission problem...I'll post that in a new thread and maybe you can be as helpful as you were on this problem.

Thanks again!
~Scott

[GONZO]

That info was obtained from Joel our resident mechanic. The man knows all the answers to our problems and is nice enough to share. So thanks go to him. Like someone else said, I wish we could get all the old info from the old board. Thanks again Joel.

[Joel_CA]

Hey...I'm here to help! Thanks for the shout!

Joel, CA