Hi All

Strange problem. My battery went flat the other day so i purchased a new one. Old one had been in the car since i brought it more than 5 years ago so i thought it was probably time for a new one.

Put it in, car started so all good. Didn't actually drive it until the next day. Driving to work and its was fine for about the first 10 min. Almost at work and suddenly it starts stalling everytime i stop or even slow down enough to turn a corner.

Get into the car after work and its okay for about 5 min but starts doing it again. Have to keep the revs up myself at the lights or it stalls. It does seem to hold idle (although lower than normal) if im at the lights for a while and hold the revs up myself then let it try and idle itself. Will also hold idle if i turn the car off for a bit then start it back up and just leave it alone.

Anyone have any ideas?

How on earth did you get a battery to last 5 years!?!?! Im lucky to get 2 out of mine.

Sounds like you need to reset the ecu. and let it re-learn its idle control.
Taken from another post/thread
Thanks to ......
RoGuE_StreaK

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Sounds like the symptoms of Idle Speed Controller issues?
When was the last time you disconnected the battery? Or shorted something out? My experience (as to whether it's technically correct or not I dunno, but seems to work) is that if the ECU is reset, you can get these symptoms until it sorts itself out, especially if the base idle is set too low.
My thoughts are that the bouncing up and down in idle would appear, to me, to indicate that the ISC is attempting to do it's job. Failing anyone else coming up with brilliant ideas, here's what I'd do to attempt to sort it out:

- disconnect the battery for a while to reset the ECU again. This should (to my understanding) put it in a learning mode that'll fine-tune it's settings to suit how the car is driving.

- run it through a series of idle-learning procedures, to try to fast-track the learning in a safe environment (last thing you want is for it to die when going around a tight roundabout or turn). I've found a combination of the following to work, find yourself an empty piece of carpark or your driveway if you have a few meters to manouvre.
When idling, then turn on combinations of the aircon, lights, high-beam, brakes, spin the wheel back and forth to engage the power steering, basically put on as many different combinations of engine load as you can think of. Drive backwards and forwards a bit, getting some revs up then quickly dropping to neutral and braking heavily, whilst turning if possible.
If the engine keeps stalling during this, back off a bit and see if it handles it better. Basically push it as far as you can without actually stalling, and it should eventually start to respond better.

I've found the real killer (at least in a manual) is when you come into a roundabout or 90degree corner, engage the clutch and release the accelerator, stomp on the brake and turn heavily all at the same time, as it is the worst combination of the lot; rapidly falling revs to start with, brake booster kicking in, power steering kicking in, guaranteed to stall it at the worst possible moment. I had to learn how to keep my foot on the accelerator at the same time as braking and de-clutching, whilst blinking, turning, and hovering my hand over the keys in case I needed to restart on the fly...

How on earth did you get a battery to last 5 years!?!?! Im lucky to get 2 out of mine.

Yeah i shed a single tear when i realised it had finally died. It was a little trooper.


Sounds like that might be the issue Trotty. That last paragraph sounds exactly like what i am getting (revs just drop of compeletly while going around corners and car stalls).

Is Rouge_Streak pretty much saying you just have to drive it until it relearns how to idle properly? Or do i need to disconnect the battery and reset the ecu coz its not learning properly?

Do you have the link for that full thread?

It's simply the ECU needing to relearn the idle settings. Leave it running in your driveway for 20mins and it'll be right, worked every time for my Verada when I disconnected the battery.

i think resetting again would be the go.

give it a fresh start.

disconnect the battery overnight, hour at least. then connect.
start car. warm up. turn on air con. put from P into R then N then D then N, do this a few times and leave it in that gear for 5-10 seconds each time. move the steering wheel left to righ so the steering pump is loading the car up. you will feel the revs die and rise.
do it for a minute or two. turn car off.
wait half an hour and doit agn then go for a drive. see if its any better.

the more you do it in the driveway the better.

it may take a little while. turn car off. rinse and repeat!

took it for a fairly lenghty drive yesterday and the car no longer stalls. It still comes very close sometimes with the revs dropping down to 500 then bouncing back up again. Looks like you guys were right though, computer just needed to relearn.

Might adjust the idle manually if it keeps dropping down to almost stalling point. Pain in the ass though as the idle screw sit directly under my strut brace so that has to come off just to get to it.

Good stuff!

give it time it will get better.