Will not maintain an idle

GARYS43

MEMBER
2003 CHEVROLET SILVERADO
75,000 MILES

I have a 2003 Chev 1500 Silver rod with the small v-8 and auto trans (2 wheel drive) that will not maintain idle. I had to jump start my silver rod because of an old battery, then I replaced the battery with a new one. Since then it will not maintain an idle when you remove your foot from the gas after it is warmed up. Why?

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,873 POSTS

You're lucky everything else even works. There's lots of things built in now to force you to take the vehicle to the dealer after disconnecting the battery or letting it run dead. It sounds like the Engine Computer simply lost its memory and has to relearn "minimum throttle" before it will know when it must be in control of idle speed. The easiest car I know of to that is with Chrysler products.

It involves a test drive with the engine warmed up and a seven-second long period of coasting. That's all. The worst one I'm aware of is Volkswagens. They require a tow to the dealer to have computers unlocked. All that from just disconnecting the battery!

I suspect GM's procedure is closer to Chrysler's but I don't know the specifics of what it takes to meet the conditions for the relearn to take place. My guess is there is no defect to be fixed. You just have to wait for the relearn to take place.