club.liberty.asn.au

Not 100% sure if this is 3.0R specific but...

I have a manual r-b wagon.

I recently took my car in for a service. Amongst other things they were looking for reasons why it is guzzling petrol (17+ litres per 100kms around town!). As part of the process the ECU was reset.

Driving away from the garage the car stalled the first time I came up to a stop sign. As I slowed and put the clutch in, the revs dropped to around 800ish, then dipped right down to around 200ish, causing the car to stall.

This happened several more times in the next few minutes.

I took it back and they upped the idle revs a little, but I am still getting stalls. Basically when putting the clutch in and taking the foot off the accelerator, revs drop normally to what I would call a proper idle level (somewhere between 500-1000) but then there is an extra little dip that happens and the car stalls.

This is just annoying when stationary, but it's bloody dangerous when moving as the power steering cuts out immediately.

My revs have always had that little "dip" before coming back up to an idle level, but it now seems to be dipping too low. This never happened before the ECU reset.

I understand this could be the ECU just needing to relearn its business again, but it seems very strange to me that it would stall randomly like this. A bit of Googling suggests that sometimes this just fixes itself (I guess through the ECU gradually figuring out that stalling is happening), sometimes not.

Anyone experienced something like this after a battery disconnect or similar? If so, any quick fix? Or did your car just fix itself?

Just drive it around mate. happened to me when i reset my ecu once. Has to relearn it idling i guess.

Yes you need to drive it around a bit and it will be back to normal again

Further to that _ get a KiDo tune if you can organise it for yourself

Thanks for the replies.

It's not a tune issue - as others here and elsewhere have suggested, it seems to be a "feature" (ahem) of the ECU relearning after a reset.

Mine has now settled down noticeably - still does a little dip when the clutch is put in with the gear stick still in position, but no longer dips to the point of stalling. Took almost exactly 7 days of light use for the ECU to figure out that randomly stalling is not desirable.

I must say this seems to me to be a remarkably dangerous thing to allow in any situation. Surely the ECU should have a hard lower limit to prevent stalling when the car is in motion with no gear selected?

patrickbateman wrote:Thanks for the replies.

It's not a tune issue - as others here and elsewhere have suggested, it seems to be a "feature" (ahem) of the ECU relearning after a reset.

Mine has now settled down noticeably - still does a little dip when the clutch is put in with the gear stick still in position, but no longer dips to the point of stalling. Took almost exactly 7 days of light use for the ECU to figure out that randomly stalling is not desirable.

I must say this seems to me to be a remarkably dangerous thing to allow in any situation. Surely the ECU should have a hard lower limit to prevent stalling when the car is in motion with no gear selected?

How is it now? After changing my clutch and then using the engine cleaning agent, my engine speed varies about 1000 RPM every time I kick the clutch in and settles only moments later.

cooki_monsta wrote:

patrickbateman wrote:Thanks for the replies.

It's not a tune issue - as others here and elsewhere have suggested, it seems to be a "feature" (ahem) of the ECU relearning after a reset.

Mine has now settled down noticeably - still does a little dip when the clutch is put in with the gear stick still in position, but no longer dips to the point of stalling. Took almost exactly 7 days of light use for the ECU to figure out that randomly stalling is not desirable.

I must say this seems to me to be a remarkably dangerous thing to allow in any situation. Surely the ECU should have a hard lower limit to prevent stalling when the car is in motion with no gear selected?

How is it now? After changing my clutch and then using the engine cleaning agent, my engine speed varies about 1000 RPM every time I kick the clutch in and settles only moments later.

No longer dips noticeably for me. On a cold start starts out idling at about 1800rpm, then gradually drops down to a little under 1000 and stays there. Takes about 5 minutes idling or 2 minutes driving to get to this point.

The car is very stall-able in reverse, but I think that's just the heavy engine (and my caution at night reversing in the dark through tinted windows).

I'd say that reversing requires me to feather the throttle too. Funnily enough, I did stall today haha

Having disconnected the battery the first time round with the engine still hot, I did notice that the max spike dropped from 1500 RPM to 1100 RPM. Following another attempt to reset the ECU, I found that it didn't change anything.

Do you get more feedback from the car on back-off?

cooki_monsta wrote:Do you get more feedback from the car on back-off?

Sorry, not quite sure what you mean by this?

patrickbateman wrote:

cooki_monsta wrote:Do you get more feedback from the car on back-off?

Sorry, not quite sure what you mean by this?

Sorry, does your car jerk when you take your foot off throttle? Mine seems to do that these days following a clutch upgrade and a cleaning of the intake system.

cooki_monsta wrote:

patrickbateman wrote:

cooki_monsta wrote:Do you get more feedback from the car on back-off?

Sorry, not quite sure what you mean by this?

Sorry, does your car jerk when you take your foot off throttle? Mine seems to do that these days following a clutch upgrade and a cleaning of the intake system.

At lowish revs, yes - say, under 2500. At high revs, no.

Still Have high fuel usage?
Tried Cleaning your Mass Airflow Sensor?

patrickbateman wrote:At lowish revs, yes - say, under 2500. At high revs, no.

Yeah, my car does the same... I might take off the PCV this weekend and soak it in carby cleaner and then fit it back with some threebond thread gasket. Apparently I can get this all from Bursons. Will try Repco next door tomorro first.

I will look into the MAP sensor too (I have an 2004 EJ25).

Hey Guys,

I just picked up a 2005 3.0R Automatic Sedan with the same issue.

It really struggles to turn over and I have to have the accelerator down to keep it going with the key turned fully over before releasing the key with my foot feathering the accelerator. I've had the car at idle by itself twice. Once was when I removed the MAF Sensor to clean it then check the voltages at the back of the plug where the voltages weren't changing with an increase in acceleration which led me to believe that the MAF Sensor was cooked. I then replaced the Sensor for it to work once. I turned on the a/c etc to see how it handled and it struggled but kept going. Turned it back off to try again and haven't been able to keep it going since, while it was idling I removed the battery ground terminal to 'reset' it's parameters however how long are you suppose to do this for?

I checked the codes and have the following of the top of my head;
p0107- Pressure Sensor Circuit Low Input
P0112 - Intake air temperature sensor circuit low input
PO117 - Engine Coolant Temp Sensor Circuit Low Input
P0304 - Cylinder 4 Misfire Detected
P0335 - Crankshaft Position Sensor Circuit Malfunction

Also as expected has the CEL and Cruise Control light flashing.

I've cleaned and tested the continuity of the crankshaft position sensor, sprayed the throttle body with cleaner, it has a new battery because it needed one. I've read that low inputs can be lead to a dodgy earth/short. Checked the fuses when it first had the issue and there was none that had blown.

Curious to hear everyone's thought's i'm thinking I might not have reset the ecu for long enough or there's issue with the MAF Sensor wiring as the two times i've had it running is when the system has been disturbed.

Thanks in advance.

I had idle issue after ecu reset. I found it was dirt built up on the throttle body and butterfly plate. Clean it and all ok.

kiasu9s wrote:I found it was dirt built up on the throttle body and butterfly plate.

If it was dirt you've got a poorly sealed air intake somewhere.
If it was carbon (light black dust) and oil (from the PCV and head breathers), that's normal and what upper cylinder cleaner (#SA459) is for.