2004 Corolla L4-1.8L (1ZZ-FE) - Rough Idle after Battery Change
Hello - I've been reading through this forum to help me with a problem that just came up with my 2004 Toyota Corolla L4-1.8L (1ZZ-FE) with an automatic transmission.
About two weeks ago I was driving the car out of town and pulled over to connect my GPS (I turned the car off). When I tried to restart the car it went completely dead (note that I still had the original battery). I jump started the car and went to a local auto store and had a new battery put in. They also tested the alternator and assured me that it was fine. Almost immediately I noticed that the car shook/shuddered when coming to a stop and idled extremely low and acted as if it wanted to stall (although it never did). Of course, I didn't want to go any further on my trip and headed back home. The next morning I took the car to my trusted mechanic of over 10 years. He checked the alternator and checked for codes (although no check engine light ever came on) and placed the car under full load conditions. The car checked out fine. My mechanic said that the computer probably just needed to relearn the proper idle (as the dead battery wiped out the previous settings) and he suggested I drive it for a few more days before I bring it back.
Needless to say it didn't work. I returned it to him and he looked at everything under the sun and swears that at least mechanically the car seems fine. He did admit that the idle seemed a little low and he suggested that I go back to the dealer and indicated that perhaps Toyota's computers may find something where he couldn't.
I’ve read where changing the battery may affect a car’s idle and have since disconnected the battery terminals (both) and reconnected them after 30 minutes. I’ve then let the car idle on it’s own for about another 10. The car seems better (meaning the above conditions don’t happen as often) but the fact of the matter is the rough idle still exists.
I’m beginning to think that this is more than just a battery replacement issue. Any idea what I should look for before I take it back to the dealer? This car runs fine outside of the above issue and only has 38,000 miles on it. I'd hate to give it up.
What simple things should I inspect before making an appointment?
try and clean the MAF sensor for one, also you can do a little test to see of your intake manifold gasket is leaking. get some carb cleaner or brake parts cleaner, something flammable and in an aerosol can, and spray it all around where the intake manifold meets the cylinder head, if the idle suddenly gets better then you most likely have a leaking gasket.
what likely happened was that your MAF was reading slightly off or your intake manifold gasket was leaking but the ECU had adjusted fuel trims to make up for it so it would run fine, that is up until the battery went dead and the ECU "forgot" the fuel trims and now has a rough idle.
good luck.
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SIU Auto, we don't mess around... much
Thanks TrdSpeed 140. I will try what you recommend (it makes perfect sense) and update the board as soon as I can. The more reading I do on the Corolla the more I find out about problems with dirty or bad MAF's.
I changed my battery about an hour ago and I have the exact same thing happening. It idles for crap but runs good once you get going. I keep coming accross something where the computer has to "relearn" your driving habits. I'll give it a few days before I take it to the dealer. If you do find anything out, please post it and I'll do the same. I really doubt a host of sensors went bad because I changed the battery.
I changed my battery about an hour ago and I have the exact same thing happening. It idles for crap but runs good once you get going. I keep coming accross something where the computer has to "relearn" your driving habits. I'll give it a few days before I take it to the dealer. If you do find anything out, please post it and I'll do the same. I really doubt a host of sensors went bad because I changed the battery.
I have an appointment on Monday with the dealer so hopefully (fingers crossed), I'll have a resolution to this sometime soon.
I'm actually hoping it's something minor (bad intake manifold gasket) because if this is limited to some sort of "relearn" procedure...let's just say I've purchased my last Toyota.
I'll post the outcome next week. Thanks and good luck.
Well, I don't know what I did but it's all better now. I drove it around a bit and the stalling went away. Now it runs like it did before...only starts better. Hope you get your vehicle issue resolved.
Well, I don't know what I did but it's all better now. I drove it around a bit and the stalling went away. Now it runs like it did before...only starts better. Hope you get your vehicle issue resolved.
Glad to hear it devin!
I'm pretty sure my problem is something other than the battery switch. TrdSpeed140's assessment makes sense to me and given that TSB04507 calls for the replacement of the intake manifold gasket (which may cause some rev hunting and rough idle), it leads me to believe that this is a common problem in these cars (and I think this is more than likely my issue).
Will post my answer on the board as soon as I find out.
Just an update - I had the car at the dealer for 3-days. They tested everything which included upating the ECM and looking for leaks. They also cleaned out the throttle body and connected the car to their computer (which apparently lets them look deeper into the ECM then a standard mechanic's scanner). The car was tested under load conditions and non-load conditons as well as local driving and highway driving.
The results?
The dealership acknowledges that the rpm's at idle are somewhat low but still fall within the toyota corolla spec limits. They are a little perplexed as to what the problem might be and don't want to swap out pieces blindly without fully identifying the nature of the problem.
My result?
The car is somewhat better but it's still noticible. I suppose I'll drive it as is for now and monitor it.
I'm a little disappointed at the quality of the car. However, the service manager was great though - he even conceded that [in his opinion], corolla engines now have a tendency to get rougher with age but that it usually occurs somewhere in the 60,000 mile range and not at 39,000.
Hope this info helps those who have a similar problem.
that dealership sounds like it has some pretty good techs, they're actually trying to diagnose it instead of just throwing parts/money (your money) at it like some do.
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SIU Auto, we don't mess around... much
well i dont think were going to get any answers from Toyota they dont seem to know what causes the low idle mine did started after a full service and plug change so idd say my battery would have been disconnected for a while as well so maybe it could be the ECM acting up and not been pick up by diagnostics.has any one on here ever changed the iacv just wondering and if so did it fix the idle problem low idle that is...
Disconnected the batt today on our 2005 Corolla as the CD player was giving the dreaded "Error 3" message. Ended up fixing that problem after significant disassy of the unit and "manual" extraction of the CD's, but upon reconnecting the battery, car is now idling very rough. Disappointing. Drove the car about 45 miles tonight, mostly highway, still rough. Not getting a good feeling about this... Anyone have any updates/insights?
Disconnected the batt today on our 2005 Corolla as the CD player was giving the dreaded "Error 3" message. Ended up fixing that problem after significant disassy of the unit and "manual" extraction of the CD's, but upon reconnecting the battery, car is now idling very rough. Disappointing. Drove the car about 45 miles tonight, mostly highway, still rough. Not getting a good feeling about this... Anyone have any updates/insights?
I recently disconnected the battery on our 2006 LE due to some transmission issues. The car did idle rough due to a low idle speed for about a day. The problem has since disappeared. I think, at least sometimes, this is some learning algorithm somewhere starting out from scratch.
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