2003 Escape Idle Issue After Battery Replacement

[Twister]

2003 Escape Idle Issue After Battery/Alternator Replacement

Ok, I have a 2003 Escape, 2 wheel drive with the 5 speed and 2.0 4 cylinder (Zetec motor), it has 209k miles on it. On the way home from work the other day, the battery light came on for a brief second, according to the owners manual this means the battery is not being charged correctly. So I took the alternator and battery to get check, and both tested bad. Ordered a new alternator from Rockauto (A new Remy one), so the Escape sat for 4-5 days with no battery or alternator.

Fast forward to yesterday, got new alternator, put it in and started it up. It would idle terribly, between 1k and nearly zero, it would continuously try to die and did die once. So i thought the battery was trashed, so i got it replaced and it does the same thing. Found a thing about resetting idle in the owners manual and followed it. After driving it for 10 miles, it still does it. The idle will smooth out if I turn on the AC, but I cant run around with the AC on the entire time.

So will this go away? I am scared it will ruin both the battery and alternator as when it surges, the lights dim and brighten. Also, what kind of driving was I suppose to do after driving around for the reset procedure, all city, mixed?

Thanks

 

[adsm08]

Clean the throttle body and IAC. You probably have a throttle body that is gummed up and making it hard for the computer to correctly relearn the idle strategy. Ford had a number of issues with this on the early electronic throttles.

 

[Twister]

Clean the throttle body and IAC. You probably have a throttle body that is gummed up and making it hard for the computer to correctly relearn the idle strategy. Ford had a number of issues with this on the early electronic throttles.

Will give that a try. I know I cleaned both about 10k miles ago. The IAC is in a crappy spot

 

[Craig0320]

Clean the throttle body and IAC. You probably have a throttle body that is gummed up and making it hard for the computer to correctly relearn the idle strategy. Ford had a number of issues with this on the early electronic throttles.

Second this ^.
Over the years my aunt's trailblazer would not idle with the a/c on after a battery change. I had to clean the throttle body and iac every time for it to run right after. The last time I put a new battery in it I put the battery charger on 2 amps and left it on the cables while I swapped the battery so the computer did not lose it's memory.

 

[adsm08]

The last time I put a new battery in it I put the battery charger on 2 amps and left it on the cables while I swapped the battery so the computer did not lose it's memory.

I had to do that to my buddy's CRV so we didn't put the radio into security mode because he didn't have the unlock code for it.

 

[Twister]

Ok. Thanks for the suggestions guys, got the throttle body off and cleaned. Went to put it back on and noticed that the vacuum line that runs from right under the throttle body to the fuel pressure regulator was unplugged. Put it all back together and it is now acting like its regular self.

Thanks for the help, but now i feel dumb lol.

Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

 

[adsm08]

Don't feel dumb, be glad you fixed it.

Do you know how many simple fixes I have falled bass akwards into after chasing the problem for a long time.