One other thing...

My car did something odd twice last year. After shutting the car off and letting it set for 5-10 minutes, I start it back up and head down hill. I realize I am speeding up - and I press the clutch and the engine races to the red end of the tach! It hovers around 3500 to 4500. Out of "what do I do now?" I turn the key off and coast to a stop.

Restarting the car and driving off, I dont' experience it again. Until, about a month or two later, when I start the car up warm and head down hill - and it does it AGAIN.
NO ONE on this forum has reported this happening but me. The car has not done it since. Sound familiar?

I replaced the battery (because it was four years old and I always buy the cheapest battery and change it every four years) and like I said, it has not done it since.



Ok, one MORE thing....

Which brings us to the next thought: Our cars have all sorts of issues with a weak battery. How old is yours? As I said before, I buy the cheapest battery that meets the CCA requirements of the car and change it often. By trying to stretch a battery for years and years, you same some money, UNTIL you need a tow someday because it failed.

OR....

Until some weird electrical issue pops up and you throw parts and money at the car, guessing at what is wrong, when the simplest (and pretty cheap and easy) item, the battery, gets ignored.

SO, um, how old is the battery? (And if you respond with, "Oh, I had it tested by some smelly guy in a dirty shirt and he said it was fine", I will NEVER respond to your posts again. I did NOT ask you if you had it "tested", I asked how old it is.)



Remember, the battery has one big job: Provide several hundred amps of current to turn the engine over to get it started, while maintaining at least 11 or so volts. When you get your battery "tested", they put a fractional ohm load on it and see how much current it produces and if it can maintain voltage.

Most people think the battery's job is over when the engine starts because "the alternator takes the electrical load from there, and recharges the battery". Which is true, but that is NOT the end of the battery's job. The alternator puts out rectified three phase AC, not DC. That is to say, it puts out "bumps" of voltage/current that look like NOISE to all the electrical modules in the car. The battery's second job is to smooth out the bumps, that is, it is a filter. If the battery is no longer filtering well, it COULD be that the PTCM is falling into confusion due to the "dirty power" it is being fed with.

When you get your battery tested, to test the filtering capability takes an oscilloscope and enough knowledge to use it. The result is, the battery is not tested for it's filtering capacity. So don't waste your time "getting the battery tested". (Of COURSE, if the battery DOES fail the capacity test, replace it; I am just saying that a passed capacity test is not a complete test and that you should NOT start throwing parts at the car if you won't start with the battery.)