It's just a guess, but it seems that the electronic sensors in these cars are rather sensitive, and that older batteries have caused certain problems like alarms going off for no reason, etc. Also, at 6 years old a battery can die without warning and leave you stranded somewhere. My wife's minivan battery died without warning last month at 6 years. That's why I'm replacing my roadster battery before heading down to St. Louis for CAA.

I don't know if a dirty throttle body might cause driveablity symptoms like you are seeing, but again it may be worth a try to clean it out. I've seen posts on how to do that on the forum. I'd also pour in a 20 ounce bottle of Chevron Techron fuel injector cleaner right before your next fill-up and then run that tank down low. Techron is the best cleaner I've used and does a great job of getting deposits off the injectors.

Best wishes on solving the problem.

 

Don, ill agree it doesnt sound like the fuel filter, based on what youre describing...

but a 6 year-old battery and the 5 year-old fuel filter are just bad maintenance habits i think thats why people are suggesting those items first.

while we're on the subject, hows the air filter look?

 

I'll be following this tread closely, my car is showing the same symptoms but only occasionally throwing a P0171 code.

 

Interesting, care to elaborate on the differences between the two? Thanks.

 

I would still try the new fuel filter !!!! How much will it cost to try it ????? I once had a car stop dead on a Sunday drive with wife & inlaws in the car !!! I had to call a tow truck & the 1st thing the guy said was did you check the fuel filter ??

 

The in-car throttle reset procedure only affects the throttle sensor, and drive-by-wire system, making it re-learn your driving habits.

Resetting the PCM wipes any codes set, and wipes out the history the module has learned about engine and powertrain management. It effectively has to re-learn all the sensor inputs. Ignition, fuel, etc. are all reset to the base programming. This WILL NOT wipe out any tunes people have had flashed to their PCM...... it just makes the computer re-learn any adjustments it has made in the past.

Resetting the PCM is strongly recommended if you change over to a CAI as the MAF wil read a totally new reading than it did before, and will speed-up the HP gains the engine attains due to the history stored in the PCM. It's just a law of averages kind of thing...... fuel mileage is easy to increase when you're only averaging it over 20 miles, but much harder to change when you're averaging it over 2000.

 

Ive heard nothing but good things about Chevron techron fuel injector cleaner too !!! Best to run one bottle then follow up with a second one, next tank of fuel !!! One of my hot rod mags had nothing but praise for this stuff !!!!!!!

 

Thanks for your detailed write up, ordered new battery and the fuel filter I will let the group know how it does after I see my mechanic sometime next week.

Thanks again.

Don

 

About to be fitting the CAI and was completely unaware of this. Thank you for the great info.