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Replaced Battery Car...Car Stalls at Stops

62K views 25 replies 14 participants last post by  Kikidarlin 
#1 ·
I have a 2005 Mazda 3i - 2.0L. Nothing special. Your typical stock car.

I just replaced the original battery today, and now my car stalls when coming to a stop. Has never done this before. WTH!? Took back to auto store to check battery. Battery & alternator are fine.

Any issues with reset after replacing battery? Help!
 
#2 ·
The only thing I could think of is the ECU is still learning, but honestly, I've only ever seen a car stall out once when the ECU was reset. After restarting the car kept running.

Are your connections tight? Did you scrub the terminals before installing the battery?
 
#4 ·
My guess would be that you didn't put on the battery cables correctly and one is coming lose, though this likely wouldn't stall it (as the alternator would run the electrical system).

Other guess is that the ECU was still relearning things and came to to abrupt of a halt during its learning process (it doesn't 'catch' itself as well if revving or dropping RPMs until it has relearned things after a few minutes of warmed up driving and idling).
-Matt
 
#5 ·
When the car stalls, does everything electrical in the car die? Because if it was a battery connection problem, you'd see lights go out and whatnot.

I suspect your problem is due to a failing fuel pump...this is what happened to my old car (and was ultimately what made me decide to be done with it and trade in for my 3). I think you replacing the battery around when it started happening is just a coincidence.
 
#7 ·
[quote author=Crazimon link=topic=157018.msg3341758#msg3341758 date=1253929350]
I have a 2005 Mazda 3i - 2.0L. Nothing special. Your typical stock car.

I just replaced the original battery today, and now my car stalls when coming to a stop. Has never done this before. WTH!? Took back to auto store to check battery. Battery & alternator are fine.

Any issues with reset after replacing battery? Help!
[/quote]

Wow, our cars must be freakin' twins. Same symptoms, started the same way.

My 2005 3s had a suspect battery so I went to AutoZone to have it tested yesterday (10/11). Under load the old unit put out 280A so time for a new one as this one is 1 mo. shy of 5 yrs. Put the Duralast Gold unit in there, drove it home. I pulled the battery when at home to clean out the battery container box (the crummy OE Panasonic unit once had some battery fluid spill over, crudded up the bolts underneath). Slathered silicone grease on the connectors, re-installed the battery and drove it around last night with no issues I detected, but my wife (who was driving it really) said she once felt a stumble. I never felt it. Note the car was warmed up when we took it out last night.

Today the wife takes it out, drove it from a cold start and last evening the temps dropped about 20F from the evening before. About 3 mi. from the house she calls in a panic that the car had stalled out but cranked just fine. She also told me that the trip odo hadn't reset nor had the clock/radio presets. Tell her to tool it back to A/Z to have the battery checked. Pegs their tester at 650A, no issue with battery. Guy checks the battery cable connections, tight as they should be. Put the alternator under load, tested okay he says. Then he checked for any codes in the ECM, nada. He thought maybe the ECM was relearning, didn't know what else could be wrong. Suggested gas may be bad, but the car has been running on the same tank for 250 mi. so far with no issues until the battery was replaced.

She drove it more, never stalled but did act flakey when coming to a stop at traffic lights. She said the RPMs would go to nearly 1000, drop to 500, then bump to normal as she's coming to a stop. Car also once on the several errand stops she made took 2 cranks to get it to start, something never happened before.

I call the service guy at the dealership, describe to him what happened. This fellow has never steered me wrong, immediately said it was the ECM re-learning, not to worry for a day or two. He seemed sure it was ECM relearning from his tone, something I'd not heard him be so sure of before (guy is at Capital Mazda in Cary, NC). It almost sounded like this is common with Mazdas from his tone.

This car had the new ECM firmware flashed in July 2008, so I think that's the latest rev and it addressed these exact problems (had the same issues with the car until the reprogram). I had similar issue, sans the 2 time starting problem, years ago but it was pretty consistent. The re-flash cured it back then, never had the issues since. My wife also tried cranking it after it had sat an hour in the garage after she got home; fired up like normal. She also tried after a 2 hr. sit, fired immediately, drove it a few blocks but no more stalling/weirdness. She said it acted like "problem? what problem?". It was as if nothing had ever been off kilter.

I tried cranking the car in the garage earlier, car had been sitting for 4 hrs., cranked fast as can be. I noted it had 60 mi. on the odo since I pulled the battery yesterday, and I've hear some cars can take up to 100 mi. to completely re-learn or 10-12 cranks. I'm keeping an eye on it but this is really weird and seems suspicious it happened as soon as I pulled that battery and the car sat easily 30 min. with it out. We'll see how it acts tomorrow morning.
 
#9 ·
[quote author=DrWebster link=topic=157018.msg3366725#msg3366725 date=1255400986]
Though it's never happened to me, I've heard of 3's stalling or having weird idle while the ECU relearns. Give it a few more days to smooth out and see if you still have the problem.
[/quote]

The car still has the same problem after what the service guy said to try today:

1) make sure car if fully warmed up
2) disconnect the battery for 3+ min.
3) reconnect battery, crank car, let it sit idling for at least 2 min.

Did that (let it idle for 5 min.), still seems to have some of the problem (though not as pronounced). I made an appointment to take it on on Thursday just in case it doesn't clear up by tomorrow. The car was driven for over 90 mi. before I disconnected the battery earlier today; I figured it would have cleared up by now but didn't.

I've owned several computer-controlled cars since the mid 80s and never have seen a car twitchy to battery replacement before (if that indeed is what started this). I'm stumped as to what is going on. Time to feed the dealer more $$, eh? :(
 
#10 ·
[quote author=jason99 link=topic=157018.msg3341837#msg3341837 date=1253933357]
The only thing I could think of is the ECU is still learning, but honestly, I've only ever seen a car stall out once when the ECU was reset. After restarting the car kept running.

Are your connections tight? Did you scrub the terminals before installing the battery?
[/quote]
that happened to me, my car stalled once after reset the ECU, the car stalled at a stop, and after that it never happen again
 
#11 ·
Unfortunately the problem didn't go away as of yesterday. Tried a more thorough reset of the ECM I found in a TSB on throttle body cleaning. Didn't help, car acts weird when letting off the throttle but doesn't stall anymore. It's not battery as the car fires up faster than ever with the new unit. In fact, the problem seems to have gotten worse but no CEL comes on.

My wife is at the dealership. Hopefully they'll get it fixed (or at least diagnose) what is wrong by the end of the day.
 
#12 ·
Just got the car back from the dealer. It was a badly carbon encrusted throttle body that needed cleaning. Seems the T/B in the Mz3 gets dirty easily as it's covered in a TSB from earlier this year. The service guy said replacing the battery reset the computer and it could never adjust to the problem.

The mechanic re-flashed the computer just to be safe, pulled the T/B and cleaned it well. Idle is back to normal now, idles even smoother than before. Total cost out the door was $95 including sales tax/shop fees. BTW, the car has 43,000 miles on it. Never knew the throttle body in a car can get that gunked up in 5 yrs.

The service guy also recommended running either Shell or BP gasoline in it as he says they've got the best additive package among gas stations (Raleigh, NC) and that will delay when this happens again.
 
#14 ·
[quote author=W650Rider link=topic=157018.msg3373173#msg3373173 date=1255743618]
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but isn't the fuel injected further downstream than the throttle body? The fuel and additive would never get to the throttle body in that case.
[/quote]

That's what I thought at first, so I shouldn't have just spouted what the service advisor said. I still had to wonder: the T/B isn't in the gasoline or PCV stream so how it could get deposits on it like that to begin with? In our old Saturn with the Opel V6 the PCV tube was right before the t/b butterfly so it was easy to see why it got gunked up. On second look I should have realized it didn't make sense but these 4 cyl. engines have enough of a problem that there's a TSB about it.

I had to make a trip back to the dealer today as the mechanic overlooked a small thing (forgot to replace one of the plastic screw-like clips holding down the battery intake pipe). I got to speak to the mechanic that did the work. He said gas won't make much difference (surprise) except to injectors/intake valves. He never answered as to how it happens but did say higmore high speed driving slows down when it happens (I have short trips mainly, with a lot of idling). Apparently some crankcase gasses can get to the throttle plate is the best I can guess and gunks it up. I'm still not sure what it is about Mazdas that makes the throttle body get dirty like this. Our wagon didn't have this issue until about 90,000 miles, not 43,000.

What the mechanic was speculating about my particular issue was the t/b was so crusted with residue that when the battery was disconnected the butterfly completely closed (he said it stays partially open even when off and the battery is connected). There was enough residue it must have started binding the hinges some when it completely closed. Cleaning it obviously freed it up. He also said there was quite a bit of carbon deposits in the entire intake stream he could see when the t/b was removed. He suggested their BG-branded intake cleaning treatment for $160.

Any comments on his suggestion? I'm not 100% convinced it's necessary. I figure the car was designed to handle the deposits in the intake. The car doesn't use oil or have other issues from what I can tell.
 
#15 ·
I had a Ford Ranger 4 cyl with TB, it also crapped up the throat, and I heard they were prone to do that. Do the crankcase vent gasses go thru it?

I always use Chevron gas, the Techron has a good rep, and I throw a bottle of injector cleaner in about every oil change.

About 43k on our 05 5door, had if for 6k miles and so far runs like a jet. I'll keep this all in mind as the miles build.
 
#18 ·
[quote author=Crazimon link=topic=157018.msg3341758#msg3341758 date=1253929350]
I have a 2005 Mazda 3i - 2.0L. Nothing special. Your typical stock car.

I just replaced the original battery today, and now my car stalls when coming to a stop. Has never done this before. WTH!? Took back to auto store to check battery. Battery & alternator are fine.

Any issues with reset after replacing battery? Help!
[/quote] :(
 
#19 ·
[quote author=RichiRich link=topic=157018.msg3502205#msg3502205 date=1263829873]
[quote author=Crazimon link=topic=157018.msg3341758#msg3341758 date=1253929350]
I have a 2005 Mazda 3i - 2.0L. Nothing special. Your typical stock car.

I just replaced the original battery today, and now my car stalls when coming to a stop. Has never done this before. WTH!? Took back to auto store to check battery. Battery & alternator are fine.

Any issues with reset after replacing battery? Help!
[/quote] :(
[/quote]
 
#20 ·
[quote author=Crazimon link=topic=157018.msg3341758#msg3341758 date=1253929350]
I have a 2005 Mazda 3i - 2.0L. Nothing special. Your typical stock car.

I just replaced the original battery today, and now my car stalls when coming to a stop. Has never done this before. WTH!? Took back to auto store to check battery. Battery & alternator are fine.

Any issues with reset after replacing battery? Help!
[/quote]

Hello,

I had the same problem last week. I installed a new battery after having AAA jump me the night before. I took my 3 to Firestone to have an Interstate battery installed after Mazda wanted to charge me over $200 to install a new one. After installing the battery I figured to check the work they did visually. Firestone cracked the battery compartment and left a screw out from the air piece that goes into the battery compartment. They are ordering me a new one. Let see if they fix right. Anyway, after I left Firestone I went for a short trip a few miles from where I live. After stopping at a stop sign my Mazda stalled. It started right up after that. I did notice after I returned from that trip the cars rpm's were a bit unsettled. Almost a week later everything seems to have settled. I have not had any more stalls and the car is running great as always. I am still waiting to hear from Firestone since they had to order the part from Mazda.
 
#21 ·
After I cleaned the throttle body, the car has been running much better.
I did have a little problem:
While I was cleaning the throttle body, I noticed two of the cables going to the coils were "damaged". The outer covering was not taped on these two cables and the outside plastic was worn in a couple of spots and I could see the inside silver strands of the cable. SO, I figured I would tape them up real good. After I put everything back together, I started the car and backed up only to have it stall again. This time, I couldn't get it restarted. The system immolbilizer was enabled. I visibily checked all the fuses twice.I ended up having to get Mazda to diagnose. Apparently, I had a blown engine fuse - the tech said it didn't look bad, but it was..? Anyway, after he replaced the fuse, the car started and one of the coils were bad. I ordered a new coil (they had none in stock) and replaced. Car has been running great since.
 
#22 ·
Im having the same issue on my Mazda 3 2004. I didnt even change the battery, just cleaned the one connector that was dirty and I changed the air filter. After reconnecting everything, got in and it started fine, but it died on me twice while coming to a stop at a stop light. The RPMS fluctuated real bad and that was that.

Anyone think this could be linked to the IAC valve?
 
#23 ·
Whenever I've disconnected the battery to clean the posts & cables, or to wash down the engine compartment my '05 3i's engine has idled poorly for a few start/stop cycles. My guess is it probably takes a while for the EFI computer to "re-learn" after the operational memory stored in the ecu is lost when the battery is disconnected.

After a few engine start/stop cycles so far the rough & inconsisitent idle speed issues have corrected themselves. My guess is this s/b true for other owners unless they have other hidden issues...like a dirty throttle body, MAF sensor, etc.

Note: I've never inspected or cleaned the throttle body or MAF to-date (72k+ miles). and my engine still runs fine and produces consistently good mileage. I'll probably inspect the condition of these items later this spring though...just-in-case.
 
#24 ·
Tnmats,

I'm curious. Does your 3 have an original equipment or stock style aftermarket (dry pleated paper) air filter? Or, does it have an oiled foam or oiled gauze air filter like a K&N? Also, have you owned the car since it was new? If not there is a possibility that the prior owner may have used an oil-treated air filter in the car.

If the car has only had dry paper air filter media I don't understand where the "gunk" would come from-unless perhaps oily mist from the PCV system could be combining with any particles in the intake air that might manage to get through the air filter.
 
#26 ·
07 Mazda 3 stalls at Stops

My husband will take the car for a week and can not duplicate the problem. This seems to happen about every 3 months and the Car's pc doesnt show any problems. It is an 07Mazda 3....basic...no bells or whistles.

On my way to work this morning....no air running, no lights on, just the radio. In slow moving traffic....approachng red light....car shook and all the "check" lights came on and car stalled. Took 3 cranks to restart. 5 minutes...same scenario........immediately put in to Nuetral and gave it gas and it was fine.

Im stumped....Im scared to drive to work. It never does it on the weekends.....we are never sitting in traffic. When my husband takes the car his route is so different that he doesnt sit in stop and go traffic....

Any ideas?
 
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