so i left my dome light on all night and my battery is dead. not the first time but whatever. i left in on a trickle charge all day so the battery is good and charged. my question is why is my truck such a pain in the *** getting back started right again. it starts but will die if i don't give it gas. every time it dies i have to throw it in reverse and haul ***** up the driveway and throw it into drive and take off and then after driving around for about 5 minutes its fine again. is there any easier way besides not leaving the dome light on to get me back running again. a friend told me that its probably because the computer has to relearn itself again. i tried just revving it to normal operating temp and it kinda worked and then shut it off and tried again but no dice. thanks for your help.

 

I'm guessing your trickle charger probably didn't dump enough charge back into the battery. The behavior you describe is pretty consistent to what I have experienced jump starting a "dead" battery in my truck. Put it on a beefy charger for several hours and you should be good (maybe 15A for 6 hours).

Cartman

 

I have seen a fair few folks that have this problem after just disconnecting their battery long enough for the computer to 'forget' though too. Mine doesn't do that...... I have no clue why that should be so......

 

Your battery may well be toast if it's been discharged a lot. Get it tested, it's free at most parts stores.

 

if the battery voltage is not pretty strong, like up around 11-12 volts, it screws up the sensor readings and the stupid thing won't idle.

 

thanks guys

 

mine did the same thing. luckly its a manual i can clutch it and stuff

 

That would be your Idle Air Control Solenoid. The computer has a button battery inside it that is supposed to maintain memory, after about 9 or 10 years that battery is dead. Thus disconnect it for a while, it's back to factory programming. It will take a fair bit of actual driving to relearn the correct idle, using the air conditioning will help to quicken this. If you CONTINUE to have a problem something is wrong with either your IAC, you may have a vacuum leak that the computer isn't "trimmed" for and causes it's own problems, you could also have a bad ecm, you may even have clogged IAC passages. Most likely is you need to drive your truck around running errands for an hour or two, it'll quit dying at lights and stop signs before your done.

 

is there a way to change this "button" battery?