Car stalls during idle after battery replacement, then fine after two days

[Ranger Mike]

A manual transmission is really fun when you are alone on a long winding road. But today I seem to be more and more stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic jams where the use of the clutch is just a pain. For an everyday car, I will choose an automatic transmission every time.

Whole heartedly agree..but I am no spring chicken! Towing a race car trailed with Dodge diesel truck and 6 speed manual trans is a bear! Loved it in my younger days!

 

[Baluncore]

But in bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic even die hard manual enthusiasts have to admit that an automatic is better.

That is really a statement about poor traffic engineering, and the lack of good public transport.

I was given an automatic with cruise control. They seem to be at war with each other, at my expense, a marriage arranged by Ford-Mazda. Maintaining the exact legal speed limit is all I ask, but that monster, in our gentle hill country, is forever varying speed by enough to annoy the following traffic, or cost me my licence.
Still, it was free, has air conditioning and a good stereo, so damn the environment.

 

[russ_watters]

I was given an automatic with cruise control. They seem to be at war with each other, at my expense, a marriage arranged by Ford-Mazda. Maintaining the exact legal speed limit is all I ask, but that monster, in our gentle hill country, is forever varying speed by enough to annoy the following traffic, or cost me my licence.

I've never had that happen and it makes no sense. Are you complaining about the car's shifting choices? If you were in a manual going up a hill in cruise control it wouldn't be able to shift and you'd lose speed.

This is a weird argument.

 

[Baluncore]

I've never had that happen and it makes no sense. Are you complaining about the car's shifting choices? If you were in a manual going up a hill in cruise control it wouldn't be able to shift and you'd lose speed.

No, the shifting is at the right time. The problem seems to be with the slip-ratio in the torque converter, that introduces a hysteresis into the control loop. The response time of the loop, is similar to one quarter of the hill wavelength, the hills being more like an ocean swell than a series of ranges.

The overdrive gear allows it to overspeed downhill, so I find myself locking out the overdrive when descending hills, and using the accelerator to help it climb hills. Cruise control makes me subordinate to the vehicle.

I probably view and analyse it differently, because I normally drive heavy diesels with manual transmissions. They have a wide torque range, so gear changes are not needed.

 

[Averagesupernova]

@Baluncore did you bother to investigate a potential defect with the cruise control or would you rather have complained about it? I haven't driven anything ever with a cruise control that was as bad as you say. If it truly was that bad I'd have looked for something wrong. Possibly a vacuum leak in the actuator.

 

[Baluncore]

... did you bother to investigate a potential defect with the cruise control or would you rather have complained about it?

It works well on the flat or on highways, and throws no warning codes. I think it is the road profile that upsets it. Until now, I have driven a few petrol-engined cars with manual boxes and cruise control, and they worked OK. I would never have bought a V6 petrol automatic, but it was free, and my other petrol town car, a manual, was away on loan.

Maybe I'm too critical because I know what is possible.

 

[Averagesupernova]

It works well on the flat or on highways, and throws no warning codes.

You said yourself that you suspected an issue with the control loop due to the converter. What makes you think the converter can be the only issue with the control loop? A leaky actuator will add a delay when it attempts to open the throttle.

 

[JT Smith]

That is really a statement about poor traffic engineering, and the lack of good public transport.

While I don't disagree that there's a lot of room for improvement with both those I certainly didn't mean it that way. There's a limit to what traffic engineers can do, practically, in a given situation. One can always dream but in the meantime you need to be able to get around.

 

[russ_watters]

Also, my car brakes when going downhill in cruise control. First I've seen do that and I'd prefer it didn't. Everyone has their preferences.

 

[Ranger Mike]

symbolipoint
had a question. is it answered to his satisfaction.


This question for any technical purposes is way out-of-my league.
How or why is it that replacing a dead car battery with a new battery would allow the car to stall while engine idling for 1, maybe 2 days, and then no further stalling after that? This should seem to make no sense. Typical modern car by well-known foreign manufacturer. Fuel-injected, in case that were important.

nuff said

 

[russ_watters]

symbolipoint had a question. is it answered to his satisfaction.

...nuff said

I've thought about splitting-off the digression, but because there doesn't seem to be anything more to say on the original topic, it doesn't seem to matter if it is split or not. Also, nobody reported the thread digression, so evidently nobody feels too strongly about it being a problem.

 

[tech99]

Yup, happened to me once. It's incredibly difficult to drive a manual transmission if you have to keep one foot on the gas all the time to avoid stalling.

Heel and toe for gear changing and hill starts is the essence of a good driver.

 

[berkeman]

Heel and toe for gear changing and hill starts

For hill starts, I've always preferred the emergency brake technique (but that assumes a hand-operated emergency brake lever).

 

[Baluncore]

Heel and toe for gear changing and hill starts is the essence of a good driver.

Early vehicles used a hand throttle, mounted on the steering column. There was no accelerator pedal in the model T Ford. Foot pedals were used to preselect a gear, then the other foot to operate the clutch.

 

[tech99]

I learned to drive with a crash gearbox (no synchromesh) and have always wanted to do so again. When braking and slowing, you need to use the heel-and-toe technique so you can rev the engine in neutral whilst simultaneously braking. Sorry this is a bit off topic.

 

[Baluncore]

I learned to drive with a crash gearbox (no synchromesh) and have always wanted to do so again.

Then compromise by avoiding use of the clutch. Adjust the transmission load to zero, then knock the synchro box into neutral, adjust the revs, then knock it into the next gear, and take up the load.
If you get the RPM wrong often enough, you will wear out the synchro rings, and end up with a real crash box. Have fun.

 

[sophiecentaur]

so why do people in the USA require so many cars to commute?

It's my precious and bus passengers smell. (Quote from a member of my family - and he's not even American)