Idle problems fixed with clean Battery Connections

[lmdew]

The 98 OBS 2.2 I picked up had an idle that was not as smooth as a Subaru should be. The normal stuff was done, new plugs, plug wires, cleaned the intake track with Seafoam.

 

It was still a little off. I went to jump a car the other day and was shocked at the amount of corrosion under the positive red boot.

 

I took some time to neturalize the acid and clean everything up. The idle is now as smooth as can be. Just a reminder that the ECU and sensors are operating on very small voltage signals and need a good clean circuit.

 

Hope this helps someone down the line.

[Cougar]

Thanks for the tip Imdew. Bad connections like that to the battery can let noise through since the battery acts somewhat like a filter for the electrical system. Another good reason to keep those battery connections in good shape.

[porcupine73]

Cool. Maybe it also had to do with resetting the ECU? I saw an article on EndWrench, forgot the years impacted, where if the battery was previously disconnected for only a short period of time and reconnected it could have a poor idle?

[OB99W]

[...]I saw an article on EndWrench, forgot the years impacted, where if the battery was previously disconnected for only a short period of time and reconnected it could have a poor idle?

http://endwrench.com/images/pdfs/RoughIdle.pdf

[lmdew]

I know the disconnect of the battery will cause the ECU reset. The info I was passing on is that the poor idle was before the battery was disconnected not after. Cleaning the terminals fixed the problem! Larry