A friend bought a car that had been parked for a few years. (Wouldn't start one day, owners left it sit.) A list of what we did to get it going is at bottom. The start-stall situation improved over time - partly repairs, partly driving w/ FI cleaner? Notes on that below.

Last week we found a new problem: I drove it ~1 hour. It smelled hot when I got home (temp gauge normal). Opened the hood and saw that the cap for one side of the battery was pushed up and the battery was steaming some. The battery was hot; both of the battery cables were supple and hot to the touch.

- Induction amp gauge on positive cable showed a 25-amp draw at idle - high for a fully-charged battery.
=> Alternator overcharging = regulator fail (or bad diode?)

After it cooled I restarted the car and pulled the negative battery cable (yes, risky thing to do but I assumed the alternator was already bad). Car idled rough, loped, almost stalled.

Replaced the alternator. Now repeated starts without any stalling. 1st time since we've had it on the road. So

1. Why would a failing/failed voltage regulator (or diode?) cause a start-stall-restart... condition? Which IME is usually an air leak between the MAS and throttle body or a failing MAS. Perhaps it's been mildly overcharging for some time and the computer's been trying to compensate by making it lean at start-up?

2. Why would the car while overcharging have a rough idle with a battery cable disconnected?


Parts & service over the past few months, from most recent to first (* = new part). The earlier items were the standard things one does to get a car back on the road. Those after the CPS change were attempts to fix the cold-engine start-stall-restart-stall ... condition.
- intake manifold gasket*
- ECT
- vacuum hoses*
- power stage
- MAS/AMM and air tube to throttle body
- O2 sensor
- FPR
- CPS
- cleaned Throttle plate and neck
- Timing belt, fan belts*
- cleaned batter connections, replaced one cable
- plugs, cap, rotor, wires*
- fuel filter*
- main fuel pump (believe this was why it stopped running)
- in-tank pump*, pickup hose
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240 drivers / parts cars - JH, Ohio