New battery causing car to stall? What are some potential problems and fixes?

Mike

New member
My wife just had a tune-up and was told that her battery was going, not dead, but going. So, we decided to preemptively get a new battery. Right when the battery was replaced at a local store, it had trouble kicking over. We got it to kick over and then were fine. The next day, the car started stalling mainly while idling around a turn.

I took the car to a competing store, Autozone, and he hooked up the battery to a tester. He said the battery was in perfect condition and the alternator was showing that it was also in perfect condition. The car is a 2005 Subaru Forester with 60k miles.

He told me to go home, disconnect the battery, wait 20 minutes or so, hook battery up, turn car on, let idle in driveway for about 15 or so minutes and then drive it around a little bit. His thought was that the computer might of been thrown off a little and this method would reset it possibly.

I did that and have driven around for about 15 minutes after letting it sit idling for 15. No stalling. Seems to be working. I'll test it again later tonight with a couple drives. I was told that it might take a few drives and starting and stopping to fully reset the computer.

My questions are as follows:

Could the computer have glitched when the new battery was installed and is what I did a good possible fix?

If this is not the problem, what could the problem be? I was told by a dealer that the throttle bodies might need to be cleaned. If so, how much is that typically from a non-dealer shop?

What else might I want to look into? I've been to some shady shops in the past and unfortunately am not trusting of any shops anymore. Sad, but true. I am trying to be as informed as possible whenever anything auto related comes up.

Thanks for any and all of your help!!!!
Additional info: 2005 Subaru Forester AWD with 60,000 miles

The guy at Auto Zone who hooked up the battery said the battery, alternator and starter were all fine. The car has absolutely no problem when it comes to starting, it's the fact it was stalling while idling through turns.
 
Yep. The Autozone fellow told you exactly what I would have. I am confident you are correct and have fixed the problem. Replacing a battery can mess with the computer a bit, but if you reset it (just as you did) the computer will be fine.

P.S. The throttle body had NOTHING to do with it! I can't believe the dealer told you that.
 
I went through the same thing. Don't know if this is the answer for your situation, but when you change out a battery. Usually the next thing to go is the starter. The two are connected. I changed out my battery. Then two weeks later, I had to get a new starter. Now it's fine.
 
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