Replaced alternater and now won't idle
 

Help! New to this forum..........

My daughters 97 montero sport with 3.0 V6 won't idle. It had a bearing squealing in the alternator for several weeks now but the alt. finally died the other day when my daughter was driving back from college. I guess after the battery finally ran flat, the engine cut off. Anyway, her boyfriend came and jumped the car off and they got it home (luckily she was only a couple miles from home when it died) i got home, jumped the car off and had 7 volts at the battery when running. I pulled alternator and replaced with new one, and charged the battery. car cranked fine and now has 14 volts at battery when running. The problem is now the car will not idle!!! It has done this before when I had to change a battery connector and more recently when i had to repace the battery several months ago. But I guess the computer had to "re-learn" or "reset" and the car was fine after a short period of driving. However, it has been 5 days since I replaced the alternator and it still will not idle. I don't know if this is relevant to the issue, but my daughter informed me this morning that the tachometer appears to be possessed! She said it just starts wandering all over the dial. The engine RPM's are not moving with the tach when it goes haywire.

Any help appreciated!

Ernie

RE: Replaced alternater and now won't idle
 

Try disconnecting the neg cable on the battery for 5min then drive again and see what it does. Also do u have a cel?

RE: Replaced alternater and now won't idle
 

I did not have a cel, but I found my problem. Time I opened the hood to start checking it out I spotted the PVC valve coming out of the drivers side valve cover. The PVC was broken in half and must have been sucking in a lot of air and freaking everything out. I must have hit it when I was trying to get the top radiator hose out of the way to get the fan and fan shroud back in. $3 PVC later it's back to running great.

Thanks!

RE: Replaced alternater and now won't idle
 

Yeah that will do it, nice job!