It is simply a 9 volt battery attached to a accessory plug. During that process the engine may surge at idle, stumble on acceleration, even tend to stall.Ī simple work around for all of these problems is to buy a cheap device commonly sold as a memory saver.
When the battery is reconnected the system reverts to the factory settings until it relearns. Loss of battery connection for any reason causes the ECM to lose its keep-alive memory and these settings.
As you operate the vehicle over time the computers 'learn' driving habits, sensor wear, etc and the Ecm makes minor corrections to compensate. In addition, certain computer systems used now, primarily the engine and transmission management ones, have a feature built into them called 'adaptive learning'.
It can happen any time the battery is discharged, replaced, or simply unhooked to perform repairs. Having a radio lock up - anti-theft feature - is a very common problem with today's vehicles (as you just found out).
