Idle Speed Relearn - '03 Suburban

j0shu4 · January 17, 2011

Complete non-mechanic here and needing some help. (IT guy, so I'm technical and can figure some stuff out.)

I just replaced the throttle body on my 2003 Suburan 5.3 V8. Biggest job I've ever done on a vehicle. There was a tag on the new TB saying that "Idle speed relearn must be performed. Please refer to vehicle service manual for lastest procedure." Looked in the manual and nothing was there on how to do this. A Google search turned up mostly spam results with nothing mentioning my truck specifically. I did find this in the forum but he's speaking of an '07 Suburban. I also found this on another site; again, it's for an '07.

Would the process be the same? If not, what do I need to do?

Thanks y'all.

[email protected] · January 17, 2011

IMO, all that is required to do a idle relearn is that you drive it around the city and make sure you do a lot of stopping and starting(full stop) to let it idle in gear after moving. There is no procedure that you need to do and you don't really have to even relearn it, just drive it and the computer will learn.

f0st3r · January 17, 2011

Yup, had to go through this when I replaced the battery on my 02 Trailblazer a couple of months ago. It will idle like crap for a couple of hours till it learns.

j0shu4 · January 17, 2011

It will idle like crap for a couple of hours till it learns.

So are you saying you let it idle for hours on end straight, or periodic idling over days of use?

j0shu4 · January 17, 2011

Ok, I just took it out for a 10 minute drive. I also let it idle for 3 minutes, off for 1 minute, then idle for 3 before doing this. Everything seems to be fine. Idle is around 700 once it gets settled. When just idling RPM would bump up to 900-1000 every 20-30 seconds, then drop back down to 700 after about 5 seconds. Everything on the drive was fine. Stopped it every 1/8 of a mile or so. Only thing I noticed was a little shudder (for lack of a better word) when I killed it after the drive. I assume that will work itself out. I have to pick up the wife from work (20 mile drive) later on today. I'll let y'all know if anything funny happens.