Hey guys, had kind've a strange issue pop up last night. It started when I was leaving a friend's house. I started the car, and about 30 seconds later I backed out of the driveway. When I shifted into 1st to start driving forward, I noticed the engine started reving unusually high for how much gas I was giving it. I put the car in neutral and took my foot off the gas. Then the engine speed by itself slowly raised up to about 3k rpms, and at the same time the parking brake light illuminated and the message center said "Parking Brake Engaged" or something like that (the parking brake was completely disengaged). This continued for a few seconds, and then the parking brake light turned off, the message center went blank again and the car idle returned to normal. Seemed fine the rest of the way home. Today, when I was driving the car to and from work, I noticed the power delivery in the lower rpm range is choppy and hesitant, and when I stop at lights, the engine speed dips down low to 400-500 rpms (actually died a few times), then rises to about 1000, and continues back and forth a few times... it's clear the car computer is trying to fight to get the idle right.

This is the first time I've had issues with the car. Never had any idle problems - always idled fine at about 750 rpms before now. I haven't touched anything under the hood - the car is totally stock. I bought it at Carmax where I work about a month ago (figures I start having problems like 2 days outside my 30 day warranty there). The car is still covered under manufacturer warranty, but before I take it in I just wanted to see if anyone has experienced anything like this before. Any help would be appreciated guys.

 

First, dis-engage the battery and wait for a few mins. See if the CPU resets itself..