[users@httpd] httpd(s) are consuming all cpu's

[tjzsm1]

Hi everybody,
 
We are running apache 1.3.39, modssl-2.8.30 and openssl-0.97m on Red Hat linux 
AS 3 and weblogic 8.1.6 on Solaris. The problem I got is there are always a few 
httpd processes keep running and taking all cpus. I can kill them but they will 
come back after one or two hours. Restarting apache can not solve the problem 
too. When I do a lsof on any httpd child process it returned lots of 
'CLOSE_WAIT' even on those cpu consuming and non-cpu-consuming processes. 
 
I checked Internet and basically understand what was happening for those 
CLOSE_WAITs, but how could we solve the problem?
 
Thanks,
Cary