Troubleshooting

[Subsparx]

Is there anyone in the Redmond area who could help me troubleshoot my car? It recently started having a "hesitation" issue. It's never come up before, but recently it started severely hesitating. It's most apparent in second and third gear when it makes the entire car shake. It feels like fuel cut but I'm not sure. It also doesn't do it in first gear at any amount of throttle, it's only 2nd and 3rd gear. It doesn't happen in 4th, and I *think* I got it to happen in 5th once but loss of power in 5th gear isn't very noticeable. I also put a spring on my WGA to increase boost, and it does it regardless of the spring being there or not. I read that relocating the MAF fixes it for some people. I'm a bit apprehensive on doing that though. Don't want to mess up on fairly brand new intercooler pipes, especially considering this is my daily driver.

 

[88323GT]

What RPMs does it do it in? Are you sure its engine related and not clutch? Fuel cut shouldnt cut in unless your not mapped for higher boost, or you have a Vacume problem of some sort. I would go all through your intake system for loose clamps, double check your wastegate, hosing, etc. Then start looking at the electrical side of things.

 

[122 Vega]

I'm gonna guess that your spark plug gap is too wide. I had the same problem when I opened the gap up. Close them up to about 35 and see if it goes away.

Britt

 

[Subsparx]

Well I reset the ECU last night. That fixed the issue on the way home. However, coming back to work today it happened one time in second gear.

The RPM's it's happening at is completely random. This morning it happened at about 3.5k to 4k in second. The other night when it did it in 4th it was at 5k. Generally in second and third it cuts around 6k. There aren't any loose clamps or vacuum hoses.

I am not mapped for higher boost, so maybe that's it? I recently tried out the spring mod on the wastegate which took me to 9. However, these issues occur whether or not that spring is on, which makes me think it's not necessarily boost related. How do I check my Wastegate to see if it's causing problems? This is my first turbo car so I'm pretty unfamiliar with these problems.

I did just put in my Autometer Wideband AFR after this started happening. I'm definitely not going lean that's for sure. The AFR drops to 10, which is as low as it goes (apparently I can change the range on it so I'm going to try that tonight) any time the turbo kicks in. It's pretty much immediate. Even at 1psi it drops all the way down to the rich side. Could it just be bogging down from more fuel? I have the JoeP FPR Kit ready to install, I just didn't want to install it if it's going to cause more issues on top of what's happening now.

As for spark plugs, I recently replaced them with the ZFR6FIX-11's and gapped them to .032. I actually just changed them again to be extra careful regarding increasing my boost. I got the PZFR7G-G's or something similar to that. They were pregapped to .032. Double Iridium w/ Copper Core. Expensive but recommended by a couple people on the forums, so I'm assuming they are pretty good.

 

[ProtoType5]

Does it hesitate every time??? or just random??? I don't have any clue...might have some ideas if I saw it happen, but really no clue...

 

[Subsparx]

Your welcome to ride in my car and feel it. It's very noticeable. It's also completely random. When I drove home Monday night it didn't do it at all no matter how hard I was driving it until I went to pass that person in 4th and it kept jerking to the point where I really wasn't accelerating at all. My friend Todd who helps me work on the car all the time was trying to troubleshoot it Monday and we took it off road and it wouldn't do it. Following him to his house later that evening it did it probably 10 times, then when he got in the car it wouldn't do it for the 5-10 miles we drove. It's really bizzare.

 

[SwirlFX]

Sounds like you need to install the mpi,

 

[Subsparx]

The problem with that is a) not knowing how and b) time. I imagine it's going to take an entire day to have the thing installed and running correctly and that's assuming I know what I'm doing, and have a laptop to tune it with, which I don't.

 

[Subsparx]

Quick update. I'm installing the JoeP FPR kit today. I think I might head over to speedware and put in some 100 octane gas to give me a little bit more room for error just in case it leans out too far. I'll keep you guys posted if it fixes the problem.

 

[TreFlip999]

Good luck man, hate to see a MSP havin troubles

 

[Subsparx]

Another update. Alright, so I put the JoeP FPR on. I haven't done much with it yet. I put 100 octane gas in from Speedware Motorsports, but I've only driven about 30 miles so far so to be safe I haven't done too much with it yet. I'm scared to death of leaning out too much and blowing the engine. However, it seems to be better. My Wideband still reads at 10 at WOT, but now it's around 10-10.2. Considering before it was 10 flat, and that's as low as my Wideband goes, I'm assuming it was far lower. The hesitation occured one time in second at WOT around 4k, however it was almost unnoticeable, and I did see the Wideband go from 10.6 to 10.0 right when the car jerked. Nothing compared to before though. So hopefully this will be the last update to the thread. Either it's fixed for good, comes back again or the engine pops. Hoping not on the latter one.