VTCS or Flash? Studder Problem

[Tech_Greek]

Well,

Me and my friend have been slowly messing with his Mazdaspeed Protege for a while, he's got a SRT4 FMIC (ghetto, yes, but it works and defintley helped).

They voided his warrenty when it was stock and charged him a diag fee (screw you moffit mazda, stick it up the ass) because they said that his car wasn't stock (when it was).

So anyway, he made a mistake of buying ebay spark plug wires which melted and or self grenaded and gave him a bad misfire. New coils and NGK wires & plugs later the misfire is gone.

The problem is the car HAULS ass past 5.0K/5.5K RPM but it will hesitate from 3,000 RPM to 5.0/5.5K RPM which I know the car has the VTCS.

So this leads me to two things...

1) Is it the ECU Reflash that fixes this? Now, they said they did the reflash at the stealership but they also thought his stock mazdaspeed wing was aftermarket...soooooo I don't really trust their well, dumbness?

2) Could it be the VTCS system fluttering or staying open or closed? I tried to disconnect the two power connectors on the dynamic chamber and I could physically feel the system stop working at idle but of course I'm not a small chinese guy who can fit in the engine bay and feel the acutator when he hits 3k - 5.5k RPM.

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- Tech

 

[Rush]

Sounds like the infamous hesitation that the MSP gets no matter what .. Yeah, the flash is supposed to fix this problem, but it doesn't entirely make it go away. After you put on even more mods, it comes back. I speak from experience on that.

And it sounds like your Mazda dealer isn't even compitent enough to know what the MSP flash is -- nevermind having actually done it to the car. Is there any other Mazda dealership you can take it to that might have a brain in their head?

Or you can go with the solution that will definitely fix the problem, but of course be costly -- a fuel management program. I got the Unichip. Then again, if the warranty has been voided .. I don't know if the idiotic dealership would just make you pay for the flash anyway.

 

[Tech_Greek]

Sounds like the infamous hesitation that the MSP gets no matter what .. Yeah, the flash is supposed to fix this problem, but it doesn't entirely make it go away. After you put on even more mods, it comes back. I speak from experience on that.

And it sounds like your Mazda dealer isn't even compitent enough to know what the MSP flash is -- nevermind having actually done it to the car. Is there any other Mazda dealership you can take it to that might have a brain in their head?

Or you can go with the solution that will definitely fix the problem, but of course be costly -- a fuel management program. I got the Unichip. Then again, if the warranty has been voided .. I don't know if the idiotic dealership would just make you pay for the flash anyway.

Yeah, because he's modded the s*** out of it now since the voided the warrenty.

Hows the unichip, just plug and play? Tunability? etc

 

[Rush]

Yeah, because he's modded the s*** out of it now since the voided the warrenty.

Hows the unichip, just plug and play? Tunability? etc

Unichip is plug & play .. to a degree.

It comes 'pre-tuned' for certain mods. I think an intake and an exhaust? I can't remember off the top of my head, but I know that the info is posted in more than a few places. Anyway .. it works well tuned as is, but if you really want the best results, you can either contact JDM Sam on here (who can send the unit to, and he'll tune it for you based on a mod list) or you can find a 'local' Unichip tuner and have it tuned in person.

There's MPI tuners and whatnot not allow you to tune it yourself .. but unless you REALLY know what you're doing, I wouldn't suggest going that route, heh.

Just do a search for 'MSP fuel management' and 'Unichip' and 'MPI tuners' and you'll see what's out there.

 

[TitaniumSpeed24]

yeah, i kinda have this same problem; i get it in 2nd gear and, actually, basically ONLY in 2nd gear. no idea why, but i do - all i have is a Forge BOV (sometimes, on top of the turbo spool, i get a really high pitched whistling coming from the enigne bay and im pretty sure this happens, again, only in second gear.) As well, I get the same thing that Greek is talking about; in 2nd, itll start to spool LOUDLY but it really doesnt move much (feels laggish) and then it picks up again at around 5,500 but I dont like to run it up that high. I'm planning on getting it flashed - would the flash fix this? or at least help it a bit?

 

[S.A.MSP]

Ok, so my ECU is flashed, the only mods i have is a custom exhaust, replaced the air box with a OBX filter and i have an Apexi AVC-R Boost controller boostin about 10 psi, i intalled NGK platinum spark plugs and i've closed the gap to .020 mm, i'm still having the ****** studdering problem, the cheapest i've seen the Unichip is 599.95 from Protege Garage, but i don't wanna spend that money and still have that problem.

 

[Rikatomika]

I also have this issue. I also get the whistling noise at high rpms whch I assumed was the air from the turbo possibly being vented. Now im at the point where I hardly get any boost eventhough I can hear the turbo spin up so for some reason I'm not getting proper boost too the engine maybe.