Okay, many of you know I've been having a lot of problems with my car idling. well needless to say, it gets worse with colder air. I threw a CEL yesterday for my rear 02. nathan cleared it, but its back now after about 3 hours worth of driving. I figured its a vaccuum leak, but I've now tightened all hoses, plugged anything that could be leaking (so I think), and double checked everything. I seafoamed today and the only smoke coming from anywhere in the engine was a small crack in my borla headers. Could an 02 sensor in my cat section be causing a poor idle? The car runs great, until I have the clutch in and it can idle. It then imediately drops to about 500 revs and bounces up and down from the % or600rpm range to 50-100 range, occasionally dipping so low it kills. In the mean time I will just adjust my idle up to 1k so that it doesnt kill on me. Hopefully some of you will have some info that could be of use.
how much smoke is coming from the headers, if you remeber the problem with my jeep idling was the exhaust was off, the backpressure might be the main problem, you could be leaking enough to screw it up being that that is where the most pressure is after all, otherwise I know that a bad o2 will not only snd a check light but also cause poor gas mileage(very possibly cause poor idle I would THINK) try searchinh nasioc(the database of everything) and other wise REPLACE your damn plugs and wires, couldnt hurt, might help and it would be good/chep anyways, did you fix/replace your MAF? and wiring?? my bet is that it would run like a champ if you tacked that exhaust +ne plugs and wires, then kill the batt to reset the ecu.
yep, an entirely brand new engine harness is in the car, a maf from subaru was also installed. I will need to get the 02 sensor to get rid of the CEL, and yeah, spark plugs and wires will be high on the list, but I checked the plugs yesterday and they look brand new. The smoke from the headers is from a leak in one of the welds, its probably only a point as big as the tip of a ball point pen. Heh, its nothing like running straight off the headers with your jeep I'm just trying to figure out if the code the computer is throwing is the source of the problem. I can understand that an 02 would give you bad gas mileage, but your computer wouldnt trigger a CEL over some bad gas mileage. ^ that is why I believe there is a bigger reaction to the 02 sensor. Its now gone of 3 times, and every time its gone off the car has been acting up.
um...hm.....o2 then-look up that "CEL defeat mod" i know they make it for my years, I believe its just a spacer to set out the sensor like a 1/4 of an inch from the pipe because they read way too hot when you get headers??? could be that?
The rear O2 sensor has nothing to do with the idle of the car. I would look at you idle air controller. From you description of the idle that would be my first thing I would check. The second thing would be I would change the plugs and verify that the coil packs are properly connected.
your RS is a 99 right? it could be the maf sensor, fuji's car goes crazy like that everytime his maf sensor dies.
^ he just put a brand new maf in. like bikerboy said it isnt the rear 02. i am not running a rear 02 on my car and it runs A-OK i dont even get a cel for it! also that leak is tiny. i doubt that it is the problem. you should get it fixed though..
Yep, the leak isnt a big deal at all. Nathan pm'd me and we'll prolly just take care of it when I bring him his dough for the other work this week. Idle air controler=what? I searched, and am not 100% sure of what the part looks like. Price wise, can someone from tonka or bp let me know how much this part is gonna be to replace (I did a google search on idle air controller and something looking like a solenoid popped up) I think I remember seeing a peice like this underneath my torque box aiming towards the throttle body.
Definitely check out your IAC (Idle air controller). My car was doing basically the same thing. Whenever I would blip the throttle it would dive down way too low in the revs and sometimes die. I followed the instruction and cleaned out my IAC and it works great now! Here is the instructions I followed (dont' forget to login to see the pics) http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=781242
wow, thats an awesome write up. thanks for the help, I will do this as soon as I get home from duluth on tuesday. I'm assuming that this is the root of my problem, as it lists the EXACT symptoms my car is showing. Thanks guys and I'll try to update in two days if I get the problem fixed.
Okay I got home about 2 hours ago, just spent an hour getting everything pulled apart. The wrx writeup on the IAC is MUCH different than my car's system. I dont even know if I have one... I ended up pulling off my throttle body as thats what seemed like would have this system in it. All I can find is a sensor on the throttle, and a solenoid looking device off to one side. It definately looks like it would restrict the pathway of the air bypassing the throttle (idle) but I'm not sure what to clean on it. I figured I would be looking at a sensor. My car is a 99 with a MAF, I did just replace the maf, so unless I blew another one, I dont have the slightest clue whats going on with the car. I cleaned all of the IAC (or so I think it is) up. the solenoid did seem sticky, and I cant imagine it would work. Should I be replacing that? I have to run to the dealership tomorrow to pick up a new gasket for the tb, so while I'm down there it would be easier to grab a new one.
