Hey guys. well i had a bad scare last night, but it looks to be an electrical problem. I was out with a bunch of evo guys on a cruise, doing a bunch of runs with them. basically i ran the car pretty hard last night. Went to a spot where you can do some runs, i didnt do any. When i went to leave, i was facing the wrong way, so i went, gave it some gas, and whipped around, sliding. Did a half donut, let the backend whip the other way, and then pulled out of it. As i went to push my clutch in to go through an S turn, the car died. I thought nothing of it, pulled the clutch out and it restarted. When i went to give it gas, it felt like the throttle cable was completely off. No power at all, dead. So i pulled over, couldnt find anything. At first, couldnt get the car to run AT ALL. After it sat, i could get it to start and run, very rough though. It would rev, i hold it at 3k and all of the sudden, the RPMs would disapear, and it would die. No sputtering, just dead. Ive changed my plugs, checked every vacumn hose and such it could be assosicated with. Nothing. No loose or broken connectors. Battery terminals are tight and on. So far this one has me stumped...heres a list of what i have come up with...

-TPS gone bad
-Stuck open injectors
-Coil packs dead
-Wiring somewhere got hot
-Not the motor, leakdown test proved its holding good compression
-Random sensor gone somewhere
-Injector stuck open
-Coil packs taking a dump
-AEM got pissed and threw my map out

Any help? I dont really know where to start. Obviously you have 3 things, fuel, spark, and air. Gotta be one of those lol. My tuner is supposed to come on sunday and see if we can figure anything out. I hope, i dont feel like having an electrical problem!

-Alex

 

grounds, check your grounds, i always upgrade the factory battery to ground, alt to ground and i run a ground to the head.

 

checked all grounds...nothing. Pulled the valve cover and nothing is out of wack. Timing is still correct... Any other advice? Im going to switch coils with a local guy later and see if that does anything. Also having my tuner e-mail me my map and reload it...AEM does some stupid stuff. All other suggestions are welcome! Help me out here guys!

 

considering what you did just before the car went bonkers, i'd check all wires on the harness for continuity. Might want to check the main wires, Ie. the map sensor, the TPS, etc. Also, do you have an older EMS? You might have blown an ignition driver.

 

i would go with TPS/MAP sensor.

a few years ago i was at the track with my old integra. i had a worm clip from my intake up against my tps sensor. when i launched the motor moved hard enough to pull the intake (and the worm clip) and it ended up yanking out my tps sensor. spent days trying to figure it out until i rechecked all connections. plugged it back in and voila!

check the really silly things first

 

Ive checked EVERYTHING. I checked all wires to the TPS, its all good. I have checked every clip to make sure all wires are good. Im 99% sure at this point i have an injector stuck open. If i let the car sit for the night, and start it in the morning, it will start and run completely fine for 5-7seconds. After that, it will start stumbling on itself and dieing.

Ive been wanting those Bosch 1000's from T1. So if reloading my map, working coilpacks doesnt work, ill order them. Even if it doesnt fix it, it will give me an excuse. Although im pretty sure thats what it is. If i had an actual problem in wiring, it wouldnt run correctly before it starts falling on its face.

 

Maybe your cat is clogged (if you have one)?

 

if it dies after a few seconds, i'd check your TPS and MAP. I can run my car on 3 cylinders and itll still run, only sound like a WRX. Unplugging each injector one at a time (doing ignition as well) will show you if you have any issues. What does your A/F look like before it dies?

 

I havnt even looked at the A/F while it was running..but if i remember right, while it was stumbling all over itself, it was like 13.8. Ill try unplugging an injector and coil and let it run on 3 cylinders. I did a compression test also today, 180 across the board. So i know the motor is healthy.

What i dont understand is...why would the car run like normal for the first 5-7 seconds, and then die or stumble if it was a TPS or MAP problem(I have the AEM 3.5bar BTW, i checked it, all tight and plugged in).

 

have you done a datalog of all the sensors on startup? That should give you a quick idea of whats going on. i said to undo the injectors and ignition to see if it gets worse. Basically i was able to diagnose my issue (blown ignition driver) by taking each injector off, and seeing if it helped or hurt it. I did the same with the ignition.