How do I shut off SAFC?

[eldiabloz13]

Ok i baught this 91 tsi awd sunday. Called the kid up the next day to say i want my money back becuase i noticed bondo lines. He said no so i said you will no matter what or were goen to court. Well to have a leg to stand on i need the car to fail emissions. Thats no problem becuase the car has the following mods.

small 16,3' turbo back exhaust,evo3 o2 housing,SAFC2,was venting the BOV till i put the stock pipes back on.

Now its going to fail but all of the sudden its sputtering. Like i will give it gas and it will be fine then half throttle it will go and sputter. Then i changed the plugs and wires then that worked for a little now its backffiring. BAD.....i noticed a exhaust mani bolt was broke off and 2 others didnt have nuts attached to them.

I assume this is why its backfiring now. I also noticed that when i took the plugs out they had tan looking tips instead of the black the way they went in. Whats going on i need help ASAP. I dont even think this car will make it down the road w/o breaking.

He has a SAFC2 in it and was venting his BOV before. Do you think he tried correcting the fuel with that by taking some out. The car also had a 255lph fuel pump in there but i replaced it with a 190lph. It didnt even have a AFPR so thats why i did. Is there anyway to just shut off the SAFC and let it go back to normal settings.

 

[SexperT]

Im sure the settings on the SAFC are too rich, have someone tune it, or just put it on 0 all across the board. on HI and low...

 

[ndsti]

Tan or white spark plugs normally mean running lean. Try resetting the SAFC to zero.

 

[SexperT]

It wouldnt be backfiring if its running lean.

 

[eldiabloz13]

How do i reset it to zero. Go to the hi and lo setting and just put zero across the board? I unpluged the SAFC from the harness and it stopped backfireing as much. Now its every now and again. Now there were exhaust manifold studs broke off so i put nuts on them the best i could. I assume the exhaust is sucking in air and causeing this but the SAFC helped with the mess as well.

 

[SexperT]

Yep, 0 across the board, if you dont have any fuel upgrades you shouldnt be making drastic changes to the fuel injection.

Hope you fix all the problems, make sure you get the manifold leaks fixed.

 

[eldiabloz13]

Well it has a 190lph FP and he gave me injectors that say INP-009. As for those leaks easier said then done. Very hard to get to because this is my daily thats why i baught it. Im just going to take it back now if it fails emissions.

 

[nightspeed87]

good chance it will fail emissions, but tan plugs are actually normal according to my hanes manual, white are lean and black are too rich. Disconnect the battery and then replug it back in like 20 minutes later and see if that helped anything because normally doing that resets the ecu. Also consider doing a compression test, and i could also assume from your analysis that you could possibly have a bad misfire. Check out all your spark plug wires and the coil itself, or maybe some volts are arching. Once my car had leaking plugs arching really bad and gave it a mean misfire here and there causeing similar sympthoms. See if he hacked the mass also if he did that wrong that could be a culprit even.

 

[Auto RS T]

To answer your thread title you can't just "turn off" the AFC II. The AFC is a piggyback unit to the ECU, it is hardwired into your car's harness. It intercepts the airflow signal to your ECU from the MAS.

Do not unplug the AFC with the car running! Do you have a Check Engine Light on? To reset the settings to stock without losing your vehicle settings change the high and low throttle to 0% across the board.

Check the things (Nightspeed87) mentioned. Also set the base idle and timing.

Here is a link. The "engine" section has an article that tells you how to fix the studs. The idle procedure is also in there under the "intake" section.

http://vfaq.com/index-main.html

 

[nightspeed87]

A boost leak test wouldnt hurt either ...

 

[eldiabloz13]

Well i Didnt do the title. A mod came and fixed it over me. It was titled differently but didnt state a real problem more a cry for help. Now i am going to tell you guys the whole story.

I baught this car sunday. The way home i could give it gas and it would be fine then when i gave it about half throttle it would sputter. I figured its because he was venting the BOV. I go to take it back the next day because i realized the car had no cat on the 3' turbo back exhaust. So it would fail. He said he's not given my money back yada yada court time so on. Now i put the stock BOV back on and not venting then changed the plugs and wires. Took it down the street and it was fine. Little weird idle but w.e. At this time the SAFC was still hooked up. Well yesterday i remembered he said he had a 255lph fuel pump in there. I had a 190lph goen in my other tsi so i said ill swicth them out. Then i remembered my parents saying dont touch the car. So i put the plugs and wires back to the old ones after i did this i started the car up and it BACKFIREEEDDD. Like no tomorrow. Then a guy out of nowhere came across the street and said timing. Then noticed manifold studs broken off in the hole and some studs with no bolt. Only a little of the threads where showing so i put a bolt on there the best i could but it was the bottom right, TWO studs. With the PS in the way i couldent get the far right one all the way. This stopped the backfireing sort of. Then i completly unpluged the SAFC straight from the wiring harness. So its still hooked up but the SAFC is taken off the harness. The car wount even idle w/o stalling now and so on.

Well then today i had to get it tested for emissions to have a leg to stand on in court. I changed the plugs out again and wires. Im sure there hooked up right but if someone could give me a order like cylinder A to the coil pack plug closets to the front of the car. Or you can give me what cylinders are 1 and what coil packs numbers are. That would be cool too. It didnt back fire as much but it also didnt let me go above 3k in driving. Then when i shifted gears it would back fire and sputter.

If there is anything i can do to realitivly fix this car w/o really fixing it then that would help me out nicely. Id like to still be able drive this every now and again. Just to get this to work and all because i need a car that can be alright for now. Hey if it works out then ill just probly keep it and not force him to take it back. Those broken manifold studs are a major problem to me personally.

Please help guys. I got screwed in this. Im a moron and i know. I should have looked better at it but you know what. I jumped into it cause i heard turbo awd and my other tsi awd isnt running so i got it.

 

[ROOKIE1]

If your other tsi is a 1g , try switchimg out your mas .

 

[Auto RS T]

First thing first. Plug the AFC back in or fully remove it.

By unplugging the AFC you have only unplugged it from the other half of the AFC harness. The second half of the AFC harness is still wired to the stock vehicle harness. Follw the AFC harness to see where the wires are tapped. Should be near ECU.

Spark Plug Wire Routing:
When looking at the car under the hood from the front of the car the cylinder order is
4321. When looking at the coilpack the wires should be routed 4123 from left to right.

Gap plugs to .028

Fix the stud issue. If they are broken you can try and remove them. Try the vfaq.

 

[eldiabloz13]

I love you auto rs. thanks for the help guys. I like that MAS idea.

 

[Jeff822]

Could a bad catalytic converter also cause this? And i remember someone telling me before at shop or something that it could be the ignition timing. Double check with a Mod first to make sure im not giving you wrong info.

 

[chuckg]

Have you boost leak tested it yet? You say it sputters and backfires at over half throttle...sounds exactly like a boost leak to me.

 

[eldiabloz13]

Its a cat and resornatorless exhaust system. So a boost leak will cause extreme backfire? Damn

 

[chuckg]

Its a cat and resornatorless exhaust system. So a boost leak will cause extreme backfire? Damn

Any time I have a big leak, it bogs down, sputters, backfires and overall sounds terrible when under decent boost.

 

[Auto RS T]

Its a cat and resornatorless exhaust system. So a boost leak will cause extreme backfire? Damn

Lets still not forget the main issue of the AFC being unplugged. The ECU is not seeing an airflow signal this way. I would expect the car to act crazy when trying to drive it like this. The install guide is to check the wiring if you are going to keep the unit. Verify that it is installed correctly. Then report back.

http://vfaq.com/mods/gvr4_afc_instructions.html

 

[eldiabloz13]

Wiring looks to be correct. Now i plugged it back in and set it all to 0% and when i shut off teh car and restart it the damn SAFC says down the line its still at 5 and increases as you go down RPMS on the SAFC. How can i save the 0% settings. Not much backfiring anymore and it sounded better. Also i have coil wires mixed up. This may have fixed it if not ill be back tomorrow.

 

[Auto RS T]

I am not sure about the AFC memory. It should save it into the unit even after the car is turned off.

There are two different maps on the AFC, high and low throttle. It is possible you only changed one table and are looking at the other table when you turn the car on.

Re-verify wiring again, follow the instructions closely. If the connections are not soldered and heat shrinked, I would do it this way.