my step father has an 89 ford probe with a boost problem, not a leak, weve been told its the electronic boost control solenoid, that its either stuck or bad, he tried to purchase a stock one but they told him they no longer make it, he would have to get an after market one, we also heard you cant find an electronic one, then finally we were told to just unplug the vac line that saab guys did that and it still boosts fine so if anyone can lead us in the right direction with getting a new one great, but if we unplug or eliminate it from my knowledge (please correct me if i am wrong) you would need a manual controller, and a new boost gauge, but will the manual controller still activate the waste gate? were no good with electronics, and hes not looking to upgrade please help! thank you

my guess is that it acts like the one on a dsm....lots of knock = pulled timing and lower boost. My dads SVO does that, and it has a switch for what kinda gas you have...gives it more boost better timing with good gas.

you can probably just cap the lines to it off. draw a diagram of the system and we would be better help..

not tryin to take your thread but maybe my question will answer yours. my stock bcs was removed before i had it and the wastegate is hooked directly to the j-pipe. is that bad? is that possibly why im getting alot of knock in the lower rpms?

I owned a red 89PGT myself with around 220k on it! It was a very fun car, even more so than my current GS-T. It was before I was familiar with the mechanics of a car though. You may try checking probetalk.com and get some more accurate assistance there.

r1991_4g63t said:

not tryin to take your thread but maybe my question will answer yours. my stock bcs was removed before i had it and the wastegate is hooked directly to the j-pipe. is that bad? is that possibly why im getting alot of knock in the lower rpms?

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Hooking the wastegate to a direct pressure source (off an intercooler pipe) with no boost control solenoid or boost controller will make the wastegate open at its spring pressure. On a DSM, that's around 9-11 psi, give or take. This is what many people do who want to limit boost pressures, test for malfunctioning wastegate actuators/boost controllers, etc. It's totally fine.

In the case of the Probe, I would try that: hook the wastegate up to a positive pressure source (intercooler pipe) if possible.

Warning: Leaving the wastegate line open MAY result in an infinite boost situation, where the wastegate never opens. Be very cautious about leaving that line open or damaged.

The easiest way is to just go with a manual boost controller and an aftermarket boost gage. If the part is discontinued this is probably the easiest way and it is extremely easy to set up. Overall if you go with a quality boost controller and a used boost gage you're looking at $70 and you can always hide the gage under the floor mat and seat like I do for my eclipse.

thanks for the info guys it helped especially the web site, i can put him on there so im not in the middle, but we decided to get our hands dirty and test the solenoid, after cleaning it we took it apart and fed it juice, it works fine, so we figured it was stuck and the cleaning worked, when we put it back on just normal pressure from a screw driver to tighten the hose clamp snapped the nipple off the waste gate like nothing. figured id let you guys know where were at.

Not surprising. They're brittle as #### with the age of the plastic and all... I'm on my second one myself.

Time for an MBC?