Clipsoe said:

The only wire they should be grabbing at the console for a remote start system should be the parking brake (which is a ground). As far as parking lights, I am referring to the lights beside the headlights, but by powering one wire with the alarm should activate all the lighting as if you turned your headlight switch to the first position.

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You are so right!! The after market system is not only anti-theft, it also comes with a remote start module. The lights, all lights, are/were always on. The only one which was sorta independent of this setup was the dimmer switch so the installer grounded the green/white wire to the black ground wire thus making the dimmer in-operable and the instrument panel was always full blast ON, day or night. I need to zero in on this... but if they are "grabbing" this parking brake wire, it's not at the hand brake. That is untouched. So it should be more upstream, closer to the place which sends voltage to the parking brake light on the instrument panel when the hand brake is pulled up... just guessing.

If things work with the cigarette lighter unplugged which there is a ring light around the lighter then I would pull the entire lighter with the wires and inspect it. Someone might of ran the wires by a moving part like the parking brake handle and it could of stripped some wire or put cuts in it.

Also with the idle issue it's a no go. Adjusted the timing which was 12 degrees atdc but now it's right. The tps is set to .5v, the ISC is new, the ect to the ECU is brand new. I adjusted the ips according to the FSM though never heard anything about a feeler gauge test.

I can't get the idle under 1200 basically. There was a big leak with the EGR valve block off which I fixed. It just gets tiring since I just haven't been able to drive it with this issue.

I didn't get to read everything you guys posted earlier, but took a little more time. As crazy as it sounds, if you say that the circuit shorts when the cig lighter is hooked up, whats inside the cig lighter. I have found change like pennies in there before. Also, I noticed you said terminal 2 on the relay (From headlight switch) is always hot? It shouldn't be. The parking light switch should be outputting a ground to activate the relay since the other end of the coil is always hot. test the terminal from the parking light switch while it is turned on and see if it switches to ground. Here's a color coded diagram. Red= 12v Black= Ground Green= 12v to taillights.

Yeah. I made a diagram of the area that the relay plugs into where the diagram shows the relay which is what screwed me up. I corrected it earlier through testing.

Clipsoe said:

you say that the circuit shorts when the cig lighter is hooked up, whats inside the cig lighter.

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it was not the cigarette lighter but the tiny little light which illuminates the ash tray. I should say the two green wires:

the two wired were crossed and clipped to the bottom of the ash tray, rubbed together somehow until the core touched

so i fixed it with with electrical tape

and put the wires back properly... not crossed or overlayed:

and it all came alive.

Cherry said:

If things work with the cigarette lighter unplugged which there is a ring light around the lighter then I would pull the entire lighter with the wires and inspect it. Someone might of ran the wires by a moving part like the parking brake handle and it could of stripped some wire or put cuts in it.

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Bingo.. that's almost exactly what it was. The two wires which connect to the tiny ashtry light were crossed under the clip and eventually rubbed right thru and shorted... see my post above for pictures and details. I have no idea why these two wires would be moving under the clip..

It defies logic that this tiny little light somehow smoked a tail light fuse. I expected this light to be connected to the same circuit as the dimmer, dashboard and instrument panel since the dimmer operates all of them.. the dimmer will dim the cig. ashtray light, so like.. ? I cannot believe I spent at least 2 dozen hours looking for this, ripped out the alarm system, ripped out instrument panel, took all the light bulbs out (except ashtray light ) ripped out all the connectors underneath the drive side dashboard and then found it where i did not expect it.. this little sh*t blew 20amp tail light fuse on me when i was testing it.

btw, the relay terminal #1 (you marked to "to lights") appears to be ground. As i mentioned previously, i tested it with the light where i hooked up one side to battery (+) and the other side to relay terminal #4 and the light lit up. i thought it lit up bc there was a short on the line since i expected voltage there since it said "to lights" but it lit up bc it's ground. I am pretty sure that was the reason but not 100%

I wish i could help with the idle problem.. but that's above my pay grade. I tried to search it up but you already addressed things which typically cause idle problems... usually electrical component. So what is left? Vacuum leaks?? I hope you will post it here what it was once you fix it bc no doubt somebody will run into it.

Nice, glad you got it fixed.

As far as the idle, have you loosened the throttle cable at the two 10mm bolts on the intake manifold to see if that drops it. Also what about the throttle set screw. Not the idle screw (plastic one on front of TB), but the one where the throttle cable connects on the butterfly flap.

Clipsoe said:

Nice, glad you got it fixed.

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this will remain one of the mysteries why, even after i disconnected the body wiring harness and disabled all tail lights, license plate and side marker lights, this tiny ashtray bulb smoked a tail light fuse in the engine bay and not one of the interior fuses, the one which protect instrument panel, dimmer etc.

Well, I have to make a tester to do a leak test. Jafromobile has a video on how to make one since the link on here telling you how to make one has all dead pictures making it kind of a dead post.

As for the throttle cable, I have taken it out of the throttle body entirely just to make sure, and adjusted it with some slack in it so it doesnt pull it open. The IPS or the stop screw on the 1g was out of adjustment though I wish I had a feeler gauge reading to put between the throttle body and throttle plate to set it since the 15/16 of a turn past first electrical connection I dont think is a good enough way to set it. If it was done by feeler gauge then you could put a gauge in there, screw in the stop screw until the gap starts to open a little more and then back it out to the point that it touches again. I dont know why the FSM didnt have something like that listed.

I did find a HUGE EGR leak though. Sprayed cleaner on it and bam, it died. If there are any other leaks though they will be on the bottom side of the intake manifold since I have heard it is sometimes a pain to get them to seat right on the head and I cant get back there to listen or use spray so that is where the leak test comes in. If that doesnt work then I might replace the thermostat and just close the stop screw until it looks like a piece of paper can fit through the gap.

I had to replace the engine coolant temperature sensor (ecu) because when I went to unplug the thing the innards came out with it still connected to the connector, and then the connector fell apart. I do have a connector that I can use but how people down here fill up radiators is to fill it up, keep the cap off and then wait for the thermostat to open and then pour more fluid in which then tends to overflow and where does it overflow? All over the connectors which breaks them down.

Ive been getting home a little too late and I dont want to go anywhere to get parts to make a leak tester or just go buy a smoke machine and seal the throttle body port with something and let it just continually pump smoke in it to find the leak. Easier to see smoke leaking out of somewhere than trying to hear for a hiss though if there is a hiss there is only one place it can be since I rebuilt the throttle body which the seals I took out look to be good even though they just kind of fell off the shaft or out of the throttle body real easy.

I personally think it was a multitude of things because mechanics here in Georgia has this "screw it, it runs" type of motto.

On a good note though, I did a pressure test on the cylinders and they came back all good after the rebuild so at least I know I got one thing going good. And when it does idle smoothly the BC cams sound good and mechanically it sounds like its ready for a turbo system. All things first though is the idle, it annoys me to no end.

I also wish exhaust headers werent a small fortune. If I cant get it all sorted out though ill be taking the cams off, the valve cover which is rare supposedly (smooth hyundai valve cover which can go for like 300 bucks sometimes) the S90 throttle body and the JMFab intake manifold that I got. I hope I can get it running though, but if I cant ill probably look for a 4g69 4g eclipse so that I could possibly put an evo 8 engine in it or just upgrade the head. 4g's around here go for about 2500 which isnt bad if I get to frustrated with it then ill sell what I can off of it and take the rest around to the scrap yard. I even have a "new" cleaned out and pained turbo block and an oil pan that I put a -10an port on for an oil return.

Hopefully I can get it to where it needs to be, and hopefully I get enough knowledge to right up a checklist for an idle issue and post it on here since it seems like you have to dig for the information.

Cherry said:

Well, I have to make a tester to do a leak test. Jafromobile has a video on how to make one since the link on here telling you how to make one has all dead pictures making it kind of a dead post.

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Harbor Freight has a nice leak down tester for $50.
https://www.harborfreight.com/search?q=leak down tester
Proceedure:
https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/compression-and-leak-down-testing.338152/

I already did a cylinder test and it all checked out. I need to do the throttle body / intake manifold leak test now. I just have to go get the stuff to make a tester. I did find one leak in the EGR valve, i took some pictures of what happened, when i tightened the bolts down the gasket compressed in the middle which bent the block off plate and it was leaking air in through the side like crazy. I took a rubber mallet and an anvil basically and flattened it out repainted and reinstalled it with RTV and it isnt leaking anymore. I know the throttle body isnt leaking at its gasket or where the seals are since I did a cheap o-ring rebuild. I doubled up the o-ring though I probably didnt have too. Doesnt hurt when you are checking for leaks I guess.

Nothing leaks around the injectors, no leaks at the top of the intake manifold so in terms of airflow either the throttle plate is still too far open or there is a leak on the under side of the intake manifold. New seal on the FIAV housing as well.

If it comes down too it ill back out the IPS some more so that it is almost closed. I set it up on how the FSM says to do it which I gained probably 2-3 threads. My throttle body was all out of wack because bad mechanics I would assume. The BISS was broken in the throttle body and instead of getting it out I think they dripped something down around it so air wouldnt leak through it since the o-ring was gone as well and they messed with the IPS... yay for me.

Learned something new though, Leak down = cylinder, vacuum/boost leak = intake system.

Ill be getting a new thermostat, new plug wires and making the boost leak/vacuum leak tester hopefully soon.

Oh, and the people who had the engine before me had the timing at 12 degrees ATDC. Trying to fix other peoples mess ups.

Cherry said:

Well, I have to make a tester to do a leak test. Jafromobile has a video on how to make one since the link on here telling you how to make one has all dead pictures making it kind of a dead post.

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unless you are already looking into purchasing a new leak down tester, i made my own for about 15$ in parts and it works great. one of the most important things is the 1/2mm hole which you have to drill out for the tester to be accurate. i could still find the drawings i used for this. here's the pic

i used the bottom part of a spark plug for the end which goes into the cylinder thread.

Cherry said:

ill be taking the cams off, the valve cover which is rare supposedly (smooth hyundai valve cover which can go for like 300 bucks sometimes) the S90 throttle body and the JMFab intake manifold that I got.

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can you post pics ^^^ of your engine with your profile pics?

at least working on this car keeps you out of trouble

I have it on my build thread. Ill post the pictures of my EGR plate that was bent on there soon, just have to import and resize the pictures.

I also meant a vacuum / boost leak test. I can just go get a smoke machine and seal up around the throttle body bore and around the smoke machine hose and look for smoke coming out somewhere.

I was just really disappointed with the JMFab intake and S90 throttle body. They just arent friendly to a street car even though the intake manifold is the street version they should of made the pipe between the head and the intake chamber to be an S shape, or more like ~ to raise the manifold chamber up about an inch to an inch and a half so that the bottom of the FIAV housing isnt tangled up in the shifter cables. One thing I dont like is coolant lines rubbing on things. If it gets a hole in the coolant lines then you get a leak and constantly have to fix the lines. They could of designed the street version of the intake a whole lot better to be more friendly to a stock like setup. People building a race car or drag car usually use a block off plate so it doesnt matter but for street cars they should of gotten it up off the shifter cables. Not to mention the built in gaskets didnt work too well for me since they didnt seal right I guess and leaked really easily. Its not like a regular gasket where air would have to get by like 1/4 inch of material, there is only about 1/8 of material or a few millimeters that it has to bypass to escape.

The S90 isnt a "direct bolt on" like it says and its leaky. You can machine parts to get it to hold 50psi but for 200+ dollars it shouldnt leak right out of the box. The reason why it isnt a direct bolt on is because the fuel rail interferes with the TPS so, at least with an non-turbo engine, you can bolt the throttle body on, you just cant use it.

I like the valve cover though, its so much more stronger than the Mitsu version that cracks easily. The block was good, the balance shaft elimination kit was good other than the bearings that come in the kit absolutely suck and each one split at where it is connected together so I just used one of the old bearings just turned like 180 to block the oil hole. The cams again I havent really been able to drive the car but they have a slight lope at idle and everything revs up good. Trying to think of what else I did.

I have a feeling though that this company didnt send me the correct pistons which were supposed to be turbo pistons. The area where the rings go looks the same as the non-turbo, but they looked like they were machined while the stock ones are cast. When i was removing the rods on the old pistons one of them broke while there were no issues with the new ones. I guess I will see.

But the previous owners did a number on the engine. If you look at my build page I think i showed a picture of the block that had broke and they tried to repair. I didnt get a picture of the giant hole in the oil pan though. I would say it was between the size of a sharpie paint marker and a pencil, at least finger sized, and was plugged with a rubber plug. I got that welded up though and I beat out as much of the dent as I could.

I have a pretty good feeling that it still might be a combination of stuff. My temperature needle never gets to mid point on the gauge as straight up and down so it might be a thermostat that opens at too low of a temperature so it never gets to operating temps that the ECU wants to see, plus the fan will cycle a lot for some reason. I ab probably going to definitely get one of my feeler gauges and measure the opening of my throttle body. It would be nice to find someone with an untouched IPS to check the gap as well so I can get it set to that spec and not the 15/16 of a turn past electrical connection.

Cherry said:

I have it on my build thread. Ill post the pictures of my EGR plate that was bent on there soon, just have to import and resize the pictures.

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found it.. thanks for sharing. nice build. nice valve cover. i did not realise you had troubles, i.e. idle etc., with custom third party parts to boost output. it now makes sense. is that not the reason guys here use dsmlink and eproms to manage engine behaviour? bc the ecu is programmed for stock setup and is not able to accommodate higher performance add-ons ? but i guess you will find out if the ecu can accommodate the changes once you eliminate vacuum leakage and other mechanical kinks...

Well I don' have link and the 3rd party issues were due to leaks and I didn' really have everything set right with those parts like the tps and timing. The throttle body is known to be leaky because it only has a seal on the tps side and it isn' a good seal.

The Jmfab intake manifold street version disappointed me in just how it sits which puts the FIAV and the shifter cables touching each other. I' guessing that they figured everyone would be running a block off plate which I'm not, at least not anymore.

Right now I have the stock intake manifold and throttle body on the car and that's where the issues are, in other peoples shotty work.

I didn' get a picture of the BISS but it was broken off just past the o-ring. I had to drill it out and get a new BISS. Didn' touch the threads. I then had to use some picks and heat to release the rest from the threads, took a few hours.

I probably could put the JMFab back on and s90 after I fixed the leaks, set up the TPS and I probably wouldn't have a problem. I would however want to get the part the connects to the head and manifold chamber to be redone at a machine shop. Get some aluminum pipes made and bent, the existing pipes cut out and the new ones welded in. Unless it's not aluminum then I would probably see what my dad's friend could do. It would raise the chamber up getting the shifter cables out of the FIAV housing which is my biggest issue. I can always get a slim battery to put in it or even relocate it to the trunk since I already have a wire going back there.

At least you got your lights issue fixed. I knew there had to be a short to ground and completely forgot about the center dash and it having a couple of lights in it that ran off the same circuit.