EBC stopped working

[Quasimondo]

I went to the track today and made a very dissapointing run of 14.3 @ 95. I was so pissed I went home, and on the way back I noticed that I couldn't run any more than 11 psi, no matter what I had my controller set to. It's a Greddy Profec B (three knob) and the only thing I can think is that the solenoid box isn't working. Anybody have any idea how to troubleshoot it?

 

[daren_p]

My advice would be to sell that POS, but that just my opinion I bought one & it had a software problem from new, so wouldn't boost over 20 psi no matter what (guess this wouldn't be your issue as it was working before), sent it back took 4 months for repair. Worked great for a month then the gain control went screwie. Waited another 4 months & this time they sent me a new unit. Sold that thing to pick up something thats not made by Greddy.

Sounds like your probably running directly off the base wastegate pressure now? I would imagine it could be either the solenoid or it could be in the head unit as well. Then there is always the wiring harness as well. Easiest way to trouble shoot would be to know someone who happens to have the same controller & swap parts till you find the culprite. Goodluck, just hope you don't have to send it back to Greddy because if you do you'll be lucky if you get it back by this summer....

 

[RedTurboEclipse]

If he is speaking of the ORIGINAL Profec B, not the updated PRofec B Type S, those are tried and true. The Type S are the ones that had the software problem, limiting max boost even with gain all the way to full. It was in the first batches, supposedly they have fixed it with the later batches.

If it's the control unit, do what daren suggested and find someone who has the same control unit and test it, if it works, theres the problem.

If it's the solenoid, turn the car off, put the key to ON, so the EBC is on, take the vac line that is connected to the control unit off, and blow into it, you should hear some clicking/noise from the solenoid I believe. I might have messed up the process there, I read it on a post on this very site when I was having problems.

 

[romeen]

If it's the solenoid, turn the car off, put the key to ON, so the EBC is on, take the vac line that is connected to the control unit off, and blow into it, you should hear some clicking/noise from the solenoid I believe. I might have messed up the process there, I read it on a post on this very site when I was having problems.

That actually sounds interesting. But if the Greddy unit is at all similar to my Blitz unit then the controller uses manifold pressure to know when to activate the solenoid box. If that's the case then I'm not sure that blowing into the solenoid housing would work. What about pressurizing the intake (boost leak test) with key in ACC position and looking for solenoid to open at the set boost level.

Or as RedTurboEclipse said try blowing into the "in" port to see if the air just goes straight through. If it does this without power being applied then I guess it might be safe to say that the solenoid is stuck open.

 

[Quasimondo]

Thanks for the suggestions. I tracked the problem down to the wiring on the harness getting chewed up, probably got that way when I dropped the engine in. It's back to hitting 20 psi, so I'm going to make another go at the track this weekend.

 

[DSMunknown]

My advice would be to sell that POS, but that just my opinion I bought one & it had a software problem from new, so wouldn't boost over 20 psi no matter what (guess this wouldn't be your issue as it was working before), sent it back took 4 months for repair. Worked great for a month then the gain control went screwie. Waited another 4 months & this time they sent me a new unit. Sold that thing to pick up something thats not made by Greddy.

Sounds like your probably running directly off the base wastegate pressure now? I would imagine it could be either the solenoid or it could be in the head unit as well. Then there is always the wiring harness as well. Easiest way to trouble shoot would be to know someone who happens to have the same controller & swap parts till you find the culprite. Goodluck, just hope you don't have to send it back to Greddy because if you do you'll be lucky if you get it back by this summer....

So is that why you hate Greddy (or Greedy) so much? Or have you had other issues with their products (or them specifically)?

 

[daren_p]

So is that why you hate Greddy (or Greedy) so much? Or have you had other issues with their products (or them specifically)?

The reason why I won't buy anything Greddy anymore is becasue I bought 4 pieces from them. 2 guages, EBC & BOV. One of the gauges was defective from brand new when I received it & it took them 8 months to get a replacement out to me. Then the EBC was defective from brand new & like I said took 4 months to get repaired the first time & another 4 months the second time. Out of the approx 1.5 years I owned it, it functioned properly for just over a month. 3 repairs on 4 products all within a year, to me a 75% failure rate for some reason doesn't make me want to run out & buy more of their products I think the part that is most annoying is that I had to wait that long to get brand new product repaired, instead of just getting a replacement.

 

[RedTurboEclipse]

Greddy has horrible customer service.

I heard from people who had the batch of Profec Type-S EBC that needed the software upgrade to fix the high boost limitations took a while.

Greddy wouldn't take it directly, and required that you send it back to the "authorized" dealer you bought it from, which then they will ship it to Greddy in SoCal, then from there to Trust Japan to fix the software, then back to the Greddy SoCal, to their wholesale customer ("authorized" dealer) then finally back to you.

That I obviously would be upset with too, but other than that, their gauges, other electronics, exhaust systems, I've come across have worked as well as the other popular "JDM" brands: Apex'i, Blitz, HKS.

Sometimes you just get struck with bad luck, and I'm sure when its at a constant rate like daren_p's, you wouldn't want to use Greddy/Trust products either. Which could happen with any other brand as well, theres always a failure rate, obviously some brands are higher than others.

But we should not overlook all the positive testimonials based on 1 or a few bad ones, because most if not all things have both..

Goes both ways, but what doesn't right?