Idle drops after FP rewire

[MrBoxx]

My friend Tim and I did a fuel pump rewire on my GSX the other night. We removed the battery to run the 10 gauge wire through the wiring harness grommet in the firewall. The actual wiring part of the process went fairly well, once we figured out which wires needed to be cut and spliced. I'm 99% sure all the wires on the relay are in the right places. We also did the rollerblade bearing mod to the shifter arms that night. Putting the battery back in, we tightened everything down. I left his shop to go home while he cleaned up.

So... here's the situation: The car starts up fine. Idle after start-up is normal. Driving down the road, everything is normal. Pushing in the clutch after driving to come to a stop, rpm's drop to below 300, sometimes bottoming out to 0 and coming back up. The problem is worse when I push in the brake. Lights in the cabin and headlights dim when this happens. My turbo timer's volt-meter reads above 14 (volts, I'm assuming) when cruising, but drops to below 12.5 when I push the clutch in and rpm's drop. I took it to a friend at Autozone who put the battery/alternator tester on it, and that said the battery and alternator were fine. The positive battery cable end was a little loose on the battery terminal, so I took it to Sears Auto to have them check it out. The guy took the cable end off the terminal and crimped the terminal so it would tighten down farther, since the screw was as tight as it would go. So now the terminal is on tight and all the power wires are connected as best as they can. The negative terminal is on tight as well, and connected to my aftermarket grounding wire kit. The only thing that changed was adding that 10 gauge wire to the positive battery terminal.

Does anyone have any ideas what could be causing my power loss? It doesn't seem like a fuel pump rewire would cause this. I'm considering just buying an Optima Red Top and relocating the battery to the trunk while I'm at it, and replacing all the cable ends.

 

[MrBoxx]

I drove two hours from my in-laws' place back to my apartment and now idle sits solid at about 850, right where it should be. Weird. I guess the problem is fixed for now. I'll see if it stays fixed or if I'm draining power from somewhere. Maybe the battery just got discharged and needed to be recharged with a nice long drive. If so, it's a huge weight off my chest.

 

[laserspeeddemon]

Simple, you rewired a 190 and don't have a AFPR. As to why its normal now? No clue.

 

[MrBoxx]

A raise in fuel pressure would affect rpm's like that? Hmm... guess I know what's next on my shopping list. Clutch and flywheel might have to wait.

 

[AWD96TSI]

Simple, you rewired a 190 and don't have a AFPR. As to why its normal now? No clue.

Ok I was gonna be putting in a 190 and also do the re-wire in a few days. From searching around I was under the impression that you did not need a upgraded AFPR. Could someone clarify this for me please?

 

[oldman]

Ok I was gonna be putting in a 190 and also do the re-wire in a few days. From searching around I was under the impression that you did not need a upgraded AFPR. Could someone clarify this for me please?

Since the stock FPR isn't adjustable, any fuel pump that flows more volume than the stock pump WILL overrun the stock fpr, the question is will it be bad enough to be noticeable. Most people who say an AFPR isn't needed probably doesn't have a fuel gauge installed so what they're really saying is not "190 will not overrun the stock FPR", what they're really saying is "I didn't notice any problems". I have helped out several members with 190 overrun issues so never say never.

 

[AWD96TSI]

Since the stock FPR isn't adjustable, any fuel pump that flows more volume than the stock pump WILL overrun the stock fpr, the question is will it be bad enough to be noticeable. Most people who say an AFPR isn't needed probably doesn't have a fuel gauge installed so what they're really saying is not "190 will not overrun the stock FPR", what they're really saying is "I didn't notice any problems". I have helped out several members with 190 overrun issues so never say never.

Thanks for the response. I'll go ahead an order an afpr today.

 

[oldman]

You're welcome, make sure you stay away from the B&M Commend flow or cheap ebay knock off's. FPR isn't something you want to experiement with, stick with something that has been proven to work.....consistantly.

 

[DSMvroom]

I think your car was running like dog poo after the install because the ecu was reset and was running open loop.

Every time I disconnect my battery for doing electrical work on my car, (obviously) the CEL is cleared, and the car's idle dips really low when coming to a stop but then the car catches it and raises it back to where it should sit. After driving some the CEL comes back on (for my faulty TPS) and then the car doesn't dip low anymore.

Although, the fpr is most likely being overrun also, as stated previously.