Odd engine behavior/idle

[markgholland]

OK, I'm posting this in the extreme performance section because the last time I posted in the "problem diagnostics" section, I didn't receive an answer...

My question relates to my idle. I first noticed the problem right after I replaced my two sensors on the oil filter housing, the oil light sending unit sensor, and the oil gauge sending unit sensor. After I reassembled the car, I went to start it up and it was idling half a**. I thought that it was an oil pressure problem so I took it apart numerous time to see if I just assembled something incorrectly. As suspected, everything was assembled correctly and in place. I even double checked my timing to eliminate that factor.

I put it back together and tried to get it to run correctly and got nothing. It would act almost as if it was running on two or three cylinders. When it would idle, it was almost as if it was half of what it should have been. I have my idle set just above 1k rpm's and when idling after the "problem" it was idling just above 500 rpm's. So, my question is, what could be the cause of this? I had an e-Manage fuel computer in the car when the problem originally occurred. I removed it and put everything back to stock, fuel wise, and still, the same thing. I double checked my connections and made sure that I had everything reassembled correctly.

Is this a problem that could be occurring from bad plugs, bad wires, or a bad coil? The reason I think it has to do with the spark is because of the weird behavior once the car idles half ass for a couple of minutes...

When the car is idling odd, I keep pressing the gas to keep it from stalling. After a couple of minutes, when the engine gets up to temperature usually, it all of a sudden kicks in and idles normal again. This happened almost everytime the car was started... then this morning when it would turn over, and idle at about 200 rpm's and then die.

Any suggestions would be great. I have a number of things that I'm going to try to replace, but I want to have a general idea of what I'm dealing with. Thanks for the help and space.
~Mark

 

[97EclipseGSX]

If you think its a spark problem you should go down the row and pull each spark plug wire. Being careful not to shock yourself. :laugh:

If nothing changes when you pull any of the plugs you most likely don't have a spark problem.
If upon pulling them 2 wires, say 1 and 4 or 2 and 3, cause the motor not to act up try replacing the coil or maybe your ignitor.
If when you pull 1 wire the motor acts up continue untill you find one that doesn't change anything then look into the wire, plug, or injector.

Also look into crank and cam sensors um maybe the resistor pack for the injectors.

 

[markgholland]

Yes, I did this and as I pulled the second plug, the whole thing came right off and the part that sits on the spark plug was still in there :thumbdown I hope this is my problem, but I fear that I have other problems as well I am planning on doing that COP setup on my car, so we'll see how that turns out.

I will def. let people know the results. I have very odd symptoms that I have never seen before. Thanks for the help though.

 

[bfdahl]

mark, with the exeption of a bad ECU or your cam timming being off @ the cams there are only 5 things that can do this: and with the problem going away when hot helps alittle. basicly your car is not adjusted properly in the "open loop" cycle. it could be a bad stepper or IAC motor with the BIS being out of adjustment to complicate that. Or the water byass in the thottle body is stuck. the computers coolant temp sensor is next along with the possibility of low coolant in the cooling system or a not so good shape thermo stat {stuck shut}. use your logger to check for unnormal readings in coolant or the Mas for bar readings. try unplugging your Mas and see if cold running improves!
and first off re-check the last place you worked for some thing you might have over looked or did incorretly.

D

 

[markgholland]

I checked the following in this order as suggested:

plugs
wires
coil
transistor pack
verify cam timing
verify 5* base timing

The problem was solved by replacing the plugs and wires. One of the wires had broken and was causing poor idle issues. I replaced the wires and plugs and it started right up.
~Mark