What's going on here?

[Corpssnare]

I was driving my car earlier in some pretty cold weather (below 0 I think) and all of the sudden the check engine light comes on and the car starts bogging. The turbo spools rather sluggishly as well. It'll spool, but pretty much only at WOT. The higher the rpm's go, the more the car seems to bog, and it doesn't want to go higher than 4k. It will go higher, but I have to give it a lot more gas than I normally do. The car is completely stock (no free mods), 52k miles, just got an oil change done about 200 miles ago. There's a ticking sound coming from under the hood, but I think it might only be lifter tick. I dunno, any help would be appreciated as I have to drive back to school in a couple days, so hopefully this isn't anything big, but I have no idea what it is.

 

[Old Mitsu Tech]

First thought perhaps frozen fuel line? If you have any water at all at that temperature it can freeze in any low places that it collects.

Fuel filter could also be starting to clog. Remove it and blow through to see if it is obstructed.
Fuel pump may be getting weak. You will have to do a fuel pressure test to confirm that.
Catalytic converter may be starting to come apart. You will need to do an exhaust back pressure test to determine if this is a cause. Very easy as you can remove the front o2 sensor, make an adapter that screws into the o2 sensor hole, connect a low pressure gauge to the adapter and you should have no more than 1 psi back pressure at around 2,500 rpms.

Let us know.

Good Luck

 

[oldman]

Does the lifter tick go away once the car is in normal operating temperature? If not, your knock sensor will pick it up resulting in timing being pulled.

 

[Corpssnare]

I'm not sure if it'd be a frozen fuel line as the car was running fine for about 10-15 minutes. It wasn't until I was well on my way when my car started acting up. I'll check the fuel filter, fuel pump and the exhaust pressure tho, as those could be likely culprits.

The lifter tick usually went away at normal driving temps, but sometimes it wouldn't. I'm not sure the reason for it, but I think it was still there when I started bogging. Man, this would ###### be a lot easier if I had a pocketlogger of some sort.

Thanks for the quick responses, I'll keep you guys updated on what I find out.

 

[tstkl]

i thought i had lifter tick til i realised its actually a crack in my exhaust manifold, but you got a 2g so i doubt it...

 

[Corpssnare]

Man, I'm stumped now. We checked all the fuel lines, all the hoses/pipes, plugs/wires. We tried running DSMLink, but we couldn't get it to work on my car for whatever reason. Basically the only thing we haven't done yet is check the block itself, but since it's stock, low mileage, and well maintaned I don't think it'd be in the internals. The car is progressively running worse now, vibrates like crazy, idles really lumpy, nearly stalls on turns for some reason, there's a knocking noise (too loud to be lifter tick) coming from the engine (I think, it almost sounds like it's coming from underneath the car sometimes). The car actually runs ok higher than 3k rpm for whatever reason, but the turbo won't spool much. I'm running on the stock boost gauge still so I'm not sure how high it is spooling, but it only goes up about halfway on the gauge. Anywhere under 3k rpm and the car just bogs. It almost drives like it's misfiring, but all the injectors seem to be working fine and all the plugs/wires are fine so I dunno. Any ideas?

 

[Mist3r Spool]

Does the lifter tick go away once the car is in normal operating temperature? If not, your knock sensor will pick it up resulting in timing being pulled.

I don't mean to cut in the thread but this does have some relevance to the issue which could somewhat help matters pertaining to the subject, that is.

Anyway, I have lifter tick like crazy now, especially since it's been colder. I know I need to upgrade to the 3g revised lifters, but I've NEVER heard lifter tick like this before. It's really hammering. I can even hear a "cat purr" like noise when driving since they're slammin' so hard (I think). To make matters worse, my knock sensor is all gooey, and I need to change that as well. I've tried every possible fix in the book (to eliminate the tick) but am at the point to where I just need to upgrade. Is this why my car is bogging and soo difficult to tune? Some days the SAFCII settings are great and other days they're horrible.

 

[stars]

Crank maybe walking and throwing the CPS out of time with ignition timing? Sounds like at high rpm the problem mysteriously floats away the comes back later. Loud knock usually means internal engine problems but without hearing the sound one can only make a wild guess. If all the basics check out, spark, fuel and mechanical that's when you break out the expensive diagnostic tools. ie DRB-2/3 If you have the tools the run a compression test or leak down. Also check the obvious. bov or intercooler hoses falling off. cracked or melted hoses, clogged pcv valve, egr clogged, spark plugs are not coated in oil, leaks, hisses, whizzy noises check t-belt maybe hopped hopped one tooth. Any MIL codes may help so data logger of some kind to see what your sensors are reading and compare those values. If there are no MIL codes then start to worry.