Hey all,

Ok. twice in the last month my evo has left me stranded. First time was on the way to work driving in traffic it started hesitating real bad, I clutched it and it just died. It would crank back up but run real rough for a second or two then die. I had it towed into the dealer where they futsed around for a couple of hours checking the intake hoses for leaks/loose connections on my request becuase it felt like the car had an intake leak and was sucking unmeterd air. They said the turbo inlet clamp was loose so they tightened it up and drive the car. It drove fine on the way home.

Over the last week I have noticed some hesitation on the interstate going from no throttle to light throttle every time and I thought for sure it was gonna die on me again so I headed for an exit, clutched it and it was fine.

Then tonight on the way to arbys it did it again. I managed to get it home after it stalled by whacking hte **** out of the throttle and drivign way to fast, it would only stay running while accelerating. I had only been driving about ten minutes and had not even really been on the boost and was stuck behind a minivan when it died at the light on me. If you crank it up and try to feather the throttle it just starts shaking and dies. I reset the ECU and still the same thing. I'm letting it cool over night and will try again in the AM.

I'm thinking this is certainly engine management related, maybee a flaky throttle position sensor or MAF. I have done a visual looking for loose hoses and saw nothing ANd I guess I would feel better if it were a hose, but I just don't drive the car hard enough to be poping hoses and the problem is intermitant or seems to be at least.

Any thoughts on what this could be? the only mods on the car are a turbo timer, installed by me tuesday of this week and a boost gauge, installed by me a couple of weeks ago. It's been running fine all week and earlier today..

 

Are you sure it's not a vaccum hose? If you have a leaky hose your idle will be crap.

Do you have a boost guage to monitor boost?

Check around the pressure regulator and hoses by the firewall to see if any is unplugged.

 

could it be a fuel problem? Maybe the FPR is dropping in pressure, but that would probably go back to the vaccum hose. Is the gas gauge working properly? Hope everything works out for you!

 

Well Last time it left with the same fuel it had when it went in. This first happened the day after I initially installed the boost gauge. I followed someones guide and they tapped the line running to the fuel pressure regulator So I did as well but left the stock hose intact and plummbed my own hose. When It died the first time my thought was that in some way the boost gauge hook up was causing a problem with the FPR so I switched it back to stock and left the gauge unhooked and it still would not start. That hose though was connected to a plastic body of some kind and I could have damaged that pulling off the stock hose so I'll take a look but the guage has been replumbed to a different line (running to the boost stock boost controller) for about two weeks now with no problems until tonight.

 

Try resetting ECU one more time....wait a bit longer

 

Well I let it sit overnight and still the same results. It will crank up but won't idle It just sputters for a second as the revs drop all the way to zero. At least it's staying broke this time So I can call the dealer in the AM and have them come pickup there little problem child again.

 

Update:

The car spent the whole day at the dealer. They called around lunchtime talking crap about my boost gauge and the turbo timer until I reminded them that I had the same problem before I ever go the turbo timer and the boost gauge had been working fine for two weeks, I asked to speak to the tech who was concerned that I had a bad turbo timer. I told him to unhook it at the harness under the steering column cause I'm rather sure that is not the problem. And he had already unhooked the boost gauge.

Still no word back from them so I assume the turbo timer wasn't the problem either.. go figure.

These Tools man, they don't even read the damn manuals they have. It spells out the troubleshooting steps for this exact situation. The guy was clueless becuase the car wasn't throwing any codes. Anyone know how much a MUT-II costs and If the general public can buy them so I can do my own damn troubleshooting. I guess any good obdII datalogger would work fine for most stuff since they give you the codes on techinfo.

 

You are so right about the incompetence of many service techs. Lots of them either can't read or wont read the troubleshooting parts of the maintenance books

I went through much the same crap years ago with my Integra GSR... I had a CEL and was using lots of oil... They just kept changing the spark plug wires idiots! the manual clearly stated the steps to take to troble shoot the problem but they just would not do it
I finally asked them specifically to do certain procedures, I mean I told them "exactly" what to do... Of course, when they did it, they found what I feared all along. A bad cylinder... Anyway, I traded the car in on a WRX, but what really pissed me off was paying one tech after another to fumble around and change wires when the book stated very specifically what to do, and it never asked to check the wires I swear, I think their freaking warranties are worthless because many of these guys are totally incompetent... Too bad there is no real way to find out who the good guys and bad guys are..

 

Update:

Well they claim the problem is either with the turbo timer or the boost gauge. They say if they unhook both the stalling problem goes away. They have swapped the ecu out twice and verified that if they recconect the turbo timer and boost gauge the stalling problem comes right back and goes away as soon as they unhook them.

They say that the ecu cuts the fuel driver signal for some reason when the electronic bits are hooked up.

Does this make any sense at all?? The turbo timer is a greddy full auto black. I Did not tap the speed sensor signal wire, only the ebrake. Everything seemed fine for several days after the turbo timer install.

 

Update:

The isssue may be related to the imobilizer system on the car. I noticed after getting the car back from the dealer that my original key no longer works. I never tried to start it using the spare key before sending it off the the dealership for repair.

When I picked up the car I used the spare key as my keys were burried in my laptop bag. My baby ran fine on the way home, she even begged me to smack her on the *** a time or two....

Later that night I went to start her up for a food run and it wouldn't idle just keept dying on me like before. At some point I noticed the imobilizer light was flashing away. I tried the spare key (the one I sent her to the dealer with) and she started right up and ran fine.

Now, due to the sequence of events and the fact that my boost gauge blocks my view of the lower half of the "lancer" gauge (lower right) I never noticed the light until after I got the car back.

I'm going back to the dealer monday to see about the dead key and find out if the car started up and would idle when they first looked at it (with the good key).

After looking through the techinfo wiring diagrams, I'm not sure that the harness I got (greddy 95-99 eclipse, at least the part number on the shipping docs says that is what it is) does not have two of the wires that tap the ignition on circuits (IG1 and IG2) backwards. Not sure if that could cause a failure with the key or the imobilizer circuit but no one has looked at my other post and responded about the tt wiring. And at the moment I'm in no rush the reconnect the turbo timer until I get a few of these things sorted out.