Hmm.. It does seem to me like a vacuum leak of some sort.. Tim made a good point that it may have been preexisting. My car has stalled on occasion when it was new, usually when the a/c compressor would come on or you'd put on the rear defroster.

I noticed at one point that I had my boost gauge "Tee-ed" off the Blowoff valve, and the line popped off affecing the valve and the car would no longer idle, so check for a disconnected vacuum line or something leaking.

Is the stalling very intermittant? or it just won't idle adequately?

I don't know that using the S-AFC to tune an idle issue is going to help, only because the ECU will eventually learn the bias of the signal and adjust accordingly. However there is an idle adjustment on the throttle body that may not get "Close scrutiny" when the car is assembled at the factory and that could cause the stalling, additionally its something fairly easy to adjust to bring up the idle to 800-900rpm Assuming you can't find anything else wrong, its something to consider.

If your in the northeast though, don't make any adjustments until the weather gets a bit milder.

A few other suggestions is to verify your MAF sensor's honeycomb isnt damaged, the connector is connected well, and that the sensor isn't where your leaking unmetered air or susceptable to vibration.

 

THnx for the help everybody.

 

It only ha stalled once, but drops to 100 RPM a lot. Happens only when I put it in first drive like 10 feet and push in the clutch then the engine starts to die and I have to rev it in Neutral so it doesnt stall. Works fine in all other conditions. I live in los angeles, and it is just starting to get cold at night. COuld it all just be a big Coincidence?

 

Malibu, the ECU will not learn the adjustments and re-adjust for them, this couldn't happen. If this were the case it would make it a useless tuning device.

Tuning the AFC will solve the problem 99% of the time.

David Buschur
www.buschurracing.com

 

I thought in closed loop it will always try to maintain a particular a/f ratio? Or does idle function differently? Anyway, if its worked for you then its all good. I didn't think the S-AFC made all that much of a difference in closed loop (under 30%TPS), I'd trust Dave's advice before mine only because he has far more experience with the function of the ECU and how the AFC works with it.

 

I think i remember reading about how a mass pipe can cause a rich condition and needs to be corrected using some sort of air fuel tuning such as an s-afc

 

Great. So now I have to get a SAFC. Hmm.. SO if I am running the MAS pipe w/o a SAFC I am actually losing HP from the car running richer>????

 

The pipe won't cause it to run richer, it will cause it to run leaner.

Does this happen when the car is warm or when it is cold?

If you've double checked everything, take off the MAS pipe and put back the stock one. I'd bet that this is the culprit. Your Works flash is probably programmed to lean out the fuel curves, and the addition of the MAS pipe is furthur leaning out the mixture. If my guess is true, and that your car's idle becomes normal after the install of the OEM plastic pipe, your only recourse is to get another re-flash to correct the lean conditions or to get the SAFC to add more fuel.

More than likely, you're running too lean throughout, not just at idle. You'd probably gain more HP by richening out the mixture. Cheapest fix is to go back to the stocker pipe. Second cheapest would be Dynoflash.

 

I was just thinking a dynoflash would help. I am goes racing this weekend and will see how it feels on the road course. When I get back I will swap them out and see how it runs. It messes up only when engine is warm

 

I wouldn't track the car w/ the steel MAS pipe until you're POSITIVE that you're NOT running lean. Switch out the pipe just to be on the safe side.

The fact that it only happens when the engine is warm indicates that it is a too lean problem. During cold start up in open loop, the ecu is programmed to dump fuel and run quite rich. Which explains why it's not stumbling when cold.

Seriously, don't run the MAS pipe at the track until you solve your problem.

 

I have the same stalling issue, i heard HKS S-AFR can correct the problem since they have the BOV Correction...I was about to buy it a few weeks ago but found out that tuning and install it - they cost me like $500 just to install n tune it. I went with XS Engineering because I thought I feel good if someone more experience to tune my car since im new into this turbo thingy. anyhow conclusion, I will take my bov off and live without bov =)

no offense to anyone or not mean to disrespect anyone though...just my 2 cent

 

ok

 

FYI the S-AFC has the BOV correction also.. I don't know that anyone has gotten it to work yet though, I don't run an Open BOV so I don't have that particular issue.

I have to agree though, the bolt-ons without the S-AFC or other tuning (Xede, Dynoflash, etc) won't really take advantage of the huge potential of the components. And its been common knowledge very early on that a MAF pipe can cost a few horsepower if its just bolted on without tuning. The good news is that Buschur sells the S-AFCII with the tuning parameters needed to make the mods happy, and its fairly inexpensive.

 

The BOV (Deacel option) correction does NOT work with our cars according to my understanding. It does not work with the karman sensor but rather the hot-wire (i think).

 

The car somehow corrected itself and has no idling issues and the car does not whistel as loud either. Not sure if it just needed to be broken in and ECU to adapt to it, but car feels great now.