Last night i removed the defi gauges that came in my car when I bought it , now my car is running very rich (10:1 all conditions, could be more rich than gauge will read.) and will not rev past about 2k at all (ignition stops it). The gauges worked fine, but were wired in very sketchy. Wires were shoved through the grommet that the main harness comes through the fire wall.. I'm concerned that yanking the wires out may have shorted something in there? Probably unlikely but it's all I can think of.

The only other thing that has changed since is my aem uego that I installed at the same time. I disconnected the wires where I tapped in to be sure that this is not the problem.

The car idles rich, but fine. when any throttle is given it will begin sputtering.

If anyone could give me any possible help it would be much appreciated. I would like to be able to drive my car to work tomorrow!

Thanks!

 

limp mode.

you did something wrong, check the codes.

 

obviously the ecu is preventing the ignition from firing any more.

as I said, i have checked and double checked to make sure that the wideband absolutely positively is not interfering with anything else.

I just plugged in with evoscan, and keep getting "no response from vehicle ecu" when I try to read the dtc's. This leaves me to believe my hypothesis about the sketchy wiring going through the main ecu harness grommet is correct.

 

Check to see if you MAF got unplugged somehow. Last clutch job they forgot to hook it back up and car ran rich at idle and won't rev. That's my only suggestion at the time.

 

You just answeared your own question, if you yanked the wires and the car was running fine before you did something wrong.

 

Check the camshaft position sensor

 

Like I said, I can assure you the wide band has nothing to do with it. I removed everything that could potentially be of interference with that.

I have looked over all of the obvious things. One of the previous owners clearly did some hokey wiring and what not. Upon looking further, I found a hks idle stabilizer stashed in the dash and more random wires.

I am led to believe at this point that the ecu is either fried or being shorted out or that the ignition has a weak ground or something of that nature.

Whether or not I did something wrong, I am looking for help so please keep the snooty remarks to yourself.

My evo scan will not communicate with the ecu, so my next option is to begin checking each of the wires where they are pinned to the connectors on the ecu to check for continuity and correct voltage.

 

I doubt that's it but I will check it. Thanks for the input

 

bump. any advice appreciated!

thank you

 

Bump please. After numerous scans with evo scan, the only code I was able to pull was vehicle speed sensor. Not sure if that somehow effects the ignition timing, but I am almost positive that it is an ignition or ecu problem at this point

 

boost leak, most likely, bad ignition wouldnt cause a 10.0 air fuel at idle, rev past 2k yes, but not a rich idle, i would say do a boost leak test, and throw in a new set of spark plugs and gap them. While you take out the old plugs measure your coilpacks and spark plug wires resistance make sure there within spec. Then go from there
good luck

 

You probably ripped out the tach wire and possible the vss wire at the ECU. Check the ECU wiring at the ECU

 

If the ignition timing is way off or weak it could absolutely cause for the fuel to not burn.

I'm positive it's not a boost leak, I checked all of the basics like that. New plugs, checked coils, etc. it's an electrical issue of some sort.

Thank you for the suggestions!

Just to be clear, I didn't actually rip any wires out of the harness or ecu or anything. I just believe they may be compromised due to whoever installing the gauges running the wires through the same grommet.

I will certainly check those circuits though. If it matters, the tach is working now.

I'm wondering if it's possible the ecu somehow lost the map or something? Not sure if that can happen with these ecus but in the vw world it's not uncommon to lose ecu maps.

 

I also forgot to add that I can get it to rev a bit higher than 2k (it's a bit reluctant but it will) but anything above like 1600 or so puts so much load on the engine that it builds boost and sounds like I have the launch control going.

 

I installed some underhood bushings and freaked out because I thought I busted my fuel gauge (lots of panic, no logical thought)

When you removed that old wiring did you hit the ECU or accidentally remove any cabling?.... I mean ANY cabling!