Hello guys, I'm having a problem with turbo on my 2008 Evo X GSR and I'm wondering if someone can tell me what the problem is.

So it all happened when I was driving my way to college in raining condition. I was driving at about 40%-50% of the throttle. And I tried to give it some full throttle on highway and I felt like the turbo pull was gradually weaker and weaker after some pulls and finally it did not pull again at all.

My check engine light was also on the night before it happened, and it just came on when I started my engine. I checked it to Autozone and it was giving me P1320 : Ignition timing retard insufficient. And just additional information, I had about 70% of 89 and 30% of 91 octane fuel mixed in my tank.

So I decided to restart the system by disconnecting battery, and it went away. And then the next day when my turbo didn't pull, I started my engine and it kept stalling out and died for a couple times. So I tried to give a constant throttle to avoid from stalling out. Then I took it for a drive for about 5 miles and it still kept stalling out and died for a couple times when I didn't put any throttle at traffic light. And when i was driving, the center console showed "Service Required". So i drove back to home and when I was on my way back, it went away. At that time, the engine light didn't come on.

Ok today I checked some of the hoses that connected to intake and turbo and it seemed there was nothing wrong. I also checked the air intake filter and it was pretty dirty. I also tried to take off to know if there was any whistling or weird sound on it but it gave me check engine light instead. From that, I could hear my blow off valve and roaring sound (possible from aftermarket air intake).

Any idea what causes this problem? For your reference, I bought this car like two weeks ago and the car already had AEM cold air intake system and Ultimate Racing upper intercooler pipe installed. That's what pretty much I know the aftermarket parts that are installed on it. I'm gonna take it to shop on Tuesday to have them do basic inspection on it. I hope it's not from the turbo.

Thanks in advance

 

Not sure mechanically but why on earth do you have 89 in your tank? 91 should be the bear minimum used. Maybe pre ignition of fuel in boost conditions has trashed the engine?
I would not be driving it and testing it as you have till I knew what was wrong with it. A check engine light means there is a problem - disconnecting the battery to get rid of the light does not resolve any issues

 

Yeah you shouldn't have had put anything less 91 in your tank. Lower grade octane fuel will cause pre ignition. Check your spark plugs to see if they look like they have metal flakes on them. If they do I'm sorry to tell you this but you've done some damage to your car and just disconnecting the battery won't help at all.

 

WHAT IS THE REASON OF MIXING 89 and 91? ?? ? Your car must knocked like crazy, if this is on a TUNED car you are seriously killing your engine. Stock car maybe u will survive but should drain your tank and refill 91 or 93 man.

 

I was running out gas at that time and I had to fill up the gas somewhere and the gas station I went to didn't have the premium fuel, so I filled it up for only like 3 gallons so I could drive my way back to home. After I got back, I filled it up again with 91 octane fuel.

 

This doesn't make sense given your 30/70 ratio statement in your first post

 

He may be bad with math and reversed the ratios??

 

Went to college with 91 octane fuel. Running out of gas, estimated about 1 gallon left on tank with 91 octane fuel and filled it out with about 3 gallons of 89 octane fuel to get back. So it was about 70% of 89 octane fuel and 30% of 91 octane fuel...

That's what I meant from the first post.

 

Don't boost your car let it idle till gas is empty again then fill up, or drain the gas tank
if u keep BOOSTING your car and getting CEL your engine will self destruct soon with your cheap gas mix. or DUMP 3 BOTTTLES of Octane booster from autozone to raise your octane back up to 91 or higher.

 

So it's all just from the fuel octane? or should I worry about something else from turbo system?

 

If you did multiple wot pull on your car , I would first checked your spark plug make sure they are not damaged from using Low grade fuel. If spark plug checks good then dump lot of octane booster and drive 10 15 min let it mix well then drive normal again, using one bottle might not do much for you buy 2 or 3 dump all at once. Good luck

 

I found the problem today, the intercooler pipes that was connected to throttle body came off.

Check engine light came off and the engine idle is stable right after I fixed it.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

Still take the advice on here...never drop below a 1/4 tank and never less than 91..preferably 93 octane. You may want to replace the clamp that blew off too, to prevent this from happening again.

 

Thanks, I'll remember it

 

Congrats on fixing the issue.

Whenever you disconnect your battery on an Evo, you have to let the ECU re-learn the idle. Disconnect the battery, reconnect and start the car and let it sit for 15 minutes WITHOUT EVER touching the gas pedal.

If you dont do this, your car WILL stall when coming to a stop on the highway or stop sign or stop light when the clutch is engaged. This can be very dangerous as your car WILL stall and you will lose powersteering/ABS/Brake(Not entirely but enough) etc.

The check engine light means you were running bad gas like what everybody else had already mentioned.