Today on the highway, I was going about 65mph in 3rd gear and the car shuddered, bogged, and felt as if the rear wheels gave way. This freaked me out so I pulled over to the side and checked under the hood. Something similar happened recently when the hardpipe connected to the throttle body came off because the clamp was loose. I thought the same might have happened but it wasn't. (I have an Injen intake with hardpipe.) Everything seemed connected so I got in the car again and started it up. The car started to idle funny. It was really low (under 1k rpms) and was lumpy. I tried to rev the car while in neutral and it revved fine, so I put it into gear and started.

The car started to go slowly in first gear and as I was giving it gas it went to 10-15mph and about 3k-4k rpms but around 4k the car would bog and would not go any faster even if I floored the gas. At this point the exhaust would blow out smoke and made a put put sound like backfire. Before 4k rpms the car sounds unusually rough, but no backfire like sounds. After some testing the car will go to 4k rpms in 1st, 3k rpms in 2nd, 3k rpms in 3rd, 2k rpms in 4th, under 2k rpms in 5th. Very strange. Please keep in mind, the car revs fine in neutral all the way to redline. In any gear though, the car will not rev above the rpms I listed above, regardless of how much gas I give it. The car will not go into boost at all.

To give you better idea of the situation, about 10 min before I got on the highway, I put in gas and overfilled my motor oil by accident, about 1/2 quart. After the incident on the highway, I dropped by the closest car shop pepboys who drained the 1/2 quart of oil for me. I drive a lancer evo, currently with fuel pump, Injen intake, and TBE.

Before yelling at me about tuning etc, I'm scheduled to go in for mods and tuning soon.

 

check all your intercooler piping, i'd guess that they've come loose.

 

I checked most of the piping, the only one I wasn't able to was the one ICUP since it's behind the bumper and I was away from home. I'll try to check it tomorrow. Could oil have gone into the turbo and flooded it?

 

Im having the same problem. i changed my oil and put in 5 quarts. I also changed my sparkplugs. Once i started the car i had a rough idle, the car was sputtering. Loud backfires, the smell of gas. I really cant even drive the car. I was thinking a coilpack went bad? I just got my car out of the shop after spending a grand putting a act street clutch on! Any suggestions Before i spend 229 on a coil? HELP!

 

What color was the smoke? If it's an oil issue, the smoke from the exhaust will be thick and bluish-white. If it is an IC pipe the smoke will be from a rich condition and a much darker black color. If it's white and thin like steam, that's water and likely a head gasket.

I hope it's black. That would also explain the backfires.

 

Check the spark on each of the plugs. You should be able to do this with a standard multimeter or do it old school with a screwdriver or other metal object. Also, check the gap. Gap shouldn't cause that bad of a problem, but who knows.

 

my car is stuck at my friends house, i am going to check the color when i get there.

 

the car is really struggling on idle.

 

what plugs did you put in? are they gapped to .026?

 

At first i used NGK BPR7ES gapped at .027. when i started the car, thats when the car began sputtering and backfiring. i thought since they werent the irdridiums the owners manual says to use i took them out and put back in the worn irdiums, and the problem still exists. i regapped the BPR7ES's to what the dummy at autozone told me .032 or something. that didnt work. i overnighted the ngk iridiums, still the same thing. It feels like the 2nd plug (under the coil) isnt going down all the way. its easier to pull out of the head. I guess im going to try a new coilpack. ?????

 

there are alot of us with evo 8 that use the ngk bpr7es gapped to .026. the only downfall to them is you have to change them about every 6000 miles.

before ordering any parts i would do a boost leak test or at the very least take your front bumper off and see if your licp has popped off.

 

Yea their are so many varialbles. i hate it. think its time to sell it and get me a Yukon. what a headache.

 

do you think being gapped off .027 as suppose to .026 could make such a big difference? and why didnt the old ones that were working ok do the same? AHHHH!

 

Well i had my plugs crossed up. Im an idoit. thanks for the help.

 

its always the simple mistakes cause the most headaches. good to hear it was a easy fix