So lately I've been having problems with my car. At first I thought it was fuel, but one day it wouldn't start and I had to have it towed to a mechanic. An intercooler pipe had come loose (waste of money to have it towed, I could've fixed it).

Today while I was driving around, I would press on the gas and it wouldn't go faster, would start to sputter and I'd have to switch gears so the RPMs would go up and it was fine.

One problem that I know i have is that there is an exhaust leak right above my waste gate, where my header is. I have no fuel or oil leaks (that I can see). Its ran fine up until the intercooler pipe, then after that it ran fine until today. Any ideas?

I've been looking at the intercooler pipes and I cant find one that is loose.

 

have you check allyour vacuum and boost lines as well? with our cars being MAF cars any sort of unmetered air can cause a problem. also check your spark plugs for signs or wear and make sure your running at LEAST on colder than stock plugs (in ngk our cars run a 5 heat range, i run a 6 for now, and the evo's run a 7 heat range plug). another thing to check is coils and wires. i know i sound prolly pretty annoying and youve prolly already checked all those things but our car turboed sometimes can be a real pain if you know what i mean.


josh

 

What do your AFRs do when you step on the gas? Do you have proper vacuum at idle?

 

Senate-

Right now I can't keep my car on long enough to check. I'm thinking I have some kind of leak somewhere, but I have no idea where its at.

JRR-

I'll check right now, thanks.

 

sounds like another boost leak. check all the intercooling piping. for a coupler thats probably blown off. if its missing firing bad and all intercoolings on.. check the plugs, u could have foiled one out. but sounds like your intercooling is popped off again..

double check the connections from the MAF to the turbo, make sure that intake pipe is secure and connected properly.

 

Check all your couplers and connections. Sounds like a vacuum leak.

 

I'm thinking that its the exhaust leak, checked everything that was mentioned and everything seemed fine. Went ahead and removed and reinstalled all piping. Checked the BOV and that's fine. All vacuum hoses are fine. I've replaced them all, just did it two days ago (car ran fine after replacing). I noticed that at one point I had oil in my spark plug "cylinder" but I haven't had it since if anyone cares. This was a while ago, back when there were no problems.

I've made an appointment with "Tha Shop" in Chatsworth, CA to have that exhaust leak fixed. I'm pretty sure that once I fix that my car will run fine. I'll have them look at everything on Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday I'll probably tear everything apart and reinstall it after I get off of school tomorrow.

Can't turn it on right now since its effing loud cause of the leak and will wake up my roommates. I'll update everyone in the morning when I get it started. I love being turbo'd but sometimes I really regret it...

 

If its that loud just starting and idling that it will wake up your room mates that could very well be your problem. What would be happening is too much air is getting to your 02 sensor from the leak causing it to "think" its running lean so the computer starts to just dump more and more fuel in trying to even the mixture only the mixture is fine and your running so rich the car wont even run. I would pull your plugs out to see if its running really rich. I worked on a civic once that just had a crack in the exhaust manifold right to the 02 threads and that was enough to cause the same issue. It would die anytime coming to a stop cause the mixture was too rich let us know

 

So much for tearing everything apart, its raining outside. Hopefully its done by the time I get home from school.

 

So I removed all of my spark plugs, the coils pretty much fell apart when I did. I know this isn't the major problem that I'm having but I'm glad I found this out. I'm going to install the new parts tomorrow.

 

plugs and wires should be very minimal cost from local auto parts story.. (plugs like 7$ wires 15?) hopefully that fixxes your issues.. if not, u just fixxed an upcoming issue

 

plus the coils (79 apiece)

 

How did the plugs look? Did they look likee the cars been running rich? Also even though I'm sure you already know to get at least a 6 or maybe 7 heat range plug.

 

Any updates? And a messed up coil pack is a major problem in my book :P

 

Currently my car is ar the shop in chatsworth, ca. I'm getting no fuel in the fuel rail and no spark. They say there is a fuse that keeps blowing in the dash and that this fuse might be the culprit.