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What the hell is going on with my car?

1835 Views 22 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  Warp3
I have a major problem. It all started about a week ago. My car stalled and through a CEL. I would not start for about a day. Then I though that maybe the S-AFC had something to do with it so I remove it and reset the ECU. I started the car and it ran fine. Then Friday I was on my way home from work and my car started to act funny again. I was running real rich and real rough, so rough that the stick was shaking pretty hard. I got it home and turned it off and then started it back up and it sounded really weird. It sounded like the timing was off and I could smell all the unburned gas from the exhaust. Has this ever happened to anyone else?

Now for the next problem. When I bought the car from the deal (used) it already had an intake on it and a under drive pulley on it. I do not have any of the stock parts, so I cannot put them back on when I get it towed to the dealer. What do you think I should do?
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busted MAF?
I just put a new one on and the same thing is still happening.:mad:
well i'm stumped (i'm easily confused) :p
Would a bad O2 sencer do this?
matts2.5RS said:
Would a bad O2 sencer do this?
probably. take it to the dealership bust most likely they'll frown on the intake and charge you for the service.
YES, it will.

Do this, get the ECU diagram for the car, I downloaded it at lagging.com a long time ago.


Find the wire from the front O2 first. get a multimeter and set it to DC voltage. Ground the black lead to the ecu housing ground wire. Strip back a small section on the O2 sensor wire and tape the red probe in with some electrical tape. Go drive. You should see a some numbers in a broad range as you cruise. When you go to WOT you will see a fixed number in the 70s or 80s most probably.

Chances are you will see nothing or next to nothing, the 02 is bad if this is the case. Should everything look OK, go to the rear sensor. But that damn front seems to fail first.
The only problem is that my car will start but as soon as I put it in first it will stall.
I bought the car from the dealership with the intake on.
If you bought the car from the dealership with the intake and pully on it, they can't really say anything about it, as far as I know. What year is your car, by the way? MY98 MAFs are sturdy, intake probably won't damage it. MY99 MAFs are wimpy, prone to breaking with intakes. MY00-02 have MAPs, so not an issue. But since you said you put a new one in, I'm assuming you have a MY98-99. Take it in and have them check the O2 sensor, sound like that might be the culprit.
I do not have a CEL. If the o2 senser went bad would it throw the CEL?
I would also look under the hood at the coil pack to see if there are sparks being generated.

I had a coil go bad on my 2000 a long while back, so there was an arc jumping from the spark plug wire to one of the bolts holding down the coil pack.
matt, like some others said,if you bought it with that stuff on it the dealer cant give you grief.Let them do the diagnostics,figure out whats wrong,then you or them do the work.Good luck.
Usually you will get a CEL before the cars starts acting bad.
2Point5RS said:
Usually you will get a CEL before the cars starts acting bad.
Not always. My O2 senser went bad at around 6k miles, with no CEL, but the car barely ran.
My O2 sensor was going bad and mine started to run rough and die in first! Then, I got a recall notice for the O2 sensor...so I took it in and they changed it. What a difference!!! From rough and runnin' shitty to smooth with a 20% increase in gas milage.
My O2 sensor was going bad and mine started to run rough and die in first! Then, I got a recall notice for the O2 sensor...so I took it in and they changed it. What a difference!!! From rough and runnin' shitty to smooth with a 20% increase in gas milage.:D
My car is barely able to stay running. Did your stick shake when it was running? The other thing that I forgot to mention is the when the car is runnig the exhuast makes a putting sound.
Check for fouled plugs and spark at each plug.....Sounds like you're missing!:(
The same thing happened to my rs when I had the S-AFC. It turned out that the AFC wasn't grounding properly and would cut the MAP signal, it was just a general malfunction, not in my wiring or anything. But even when I took it off I get these little hesitent jumps like I did with the AFC. However when the CEL light came on, and it did so even after I uninstalled the AFC, my car ran richer than bill gates, which caused for mad smellage at stop lights and mad black fumes coming out the exhaust at WOT. But now that I have headers, hi-flowing cats, an exhasut and soon to be flywheel, I could use some fuel tuning mods. I dunno, the ecu is so damn picky....
The dealer said that the coil pack was bad and the wires were missing.
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