Do you have a boost gauge? Your ear is not an accurate boost gauge

What were the codes?

 

yep, I have a guage. It is in limp again today, only boosting 3 - 5psi.

got my oxygen sensor today, but didn;t put it in because I want to MAKE SURE its not something I can fix for free or cheap. I'd hate to install the $130 part then find out I just had a hose with a nick in it....

anyways, tonights update - Found a small leak where the MAF wire harness connects below the N75 on the TIP. Clamped it and its now good. Went to go start the car and hope it would run better -

it didn;t. Barely starts now, and when I rev the engine repeatedly, then let off the gas and let it idle, it sputters to an almost dead stop, but slowly pulls itself back up to 850 RPMS. So I popped the hood again, and reved the engine via the DBW/throttle cable, and noticed a little smoke coming from the bottom of the engine block. It smells like burning rubber. And my cone filter sounds like its choking. It bogs real hard when on the gas, and sucks for air, then gets up to speed finally. It even popped once at me (aka backfired...)


I'm so fed up with this guessing game that's costing me my whole afternoons....I just want my car to run normal!!!

 

oh and the codes today were

"Running Lean - Bank 1/S 1"
"Running Lean - Bank 1/ S 2"
and the Limp code - Intermittent

 

Call me stupid, but there's NOTHING else that will make your vacuum show up as leaking.............right? So if my car is idling at 12 in/hg I HAVE to have a vacuum leak. Thats the only answer. Correct?

 

Have you tried pressurizing the system with an air compressor (only like 10 psi max)? There are some posts on how to do it, and it's often unbelievable the boost leaks that you'll find in the process.

 

yeah, thats what I did last night. I only found one small leak on the TIP, and fixed it

 

Oh, you already checked... I'm just guessing at this point then. Maybe that funky injector you discovered is causing your lean condition, and the ecu is going into limp mode?

Or maybe a plugged cat would cause problems? That would cause low idle vacuum, but not sure if that would cause a lean condition though.

 

ok, so hopefully this is my FINAL update.

So two days ago when I filled my tank up, I threw some fuel injector cleaner in there just for ***** and giggles (couldn't hurt...). Well this morning I cleared my CEL code, and on the way to work I was boosting 13 - 15 psi, but I was lurching and bogging all over the road. The car was misfiring anywhere after 3 psi.

Let it sit all day at work.

After work, left to the post office to go pick up a package, car was still running the same. Then when I left, I was driving down the road, and noticed I was almost going WOT from 5 MPH, and the car wasn't jerking!!! Looked at the guage and I was peaked at 16 PSI, and it held steady for a couple seconds, then slowly dropped down to 10. Hit 4th gear, same deal, peaked at 14 psi, then slowly dropped. My problem was magically fixed!!!! It was fine 3/4's of the way home, then when I took off from the last stoplight, I noticed I was only boosting 3 psi. LIMP AGAIN.

So I'm thinking my problem HAS HAS HAS HAS to be a fuel injector. The car now idles different too. It will barely start, the rpms will bounce around the 600 -900 area, then all of a sudden it will jump up to 1k RPMS, and my gauge will drop to normal 19 -20 in/hg vacuum. Then a couple minutes later it will cut out again and idle crappy, and the guage will read 12 in/hg.

 

you might wanna look at some check valves those things suck if those things break your car sounds like it has a cam in it ans when you rev up it fine but at idle it sucks. if thats what it is dont go to a parts store go back to the dealer ship there are like $50.00 but it will fix the problem

 

I had a similar issue, when ever I got into the boost much at all it sputtered, misfired-etc.

Turned out to be a coil pack, replaced, ran fine afterward, just something to think about.

The odd thing was it ran fun, but when I added the APR chip it started doing it.