Was out for a cruise just before putting her into storage. I noticed after about 20 minutes, the car had no power. And the RPM gauge was wonky.

I was doing 80kph, put it in 3rd and my rpms were around 1500. (impossible!) Push on accelerator. No real power to accelerate.

So I limped her home. Funny thing is, twice during attempt to accelerate from stop limping home, issue went away. But if I attempted to load up the engine too much, problem came back.

I'll post video now and log later.



FP works. Plugs look fine. Wires ok. Turbo is spinning freely
No smoke. Exhaust feels cold though and the AF Gauge is reading 16+.

Just before the issue creeped up, I was under full boost and got off when I saw the CEL come on. Checked logs, it hit 7deg KnockRet. Something is up with fuel is my guess.

Clogged filter? Bad injector? Gonna try and find service manual. But if anyone has had this happen, lemme know !

9 time out of 10 when the cluster starts doing strange things it turns out to be the alternator, along with all sorts of other weird issues from low voltage to the ECU.

Doesn't seem fuel related at all to me.

My AF gauge is reading ---

The ECU reports idle @ 900 (ECMLINK)
But the gauge reports 100-200.
It sounds and feels like it's closer to 500rpm.

ECU sees 13.3-13.7 volts. All accessories OK.
No Intake leaks.

I agree is it most likely electrical but I do suspect that it's affecting the injectors.

I have twice over the summer, seen during hard shift, the entire car lose power for a split second. Also happened twice when switching from high to low beam.

Here is when I started coming to a stop when I first noticed the engine running rough. (AF through the roof at idle)


Log file in full: http://www.chucklavoie.com/_projects/dsm/log.2015.11.15-01.elg

This will not be fun.

Is your battery relocated? Volts do seem good throughout the log.

I know my friend had issues with his Evo and a similar issue, turned out to be his heavy gauge wire going to the trunk for the relocation was shorting whenever it would experience some g-force.

Not relocated yet.

Previous owner installed stereo and has quite a bit running through the car. I am going to yank it all out to start.

I will also pull the ECU and look inside make sure that not a caps issue. I may also send it off to ECMLINK for a quick health check.

CAS has also been mentioned but will leave that last.

I actually think this could be ignition related, but I'm going off speculation rather than experience for this one. Your tach gets its signal from the ignition, whereas the ECU gets it from the CAS.

If it were my car, I'd check the igniter. But I could be completely talking out of my ass

You had 2 nice 3rd gear pulls in your log. First pull seems clean without any knock but second registered 5-7 degrees of knock around 6000rpm. Looks like timing is set fairly low at 11/10 degrees in that range. WB readings are fairly consistent in both pulls, injector duty cycle does not go above 80%, airflow consistent. Does not seem like fuel related issue to me.

All suggestions welcome

Yeah, power transistor. Sorry, I forgot the more common name.

May have found the culprit.

"bad power transistor will drop 2 cylinders and cause the tach to read 1/2 speed"

If anyone has one laying around.. lemme know

The pulls were just mentioned cause the problem appeared after. My tune has almost never seen anything above 0.7 KnockRet and definitely never more than 2 (CEL is set for 2)

My timing is also never higher than 12. (anything more and she knocks). 7KnockRet is insane. When I looked down when the CEL light was on, the RPMs said 7200 on Tach. Logs say I was only at 6300 when it happened.

I might as well replace the fuel filter too while I'm at all this. I really need a FPR with Gauge too. I'll start with the simple stuff though. Yank out all that stereo stuff and lines running to it. As it stands, she's not gettting enough fuel or a bad ground / short is causing the WB02 to report lean at ALL times. Double check the wiring to ECU and ECU itself. I have to do it soon, snows coming and I still need to get her to storage.

This is a log from starting it in the garage, idle and then shut off. WBO2 always cycled in the past. Now it's pegged between over 18.7 and 16.2. No sweeps between 12 and 17 as usual.

Check your rail, last time this happened to me it was because my rail wasn't tight enough and I had fuel leaking on the transistor.

I've got a PTU from my 95 AWD parts car.

There is no wetness around that area. My PTU is sitting more above the rail. I relocated the harness for everything under the PCV valve. I suspect it's causing too much tension on the connector.

Mike, if I end up needing the PTU, how fast can I get it? I still have your number. Can you text me a price? Thank you sir

Primary Coil Resitance
Both read 1.1 Ohm (they say max should be 0.86)

Secondary Coil (High Voltage Terminals)
12.6 across the board

Plug Wires range between 3K and 6K ohms. (max 22k)

I don't have an analog meter, so PTU is next. I need to hit up Radio Shack. >.<

The mitsu part number for 2G PTU is MD189747. I was surprised that Ziggy does not list that in the store.

They are ridiculously expensive new anyway, a good used is your best bet.

Hmmmm...Maybe I'll just hang onto it then.

They're pretty easy to find.. I think I've managed to accrue 3 spares without trying. They just seem to show up in my parts boxes.

P.S. Resistance testing ignition wires with a multimeter is an exercise in futility

>.>


EBayed one for 50$. Might as well have a spare even if not the problem.

I did try and remove the mounting bolts for PTU to Intake Manifold and just let it dangle. Car wouldn't even start. Needed the chassis ground. Going to try and improve the ground to it and see what happens. I think a ground upgrade on the car is due.

Throw parts at it till works then!

I may actually have a couple of them.

I'll check and get back to you.

Blanket diagnosing is costly, be careful.

I checked it and the voltage back from 1.5 volts applied returned as 0.2. It's still current! Just not sure what it's supposed to return.

I put it back in, added new ground to frame from battery and additional braided ground from firewall to intake manifold just underneath the PTU.

Car started. Idled ok. RPM gauge accurate. I took it for short drive and it wanted to stall at stops but hung on around 500 rpm then leveled back on to 900. Other than that, power was good (stock boost level).

I got in front of driveway and it stalled out. I was going to bring into storage so I go to start it...

Won't start at all now. Pushed back into garage. This thing needs a diet. So heavy.

I know with Henri's car, it was the harness going into the PTU. After going into boost and letting off, the sudden movement of the engine would loosen the plug going into the PTU.

The one I got from Ebay comes with Connector. Current one on car is just zip tied on due to broken tab (bought car that way).

Just going to splice it in and keep fingers crossed it fixes it.

Quick update. New Used PTU put in. She fired up immediately. Idled beautifully.

I let her warm up then went for a short drive. The only lingering issue is she wants to stall when rolling up to a stop. Hits 300-500 rpm.. If I leave it, most of the time after 15 seconds, it will return to 900-1000. And idle normally. Occasionally she will stall out. But starts ok.

While normal idle, I can rev it while still and I get a little dip but nothing below 700.

I brought her to storage for now. Spring will bring new parts.

Thats normal, you probably had your battery unplugged so your ECU is re-learning how to idle. It will stabilize after an hour of driving.

Is your ISC functioning properly?

Yeah agreed with Mike, I had lightened flywheel and it used to do that and turns out it wasn't the flywheel that was the issue it just made it more obvious.

What's your idle set at? What flywheel do you have?

What is your 'Coast FC Adjust' value set at? See here, last paragraph: http://www.ecmtuning.com/wiki/revlimiters

Playing with this value can help stop engine speed from dropping so much coming to a stop. The lower the engine speed drops the harder it is for the vehicle to recover. I've seen some pretty intensive studies on stuff like this and once you drop below a certain point (RPM value) it becomes incredibly hard/unreliable to get back to idle speed, particularly in a reasonable amount of time.

Well, if PTU bit the big one, could be the ISC did too. I would just try and delete it. FIAV could also be an issue.

I have ACT Streelight. Idle is set at 900. Coast FC Adjust = 0 (it's always been 0 with no issue)

Something is causing a clinking sound coming from the exhaust. between 1500 to 2500rpm when revving (not under load). Can't hear it once the car starts moving.I have also noticed the fuel rail passenger side seems wet.

Will hold off till next year. She is hibernating now. I may post up a log of the drive to storage (unless I find the glaring error)