update…a very needed update
As you can see I haven’t been posting much. Â Ever since the M hit the road a couple of weeks ago, my mind has been on an endless “get ‘er done” mode. Â First, she drives good. Â Not great, just good. Â The suspension is tight and the steering is slopfree. Â The tires are great too. Â The tacho is possessed. Â No noises from the tranny, clutch, or driveline; which is good because it was all out! What needs real attention now is the engine. Â It starts fine, but idles high after warming up. Â On the road it just doesn’t have that punch in the higher revs.
Last Saturday I took her to get a smog check-surprise, surprise it won’t pass. Â Not even close. Â Good thing I asked for a pre-test! Â Back to the drawing board. Â The tech said the engine is running excessively rich-at least not excessively lean! Â So, what’ll make the engine run rich? Â Easy list first:
- Fuel pressure regulator — Changed.
- Faulty injectors—rebuilt
- Oxygen Sensor—new (amendment to this below)
- Vacuum leak—checked out ok
- Air flow meter— slide mechanism checked for resistance linearity, ok. Â Air temp sensor not checked.
- Water temperature sensor (blue plug)—new
- Wires? —new
- Weak coil—tested ok
- Damaged ECU—not tested
- Bad plugs—sooty and fouled plugs cleaned; new ones ready
Yesterday I removed the oxygen sensor to find a nice layer of sooty buildup indicative of rich combusion. Â I cleaned it with brake cleaner and gave it a good wire brush scrub. Â Put it back in and seemed like it started smoother. Â I didn’t get the chance the drive the car, but maybe that was it? Â If not, I have a feeling, or by deduction above, the culprit is the afm or the ecu. Â I’ll report back.
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