Ok I have to make this short cause im at work. But I think I have an issue.

First my car has been running like **** this last year and I am fed up with it. And it is somthing that unless you drive it everyday nobody can feel it. I know how my car ran when I first got it and how it runs now, it sucks now.

But on to the real problem, I have the CAI on my RA and ever since I put it on the SES comes on intermitently and it throws a lean code everytime. And yes I have tried reseting the ECU and all that good stuff, but usually it will go off if I let the car idle or start it up randomly and it disappears, but lately it has been on for the last 2 weeks full time never going off no matter what I do.

So just yesterday I slapped my 3000 mile FI cleaner in with a tank of low grade and I turned the car on and the SES was gone. I drove it to Columbus and back and still nothing. It still drives like **** too, but I thought that maybe I might have an issue with my fuel system to cause it t run like ****.

I dunno hopefully someone can help me out, because I feel like the future for me and this car could come to an abrupt halt when I finally get pissed off and hit a pole.

 

If you had some clogged injectors then it would be trying to trim extra fuel via the O2 sensor. Now by cleaning them you might be running really rich until the longterm fuel trims come back down. Possible but not the only thing that could be happening... If fuel injector cleaner helped then try changing the fuel filter as well and resetting the ECU. You might also have a front O2 sensor that's bad.

-Michael

 

When was the last time you got your car in for major service? Maybe a fuel tune up? My car was feeling a lil iffy until I got my car serviced then it felt like it was running a little better. If not... clean out your system with seafoam?

 

I'm gonna ask some of the dumb questions here, maybe to kick up some ideas...

-When you say that it runs poorly now, what are you referring to specifically? Does it idle rough, slow to rev, ever stall out, etc.?
-Have you kept up with routine service (oil changes, etc)?
-Does the car sound louder than it once did (CAI sound aside, maybe the valve lash...how many miles are on the car)?
-When the CAI was installed, was the filter new? Or did you recently clean it/re-oil it, possibly getting some on the MAF?

 

The questions are fine, but the car I guess you could say is slow to rev. It definatley dosent go thru second gear as fast when its not running right.
I have kept up on the service because one of my good friends is a mechanic so he helps me do alot, as of right now it has Mobile 1 Synthetic that is about 3k old but it looks really good so im gonna see if I can pull 7k out of it.
Also we adjusted the valve lasch 2 weeks ago, now mind you we kind of just went off instructions cause none of us had done it ever, but when it was all said and done it idled alot better and quieter.
And lastly the Air Filter was used by another member, but I just cleaned it and re-lubed it about a month maybe 2 months ago so it should still be good. I am gonna get another air filter when spring rolls around because all of this road salt and snow makes it pointless.

Here is the best way to describe how I can notice the difference:

I drive this road everyday and it has a stop sign and a 150 to 200ft straight into an S turn, now when it is running good I can run it all the way through first and second and half of 3rd before I hit the s-turn when it is running correctly.

When it is running bad which is the majority of the time, it is all it can do to make it through second before I hit the S-turn.

And yes I understand shifting and my driving style effect the outcome, but I am pretty consistent when it comes to driving like that.

I dont know if that helps any, but I really just want my car back to the way it was, when I first bought it I actually enjoyed driving it because it felt good. Now it just feels like a slow turd with a bunch of weights in the front pulling it down everytime I let off the gas.

Again thanks for everyones help!

 

Uh, either your estimate of distance is way off, or you're not properly remembering how your car used to perform. I can't think of many cars that can hit 65-70 (middle of 3rd on our car) in 200 feet. It takes a stock Ralliart 1,320 ft (1/4 mile) to reach about 87mph.

 

I don't really have any helpful suggestions, but if you're going to run the car into a telephone pole or something, at least swap hoods with me first.

 

Yea I suppose I am off the more I think about it, but I dont know how to explain it. What I was trying to get at was that its like driving 2 completley seperate cars.

Amd Mysywx or however you spell it, dont worry I will make sure I take all the good parts off before I smack it. I can see the cops right now, asking me why there is no hood or trunk on the car...

Any other ideas?

 

The only thing I can think of at the moment is to make sure your O2 sensors are good and that your MAF is clean.

 

^ see now, if i had moderator privileges I would of cleaned that right up for ya

 

I don't know what you're talking about.

 

since it's an air filter that has to be oiled, I would check your MAF sensor as it may have oil on it.
The oil on the MAF causes the engine to read rich, which may have lead to a bunch of problems from running rich including fouled plugs, fouled O2 sensor, and other things, which make it run richer, and to compensate, the ecu leans out the fuel and everything gets fubar-ed.

My recommendations are to:
-check the SES code(s)
-take of the intake and look inside the piping for oil and clean it if there is any.
-check the maf sensor and clean it with a maf sensor cleaner
-check the spark plugs and clean/replace if necessary (the OEM Iridium ones from the dealership cost $20CAD each over here, so maybe if you can't clean them, get an equivalent part for a bit cheaper)
-reset the ecu
-let us know how it goes

I think universal O2 sensors for our cars run for about $200-$400 so if the next code pulled goes like that, get the O2 sensor checked.

 

I had many problems with the RRM CAI letting moisture in from road spray. The SES light would come on intermittently and I still had performance issues after everything dried up. I'd inspect the MAF first of all. (mine was starting to rust). Then change to the stock airbox or SRI and see if it clears up after a week or so.

 

I will take the pipe off and take a look and clean the MAF with cleaner here this week and update this thread, but I check the spark plugs last week when I adjusted the valve lash and they looked solid. I honestly dont know if its the intake though because the car didnt run that hot before I put the intake on, I actually put the intake on in hopes of the car running poorly due to lack of air flow.

 

Huh? So the CAI isn't on your car, you have the stock one on?