Pal215

iTrader: (12)

Ok fellas, I have a situation here and I am not sure what caused it so I am going to include everything I have done to my car recently that might be related to this problem. I apologize in advance for the lengthiness. I did search.

About 2 weeks ago I installed new SS brake lines, rotors, pads, and bled the system till the pedal was rock hard. I also installed a SS clutch line and bled that as well. After bedding in the brakes, everything was just fine. I was running e85 at the time and the car ran perfect. I noticed I was low on fuel so I decided to fill up at the local 76 which had the propel e85 pumps that I have always used. At this point it was getting late so I called it a night.

The next morning I noticed that the car had a VERY, VERY hard time starting. I had to give it half throttle to get it going. I did not think much of it as e85 had always seemed to give the car a hard time on start up...but not like this. Normally it would just grumpily rumble to a solid 1700 rpm idle at the first attempt of start up and settle down to a very smooth 900 rpm shortly after its warmed up, . However, this time I had to try 3 times to start the car before it finally fired up.

I checked my wideband gauge and it seemed to read just fine, averaging around 14.6/14.7, and so I pulled out of my driveway and cruised off. While approaching a straight away, I decided to do a couple of quick pulls to wake myself up a little, but what happened next was completely unexpected.


As soon as I put my foot down, the car bogged down and my wideband jumped down to 10, which is the lowest reading the aem wideband can give you. It felt like hitting a wall. I thought to myself..... wth?? I decided to give it one more go to see if it was just a hiccup, but to my disappointment I received the same results.

At this point I thought ignition. I speculated that there was something wrong with my plugs, however, after taking them out and inspecting them, I came to the conclusion that they were just fine, after all, they were only 2,500 miles old.

After finding no boost leaks I decided that I must have filled up on a bad batch of e85 from the night before, as it did smell a little different at start up.

I decided to baby the car through the entire tank of gas until I could fill up on 91 octane to see if fuel was the problem. After much anticipation, and with the sh!ty tank of e85 finally burned off, I went to the local mobile one station and filled up on California's finest 91 octane. After this the car started up right away and did not bog down anymore at medium to full throttle. So it seemed like it really was just a bad batch of e85.

However, on my way home, I put the car in neutral and gave it a rolling rev and noticed something very unusual. I felt a frontward lurch on my body every time I tapped the throttle, similar to what you would feel when braking. I then realized every time I revved the engine while the car was moving, the brakes would slightly apply themselves.

Pissed off at the car and myself, I drove home and decided that I needed to consult my pals at evom.net

So, I know the brake booster runs on the engines vacuum, but does anyone know how this could have happened?

My main questions are this:

1. Is it normal for the engine to apply a little brake pressure when reving it in neutral?

2. When pressing the brakes very hard at idle, is it normal for the engine to run slightly lean?

3. Do ethanol company's often screw up their e85 mixtures? I know they change their formula's seasonally, but do they do it by so much that it could cause our cars to run like crap?

4. Does this mean my brake booster is on its way out?


I know it can't be my air filter as the night before it was running perfectly fine and it cant get dirty enough to deter the car that quickly.

If you read this far, God bless you and any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank You evom army!

-Pal215

asu11

iTrader: (7)

Check your injectors, could be clogged with gunk. Also check e-brake cable tension if you think brakes are applying themselves which is highly unlikely unless you have a seized caliper.

Pal215

iTrader: (12)

E brake cable is good. Car runs fine on 91 so how could it be injectors?

Thanks for the quick reply

SHSLKing11

iTrader: (4)

^
Like he said, make sure your fuel system is cleaned out. My evo has never had fuel issues, but it seems my dsm is always finding a way to irritate me with fuel issues. between failing injectors, fuel filters, etc; there's always something. I had similar problems to yours in mine.

EDIT*Sorry I missed your comment about swapping fuels and seeing a fixed result.
You may just throw some more e85 in when you can to clarify it was some bad fuel.
Just for peace of mind.

As for the brake issue, i'm at a loss. However, I am curious to know what would cause that.

Pal215

iTrader: (12)

I have a feeling that it has to do with the brake booster because it runs off the engines vaccuum and reving the engine effects vaccuum. I just need to know more about it before I can come up with a deffinitive answer. I will deffinately keep this thread updated with what I find.

Again, thanks for the replys guys , keep em coming.

Pal215

iTrader: (12)

Went to a car meet tonight, turns out that it really was just a rancid batch of e85. Why? Because 2 other people I know are having the same problem and got their fuel from the same station.

guzmangjr

iTrader: (10)

I have mine dual mapped but, I have never ran the e85, it's things like this that scare me to run e85 on my car. But all my pals say it's fun as hell

Pal215

iTrader: (12)

Your friends are right, there is nothing else like it. You should try it out one of these days especially since your tuned for it. It will unlock a side of your car you never knew existed. However, I do caution you, it's very addicting.