dhahlen

iTrader: (5)

Alright, here is the deal.

Downpipe, Midpipe, Ported Wastegate.
Power FC, set on stock maps with my boost settings lower than stock maps.

I was getting 13-8-13 and now i am getting 13-5-6, sometimes the primary will spike to 14 or 15 real quick. When the secondary is supposed to boost in, it doesn't, instead I am getting 6 PSI from the primary.

I looked under the car, and i checked the arm. <b>There is a c-clip missing on the arm which controls the wastegate door</b>, But I dont think this is the problem, because the arm is on there pretty good, I can pull it off with a little force, and then move the wastegate door freely, so I know the door is fine also.

Now, IF the c-clip wasn't there, would this cause it not to work? THat doesn't make any sense to me, that little clip causing it not to work... but who knows.

Anyway, I can't see where an electrical connection would attatch to the solenoid to control it. Any clue where it is?

Also, there is oil leaking from the line that goes into the turbo, this is probably because I did not replace the oil gaskets when I put the line back on, and it is suggested to change those everytime you pull them off.

The Turbo's were new when I got them, and now only have 9k on them. Engine has the same amount of miles, and everything is solid except for that boost deal.

Perhaps the solenoid is bad? I dont have a vacuum pump, so I don't know how to test this.

Primary boost is strong, secondary I get nothing, but I get pressure from the Primary when the secondary should be boosting.

The Arm is on there good, aside from the c-clip, I dont know whats up. ANy clue?

Thanks
-Darren-

XSTransAm

this is the same problem that tons of people have... check your hoses, solenoids ect, from what i gather their are lots of things that can cause this problem. I waas never able to fix mine and just ended up going non sequential

flyboyjuge

mine does that..except mine spools everyonce in a while..so i am piecing together my single kit now...saves lots of headaches

skunks

mines did the exact saem thing but did it from the start when i bought the car, i fixed it by rechecking allt he vaccum lines going to the bov's, mines were T'ed when they were not suppose to be, now mines are fine.

Howard Coleman

iTrader: (6)

the door that opens at abt 4500 rpm must has pressure opening it from one side and vacuum from the other side. if either (repeat either) of these don't happen at 4500 the door on the y pipe doesn't open and your boost falls on it's face. tap into the secondary turbo w a pressure gauge and check to see it is making 10 plus pounds. it probably is. then check both your vacuum and pressure tanks that they are holding. check the 2 one way valves. check the lines from the pressure/vacuum tanks and finally check the solenoids if necessary. you'll need lengths of vacuum hose and 2 vacuum/pressure gauges. after hooking them up to the flapper door on the y pipe drive the car and see if both sides of the door are getting their signal at 4500. i will bet they aren't. highest probability is a loose hose, a leaking one way valve. your secondary turbo is probably fine but not able to provide boost since the door isn't opening. mazda vents the crankcase into the turbo so it is common to have a bit of oil around it and throughout your intercooler etc.
good luck,
howard coleman

iceman4357

iTrader: (2)

could be a hose popped off, or your secondary solenoid. But when mine went out my check engine light came on.

dhahlen

iTrader: (5)

I tested the actuator to see if it was getting pressure and vacuum. When I pull the hose off of chamber A, it pushes the actuator rod out, and when the car idles and I have the hose connected, it's pulled in. I swapped the CRV and the Blow-Off to see if the CRV was bad.... same symptoms. The wastegate door may be jammed, but I can't get the damn c-clip off to move the handle to move the door, I could take off the DP but I don't have the time. I checked the lines going to the vacuum chamber, and pressure chambers, they are good. The restrictor pills may be bad, but I dont have extra pressure gauges to hook anything up. I basically have a tool box, and that is about it. Being in the military I have very little time and cash to get things done. How hard would it be to go non-seq and would it be worth it? Or should I just try and troubleshoot this problem? If I am correct non-seq will combine both turbos in one single boost correct? As in... more turbo lag, but stronger pull?

Well any other ideas, I checked most actuators, I am a bit iffy on the wastegate being jammed, it is ported, so I dont know if that can cause this problem.

Any more ideas...

-Darren-

iceman4357

iTrader: (2)

...my friend went to non seq. It has its ups and downs. If you have an intake full exhaust and ECU i would say do it to save you time if you want. If you dont have those mods then dont because if you have basically a stock the turbos wont spool till around five and turbo lag will be horrible.

Howard Coleman

iTrader: (6)

Darren,
you really need to fix the problem first and consider non-sequential later. have you tested both of your tanks (press & vac) to see that they are holding? do you have a shop manual? i feel for you as to having limited resources (tools and a place to work on your car)... you indicated that you checked "chamber A"... the way to check the vac and pressure chambers is to idle the car, turn the motor off and pull a hose from the chamber. you should hear a hissing sound from both chambers. my guess is one will not be functioning... no noise. once that is determined go to wade lantham's website or look in the shop manual and trace the hoses relating to that chamber.. it is probable that the one way valve is not functioning... buy a couple of them from auto parts store, they are inexpensive and will work on the fd. swap them making sure they point in the correct directions... remember they point differently w regard to the chambers as one is pressure and one is vacuum.
let me know what you find.
howard coleman

bond007

First:
Thanks for chiming in Howard. All too often I see that someone can't understand the sequential system, so they just go non-sequential or single turbo (that's like swatting a fly with a jackhammer).

Sheesh, I guess since Mazda mechanics couldn't figure it out, it isn't so unreasonable that shadetree's or owners can't figure it out....NOT!

Howard has hit most of the high-points of troubleshooting the sequential system.

There are three actuators on the turbos that all should have e-clips on them. e-clips can be bought from a hardware store and easily re-attached. You should make sure they all have them. If you see something broken, fix it, don't wait for it to break more. This was one of the first issues with my lack of secondary boost - no e-clip on the turbo control actuator.

Oil leak from the feed lines = remove y-pipe and get a new set of crush washers (maybe 2 hours the first time you do it if you are mechanically inexperienced).

All solenoids are located under or near the intake plenum. You seem to be confusing the solenoids with the actuators (at least that is my interpretation).

You don't a whole lot of additional tools, just use your boost gauge with a vacuum tee and some vacuum line ($5 or so from the parts store). You can "feel" when the 2nd turbo is coming on, you use the existing boost gauge to troubleshoot. Better yet, get a vac/pressure gauge from Sears/Harbor Freight for $10-20 and use that to troubleshoot while driving the car. Bench testing the components isn't really an accurate test since once the engine bay heats up, all heck breaks loose and solenoids may not work correctly.

As for specifics, get out a vacuum diagram, and start staring at it for a while. It will make sense. There is no other way around it. You have to check all the hoses and connections (at least the most probable bad ones, like Howard mentions). About 1/2 of the solenoids in the rack are not turbo related, so you don't need to check them, but they are smog related, if that is an issue for you, it would be advised to check them. If you haven't gotten silicon hoses (not listed in mods) then now wouldn't be such a bad time to do them.

And a little bit of soapbox in general about 3rd gens:
If you don't want to buy additional tools, don't have facilities to work on the car, and don't have adequate mechanical experience/don't care to acquire it, you may want to consider budgeting for a mechanic this year to keep your car in order or start thinking about passing the car along to someone else who can. Sad, but true, these cars are "cheap" on the front-end, but if you aren't willing to do the work yourself, they will get expensive on the "back-end" and a lot of people aren't prepared/informed about that.

Regards,
--Ashraf

rdavidsrx7

did you check the solenoid under the UIM with the white electrical clip? This was my problem when my second turbo would not come online, but I would see almost no boost above 4k so it may not be the same for you. Just tryin to help.
Bob

SleepR1

Check your cats. They could be clogged.

dhahlen

iTrader: (5)

Alright, I have no cats as listed above.

Bond,

I removed and replaced this engine with a few friends and little to no experience, things did work properly for quite sometime. I have no problem working on the car, I took the whole upper part of the engine apart yesterday trying to find the problem. The actuator which controls the wastegate may have gone bad. If that is the case, I need to replace it obviously. I am aware of the difference between an actuator and a solenoid, though I may have phrased it improperly. I guess I could just start swapping actuators, since I can't see any other likely problem. All the vac lines are good, and I dont have the tools to test the actuator, best way would be to swap with a known good and try from there, I wont be able to do this for another 4-5 weeks. I appreciate the help, I was just hoping someone had the exact symptoms and would be able to pinpoint the problem. 9 times out of 10 that wont happen.

I have a shop manual so I should be fine... I'll mess around with it some more and keep an update.

Thanks

SleepR1

Sorry didn't read all the way. Good luck

Howard Coleman

iTrader: (6)

have you checked that both tanks are fuctioning properly? that's job 1.
if they aren't, it is most likely a 1 way valve. don't bother trying to test them. replace them (autoparts store) and test the tanks again after running the car.
buy a bunch of vacuum hose and a vac/pressure gauge. tee it into the back turbo chamber... there is a line off rear chamber of the top of the y pipe. tee into it and see if your turbo is making boost. (go for a ride) it probably will be.
then tee into both sides of the flapper door in the middle of the y pipe. ( go for another ride) check to see that on one side you have vacuum and then it disappears at 4500. check the other side that you have pressure and that disappears at 4500. my bet is you will find one of those events not happening. from there it is easy as you have isolated it.
keep us updated...
it was good to hear from ashraf. he has helped literally hundreds of fd owners sort out their problems and is most knowledgable. that is most as in no one i know knows the system like the big A.
howard coleman

bond007

You may be on the first people I've heard having that problem. I don't think I've heard of an actuator failure.

There are several problems than can manifest with the same symptoms...there are many failure points, but not so many that a solution can't be found. Get someone else to look over the engine bay, it really helps to have a second opinion.

--Ashraf

Howard Coleman

iTrader: (6)

i agree w ashraf re the actuator. it is highly unlikey that the actuator failed. much more likely that a signal to it isn't getting there.... (of course improbable things can happen ) vacuum line & a pressure/vac gauge... check the signal to the actuator. you probably won't have to spend much money to fix the problem.
howard coleman

MADBOOST

i have a stock fd and same thing happend while i was taking a turn real hard, after the turn i only get partial boost after 45 now, i juss took it out from storage and am trying to fix the problem now.... is there any specific hoses to check or any place i should start looking b4 i drop it off at the dealer and pay for them to fix it?

PVerdieck

MADBOOST, don't even contemplate dropping it off at the dealer unless there are other minnesota FD owners that recommend that dealer.

Dealer incompetance in misdiagnosing or repairing boost issues is probably responsible for 25% of the 3rd gens bad reputation. You might end up being told you need new turbos, and while none of us would have minded this under warrantee, it isn't going to be cheap.

areXseven

iTrader: (1)

The Wastegate/Pre-Turbo Control solenoid is located in front but below the UIM. It has two (2) electrical plugs and 4 vacuum hoses coming out of it. Check the Elec.Plug on the right. That plug controls the Wastegate. It may not be inserted all the way in. OR,...the plugs may be crossed.

If it's connected (all the way in) then disconnect BOTH plugs and cross them. See if that helps your low secondary boost problem.

Also, check for loose vacuum hose(s) in that area. Good Luck.

dhahlen

iTrader: (5)

Alright check this, MY BOV AND CRV ARE BAD! THey are leaking at 5psi, both should hold until at least 15psi, going to replace those, or at least test known good ones, will have an update tomorrow or thursday....

dhahlen

iTrader: (5)

w00t, this fixed the problem. I put the stock BOV and CRV from a working setup in my car, blew them after 6-8 runs on the 1/8th track, HAH! But it did work for the meantime.

Time to go with aftermarket

lol

Thanks for all the help guys