Allright, here's the situation:

I'll be driving along and the check engine light will come on, and the car wont want to accellerate. Killing the ignition and restarting the car makes the check engine light go away and the car acts totally normal. THe car does this very intermitently, like once a month or so, somtimes a little more often.

Thing is, the mechanic says its the ABS pump (same thing as 'hydraulic unit' in the Haynes manual?) causing this problem, and it needs to be replaced. I dont get it.... can anyone clarify?

Thanks!

-Patrick

 

Uh, your mechanic is full of it.

Seriously, disconnect your negative battery terminal, and tap your brake pedal. That'll reset your ECU, and clear any stored codes it may have. Then drive around until the check engine light comes on. The VERY NEXT chance you get, pull the codes. A quick search of either http://www.fc3s.org or http://www.teamfc3s.org or http://www.130cc.com or even this forum for "pull error codes" or the like should reveal the correct procedure for pulling the error code(s) from your ECU. That'll tell you exactly what's wrong. Get the codes, find out what they mean, and report back to us We'll tell you how to fix whatever's wrong, or at least get you started

...but trust me, your ABS pump will NOT affect engine operation

Brandon

 

Roger that. I'll bookmark this thread and wait until it happens again, then bump it up.

Just out of curiousity, where does the ABS pump get its hydraulic pressure? The brake pedal/master cylinder?

Also, if its not the ABS pump, what could be causing these symptoms?

 

Well, the ABS pump doesn't "have" pressure, really, it just relieves the pressure in certain parts of the brake system, based on wheel speed sensor inputs.

Make sense?

Brandon

 

Yes, it does... i mean im familiar with the principles of how an ABS system works, just not the mechanical details.

Any ideas as to what else could be causing it?

 

Well, you neve did say what year/model your car is, so I can't wager a guess

Brandon

 

'89 TII

 

Hey, mi amigo! A fellow 89 TII'er Is yours Noble White by chance?

Oh, just noticed, that one of my older links should read http://www.1300cc.com , not "130cc". Doh.

Anyway, here're some things it could be...

- bad trailing coil
- AFM
- TPS
- OMP

IMO, the first is the most probable, but why not pull the codes and find out for sure? here's where you need to go...

Brandon

 

No no... this one is Black. Wish it were white...... a repaint might be in order somwhere down the road.

It just seems to me that all those things would cause a constant problem, not an intermittent one. Oh well, I'll check the engine codes when I get the chance.

Question, first thing I do is reset the ECU, then wait for the problem to occur, right?


Question 2: the infamous 3800RPM hesitation is something that happens all the time, right?

 

1) Yeah, but be read to pull the codes right away Just to be sure...

2) Uh, well, it depends on the car My car has NO 3.8k RPM hesitation (not even a bump on the dyno graph). Oh yeah!

Brandon

 

Might be your Oil Metering Pump(or wiring)acting up once in a while.When you read out the code though you will know.

 

I don't have anything to add. Just wanted to say hi. I've an '89 T2 as well.

jerk_racer@hotmail.com

 

But is yours Noble White? Mine is...

Brandon