Well I finally getting frustrated. Here's the story. My engine was rebuilt in April, and everything was running great when my wife dropped the car off to get painted and some body work done. We got the car back about 3 months later, but when we went to pick it up it was flooded. So we unflooded it and drove it home. Its accelortion was no where near what it had been before and the gas mileage went done to.

First we thought the cat was clogged so we replaced it with a mid pipe when I put in my new computer. That didn't fix the problem. Next we figured that the stock ecu was bad, becuase it did the same thing after i unplugged my pfs pmc. So I replaced that and still it has the same problems.

It doesn't matter if the car is at 0 psi or 12 psi(on my autometer gauge) the car pulls the same way. Often If I get on the gas the car accelorates the same and just gets louder. I'm trying to sell my car, but don't want to sell it to some one with out know whats wrong or even fixing it. Also my gas mileage is like 9 mpg city driving. I haven't tested that with the new ecu though so it may have changed.

Also I don't know if it makes a difference, but the rear turbo leaks a little oil. I would have no idea if this was turbo related cause like i said the gauge says the turbos are boosting fine. The vacuum lines seem fine too.

Besides the bad gas mileage and bad accorlation when I get on it whe car drives fine. It idles perfect. If anyone has a clue to whats wrong pleeeaassseeee help me. Thanks.

Eric

Also I would like to add that the car has poor acceloration below 3k rpm and that the higher the rpm the quicker the car accelorations as long as I'm only around 1/2 on the accelorator. So pretty much as long as my boost gauge says 0 psi or so.

 

It's not stuck in limp mode?

 

No its not stuck in limp mode. I've reset the ecu a couple of times and replaced the ecu. Also I noticed when I started the car last time and opened the hood. I sweet smell came. I checked the coolant and it was low too. I hope its not a coolant seal I'm loosing power through since its been less than a year since the rebuild. Any other ideas?

 

Have you checked your spark plugs out?

 

first things first, question the shop maybe?

thats a good start, that would be the first thing to come to my mind if i got back my car that wasnt running the way it was when i first dropped it off..

 

There is a big story behind the shop. I ended up leaving the vehicle with a person I thought was a friend so he could drop it off because my wife and I weren't able to be around when the shop was going to accepted the car. He claims he drove it only a little bit to move it and turned it off. Then supposedly the car flooded and had to be towed to the body shop and only got unflooded the day it was picked up becuase I had to tell the shop guy how to unflood it. I haven't checked my plugs yet. They are only a couple of months old and since it idled fine I didn't really think of them.

 

Thats a good idea but I'm sure the shop will deny messing up the car. Have you done a compression test or had the shop who rebuilt your engine check the car out?

 

Yeah I brought it back to the shop, and he thought that it was the stock ecu since the map sensor reading on the hand held of the pfs pmc was different than my boost gauge. I haven't been back since though. Also he checked the MAP sensor and it is putting out the correct voltages.

 

doesnt matter if the shop will deny it..his car was running fine before he dropped it, all of a sudden from pure coincidence when he got it back it was running funny? doubt it, i can understand if it was running funny due to a improper rebuild if the car was just sitting in a garage but the car was in the hands of actually people..something went wrong, how long he said they had it? 3 months? alot can happen in 3 months..people wanting to look in the engine bay, something got loose, someone touched something, unhooked it etc etc..

i still say question the shop..

 

I think I need to specify a little. Right now there is a crazy situation with the body shop that I posted about a few months ago that is still going on, so I can't really do much with them. In my last post I meant to say I've brought it back to my mechanic and thats what he has done. At this point I'm kinda fed up with my car have spent over 8k on it last year alone and the car doesn't even work properly long enough for me to drive it that way since I was gone when it was running well. I just want my car fixed.

 

On reading your post, the first thing that comes to mind is the plugs.

The FD (92-02) is notorious for flooding if its just getting started, moved, stopped, started, moved, stopped etc etc.

Also, once you change the plugs, ensure the plug leads are around the correct way as they may have been swapped when others tried to clear the flooding.

Good luck & REgards

 

So if my spark plugs are bad they can still allow the car to start and idle fine? I'm just kinda wondering about that if some one will clarify.

 

i doubt its the plugs if the car starts on point and idles fine..

like i said, i did the quick start and shut down in my FD PLENTY of times and it never flooded, always started up the first time next time around all the time..and i dont have brand new plugs too..

 

Not sure if this is it, but the ignition coils on my car started dying and i got really weird acceleration at times and the gas mileage was horrible. Replaced the coils and it fixed the problem.

-Rob

 

The coils and the plugs on the car are good. Any other ideas?

 

yeah

did you question the shop?

 

Like I said the body shop claims it didn't run when they got it and that it was towed there and the guy who I thought was a friend has dropped off the face of the earth. He stopped posting here, stopped answering emails, cancelled his phone and moved. SO I'm not getting any info from him. Also when I did talk to him many months ago he claims he just drove it a little bit to move it, turned it off and it flooded. But I did find his cell phone charger in it and one of his cd's so I don't really trust that.

Also I just noticed that when I drive the car at the very beginning of the day before a fully warms up, it drives like it should. Any ideas based on that. I know its not the transmission water temp sensor for my auto tranny. Could it be a bad engine what temp sensor? The stock temp gauge reads fine.

 

Give the car a good spirited drive. ie. above 5k rpm for a good ten minutes, assuming that the engine's been broken in already. It could have been that the engine sat so long that an oil residue built up on the bottom of the engine housing. Only good heat can get rid of it. Although, I doubt that that could have made that much of a difference. I really do suspect the shop. You know how those guys take cars that come in for a spin. Given the nature of our engines - the way they rev up so quick, i wouldn't be surprised if the redlined the **** out of it.

or your 'friend' i should say.

 

have you compression tested it yet?

 

I had an accel problem - wouldn't pull over 1/2 throttle. Turned out to be a bad plug wire. Didn't feel rough, idled and started fine, just no power.

 

I just replaced the wires 3 months ago and it made the problem a little better. I can check them again. Actually I never replaced to top forward wire because I didn't feel like taking off the throttle body at the time. I can probably get around to that, but I don't think that plug would cause such a big problem since some people eliminate them all together. I think my mechanic did a compression test when I had it at his shop and said it was still good. The vacuum at idle is still good too.