I just removed my air pump and now my car's idle is erratic. Is there a fix for this ? Thanks.

 

I don't know of a fix but I know this can be a fairly common problem, search I am guessing there are more threads.

 

Aftermarket ECU = Cure, or just turn on your parking lights and or AC, and your idle should stabelize.

 

I have an M2 ECU, and its not helping. It stabilizes when I turn on the A/C, but I'm not really fellin that quick fix. I thought I came across a thread a while ago that talked about a solution, but I can't seem to find it.

 

try winding the idle up a little,,,that worked for me

 

ok, have you also added a greddy elbow? if so, the hose that goes into the back of the stock one needs to be plugged. If it's open you will have a crazy idle.

Next, what did you do with the hose for the air pump? If you do not plug it (where it would go into intake) will cause issues as well.

There are a bunch of things that can cause idle issues but these were mine.

hope it helps you.

 

It can be hard to tune for the lack of an airpump with anything less than a PowerFC. With no airpump, you'll have a rougher idle and rough throttle transitions.

Reason being is the airpump injects air into the exhaust manifold. This throws the O2 sensor's reading a bit, so the ECU compensates for it. So, at any point where the airpump's air is going into the manifold and the car is running in closed loop, the car won't run right.

Either put the airpump back on or get a PowerFC. Even with a PowerFC, though, it can be a bit tricky to tune around. Personally, I HATE how the car drives without the airpump - it's not smooth at all. I accidentally blew the airpump fuse once, and I thought some sensor was way hosed up on the car.

Dale

 

Thanks for the info!

 

Hi,

Can you please elaborate perhaps on the the idling roughness w/o an airpump? I don't have my A/P activated currently.

The only thing idle/throttle related I can think of maybe is say if I was to rev the engine (say 3K-5K) and when it goes back down...my exhaust does a subtle/minor sputter. Other than that, no smelly fumes from exhaust or engine or smoke. For my idle, I believe it sounds fine although I can't compare since I never experienced an operating air pump ever since I bought the car from the owner with it being disactivated (no belt attached) but is still installed in the engine bay. I've been reading up on it and was going to remove it completely anyways from the engine bay for the ASP large intercooler I want and figure it's great to have the A/P already disactivated.

I've included some video/sound clips of my idle. Can you tell the idle roughness? Thanks in advance, Tam

http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...x7/videoclips/

 

Man I wish turning on my AC stabalized my idle. It actually knocks my idle down to <700 and my car sputters. Wondering if idle relearn will fix it? I dunno!