Problem after problem, what now?!?
 

Okay, this is what my week has been like.

I figure out I have a fuel leak and people are saying it is the fuel pulsation dampener. I go ahead and do that myself and it takes 4 days and was annoying and frustrating. So finally once I got the new FPD in, I started replacing my vac hoses for my rats nest which I believe I hooked everything up right.

I start the car and everything is working. I am happy finally after 4 days of working it's running. I bring the car around the block for a test drive and I see smoke coming from under the engine. Pull the car in and turn it off pop the hood and I see coolant coming from the upper radiator hose.

So today I go a pickup an oem hose and replace it. Start the car up and everything is running fine so far. Take the car out and do a little drive and the car seems to be running fine. Water temp on the PFC runs around 80-93C (that's where it should be right?)

I take it on the freeway to test out everything else, I do a WOT run and primary turbo working fine and then when the 2ndary turbo is supposed to kick in, the boost dies to around 6-7psi and holds there. When I let off the gas, it makes a "wiffle" or "waffle" sound. It's too dark to take a look at the car, but boost is fine in the lower end, but when the 2nd turbo comes in, boost dies a nd holds aroudn 6-7psi.

Anyone know any kind of thing I could check tomorrow or is there anything on the rats nest that I could have done wrong that would affect the boost?

What a crappy day, I'm about to bring it to a shop pretty soon and just let them fix my baby up if it's under the UIM again.

charge relief valve malfunctioning?

Everything was working perfectly before I went diving into the engine to fix the FPD so something has to either be hooked up wrong or something isn't working right. Some of the solenoids broke while I was unhooking some vac lines but we were able to superglue them back, but it could still be a possibility?

The glue could've blocked air on the inside of the solenoid or failed allowing air to leak.

You won't know until you take another look at it.

It's definitely related to your silicone vacuum hose job. I recommend getting some good used solenoids to replace the broken/glued ones, you can find them here for pretty damn cheap. Also, you'll have to double check all the vacuum hose routing, you may have mixed something up, it's easy to do.

+1

that happened to me once. it was a loose intercooler pipe.

^ That too, but I'm under the impression this is a result of what he just worked on.

Ugh, I wonder how much it would be for my rotary mechanic to just bring the car to him and have him double check everything and change some things around. How much do you think this would cost? He wanted $200 or 2hr's of labor to change the FPD so I'm thinking possibly an hour of work + parts if he needs to replace some of the solenoids?

One hour of labour to pull the UIM and replace some solenoids? My guess would be that the estimate would be in the four to five hour range. Hopefully, I am wrong. And there is no guarantee that replacing the solenoids will fix the problem if some hoses are misrouted.

Low secondary boost can be caused be loose couplers so I would try to make sure that it is not something simple like that first.

I think there are two major possibilities:
1) Misrouted or unconnected hose

2) Damaged or nonfunctioning solenoid.

I lean heavily on 1), but because you said you glue repaired some solenoid nipples I can't rule out 2).

I would spend an hour or two with possiblity #1, and start by looking for loose couplers and stuff. Then poke around looking at vacuum lines - the ones you don't have to remove the UIM for. Verify all of them against the vacuum hose diagram. Then if you haven't found the issue, it's your choice whether to bring it to the mechanic or keep going.

Don't worry, you'll get there. It's stomping the last bug or two that really tests your patience.

Dave

I had the same problem after I did my vacuum hose job, don't let the car win :)
Check the following things completely, be sure to feel that everything is connected as when I finished my hose job I found hoses that looked connected but somehow were not....

- Check both green turbo control solenoids (Diagram solenoids I and J) are connected with the proper connectors, check the FSM for the wire colors I can't remember them off the top of my head. Double check these hoses are on well, I zip tied mine since they kept blowing off.

According to the hose wiring diagram....

- Check Solenoid E
Make sure the top hose thats pulling a "U" turn is not kinking, this needs to flow well. Make sure the hose on the bottom of this solenoid is connected, I believe it connects to the underside of the solenoid and its extremely easy to miss.
- Check solenoid F
Make sure all three hoses are connected at both the solenoid and their destination
- Check solenoid H
Once again, this solenoid has 3 hoses, check and double check.

Look at the diagram and locate each check valve, make sure you have these in place and they are facing the correct direction. I would recommend replacing these anyway If you have not already. Dale Clark sells some nice Viton ones, work great and are cheap. I also recommend replacing those glued solenoids, I know alot of people do this but if you like me you don't want to ever have to come back to this part of the car :)

Good Luck!

Hmm ok, so it was a loose coupler lol. On my right intercooler pipe into my elbow, the coupler wasn't attached right. I redid it and full boost and the car is running great! Then on the way home from taking my dad to look at a car, fluttering boost again. When I get home, pop the hood and I see some wetness by that same coupler so that is my problem. Letting the car cool down and then going to fix it and take it for a run.

Thanks for all the help guys, I'll let you know and I'm glad it was as small as a coupler type mistake and not under the UIM *knock on wood*

Hm, okay well now I am just confused. I went to fix my coupler and I still have the problem and to make things worse (I hope not) when I let off after a WOT run I saw white smoking coming from the back of my car for a couple of seconds.

I attached some pictures to show you which coupler I think is loose. Sorry for blurry pic

Buy some couplers and t-bolt clamps from atpturbo, they stock all that stuff and ship fast:

http://www.atpturbo.com/Merchant2/me...egory_Code=CLA

Do you think this could be the problem? I am thinking this could be it but I don't know for sure. I'm thinking when I took the elbow off that the coupler was pushed down into the IC which stretched the coupler out?

When I had a leaky coupler the sound was not fluttering, and there was no white smoke but......Hopefully this is all thats wrong :)

Go to Home Depot and buy a coupler there, 3 dollars max. Put it on and if the problem goes away than order a nice coupler, If it does not.....well.

So my FD is retarded or something because the car is running fine and boosting great after doing nothing to it. I just don't understand this car sometimes....

Ok, I really have no idea what is going on now. Driving back from dinner, I have the same problem again with the 2ndary turbo. Could this be a bad 2ndary or what? I just don't understand why it is working on and off

Are you going to make a new post after every trip now :wink: ?

Have you checked the vacuum hose routing and replaced the superglued solenoids like I recommended back in post #5? I know it sucks, but you'll probably have to get back under the UIM.

Bullcrap lol, I don't want to do that again, but I guess I'm going to have to. All the vacum hose routing should be correct because my dad and I double checked it and then triple checked it because we did not want to go under the UIM again. To me, it has to be one of the broken solenoids because if it's happening on and off like it is, it wouldn't be a hose or else it would flutter and not get full boost all the time correct?

I just don't know which solenoid I'd have to replace or if they are the cause of the problem. The one I asked was $85 for one of the solenoids.

So confused right now, adjusted the coupler going into the IC and now I boost fully. Seems like every time I adjust the IC coupler it boosts full and works fine until a couple of rides and then goes back to fluttering. :confused:

I got all those solenoids for about 60 dollars, look in the for sale section theres plenty of people that go single and sell the set.

You're going to be running around in circles (and adding needlessly to this thread) if you don't just step up and take care of each possible cause for your boost problem. In other words, get a proper clamp, examine the IC coupler carefully to ensure that it is fully seated on both sides, tighten the clamp(s), and then see if the problem arises again. If it does, then you're going to have to dive underneath the UIM again and replace those solenoids that you glued together, along with checking and double-checking your hose routing.

You could also try a hump hose coupler. They will help if you are getting any extra movement causing your current coupler to not seal as it should.

Glueing your solenoids back together is likely your problem ............ and a bad idea in the first place. Doing "half assed" fixes like that will usually cause way more trouble than they correct.

I'm having a similar problem at the moment, pretty sure it's bad coupler(s) in my case. That said, it sounds a lot like a failing solenoid to me - when the solenoid first starts to go bad, it will only act up when it is hot. This would explain the car working fine for a brief shakedown run, but acting up near the end of a trip when everything is good and hot.

The other possibility is that your couplers are good, but one or more of your clamps is weak. In this case, the clamp will gradually work its way loose under boost, until the boost starts to "flutter".

Good luck - I haven't run through an analysis of which solenoid may be acting up, but you can probably narrow it down to one or two based on the symptoms (and a detailed reading of the schematic).

Do it once: Do it right.

glued solenoids are a bad idea. get those replaced. you'll thank yourself 2 months from now.

I've bought a bunch of those used solenoids, and as many as half aren't functioning well.

Unless you're going to test them with a Mityvac, it's very possible you'll end up with worse problems. If you buy a spare rack and test both those and yours, and pick the best ones, it's a really good way to go.

Dave

I'm going to go step by step, tonight I'm going by one of my friends places to pickup a hump hose coupler. If it isn't fixed then it's onto the solenoids.

Okay, went by and picked up a hump hose coupler and put it on. Didn't fix the boost problem but I have a question. Should there be a gasket where the y-pipe goes into the UIM?

It's off to dig under the UIM again, but as if things couldn't get worse for me... ANOTHER problem comes up. The detailing place F'ed up my basically brand new wheels that most likely cannot be fixed due to the finish of the wheel.

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/ajs-detail-wash-evidence-proof-610357/ <---wheel problem thread with pics!

You mean where the elbow goes to the tb? Yes, there should be a rubber gasket.

Sounds like its time to check those solenoids.

For the gaskets, here's what you should have:

LIM -> Gasket -> UIM -> Gasket -> TB -> Rubber O-Ring -> Elbow

Alright, so I'm guessing it is my solenoids. The car boosted fine when I first started the car and it pulled hard, but once the engine bay heats up, the glue must melt and just mess up everything.

To make things worse, ANOTHER problem comes up. I start the car up today and I hear a loud whine from the engine. I pop the hood and it seems to be coming from the pullies are somewhere around there. At idle and while driving you can still hear it. Then when I was at Wheel Techniques to get a quote to fix my wheels, the car wouldn't start. I pop the hood again, look around and try again and it starts and now with no whine. Drove all the way home and no whine. What could this have been?

This car.... ugh

Based on the fact that you sprayed coolant all over the pullies and belts, I'd say the whining noise was coming from them. If old worn belts get wet in any way, they start making all sorts of noises. The fact that they went away after a while sounds right in line with that.

Actually, I think there's a lot of whining coming from the driver's seat, too. You've got to remember that this is a 11-plus-year-old car you're dealing with here. And one that's been modified at that. There are a lot of parts that get weathered, worn, and most likely abused. This isn't some shiny new car that you've just rolled off the showroom floor...

Yes I know that and I am whining because all this BS is happening one after another and it's sometimes just over whelming because I can't fix any of my engine work without fixing my wheels first.

After being problem free for over a year, 4-5 things break/mess up in a matter of a week all at once so it is overwhelming to me and feels like the car is falling apart that's all.

The whine wasn't the belts as it started up again. I traced it down to being located somewhere under the UIM. Possibly an air whistling from the solenoids?

I can't take a look under the car until my wheels are fixed.

Once again another problem came up, I noticed coolant leaking from the undertry as I was backing out. Could be left over coolant when I was changing the other radiator hose pipe but that was 3 days ago and it looked pretty fresh. Couldn't find any actual leaking though thank goodness.

Anymore info on the whine?

Okay, good day so far. Wheel problem got fixed (the car wash place is buying me new wheels) and I took the UIM off today to check out my solenoid problems. Found out the ones we super glued were B, C, and E which are the Relief 1, Switching, and Turbo Control solenoids which are the ones hopefully responsible for me not getting my 2ndary boost.

Another question I have while I have the UIM off is that when I just installed the PFC, everyone says you need to adjust the idle screw because of irregular idle. How do I go about adjusting this and where is the screw located?

Boost problem was fixed and the whine was because the ground wire was caught between the UIM so air was escaping.

Car runs great and after 3 weeks of problems the car is finally up and running like normal! *knock on wood*

Big thanks goes out to insomniac for helping me out and suppling me with the solenoids!

Good to hear it.

Of those three solenoids, only the turbo control solenoid would have affected boost. The other two control emissions devices. But that turbo control solenoid is quite important.

Dave

this has been quite a week, but I'm glad it's all resolved !!!