Alright guys need some feedback. I'm running AEM EMS, and AEM CDI on my single turbo FD. I had my car tuned on this setup, made numbers, and shortly after had an issue with my AEM CDI. Sent it in, and it was covered under warranty. Now when I went to plug in the new box, no matter how I arrange the dip switches, the car will start, and run for a while (sometimes good, sometimes like garage depending on the dip switches) for like 5-7 seconds. During that time the LED will flicker/blink whatever you want to call it. After like 5-7 seconds the LED will go solid, and it will shut the car off. I've tried all different dip switch combos, Making sure the car was shut off completely in between all changes. I've e-mailed AEM, but thought I would also check if you guys have ran into this, or if you have any advice. Thanks in advance.

 

Do yourself a favor and return it if possible. If not toss in trash as they suck and will never work. From what I understand they over heat very fast. I went thru this years ago with them. Even ran a proto type and still issues. I gave up and went with a provben set up.. Do the same.. Sorry.....

 

Hks?

 

Dude this can be a really nice cdi if you get a working one...Send it back to AEM until you get a working one.

 

yeah, but I don't really want to keep dealing with this. I want something reliable.

 

Dont listen to Glen, his full of it.. LOL!!!
Maybe Glen has had some good results with them but my stint sucked and I went thru 3-4 they keep sending me before I gave up. I had it crap out on me too many times. I would think it is a law suit waiting to happen as the last time I had it on it went out in traffic on the interstate doing 75mph.. I was VERY pissed! I can not imagine what might also happen under high boost at the track if it let go. May cause too low afr's ?? Too rich can be a problem also...

 

Well to be fair, Mike is not very stable...J/K! The fact is if you get a good one they are bitchen, we have used them for years with out issues. I must admit I am dealing with an issue right now with the box so I am going to send mine in and get a new one. AEM has a really good warranty program, but i suppose if the CDI was better you would not have to send it in and find out how well they stand behind the product.

Boils down to cost, for a CDI with the same capabilities you would be talking 1k+ on a M&W setup or Autronics 500r. So My thoughts are get a good one from AEM that work finally and you save a ton of cash, but you pay in head aches not dollars.

I spent to much on my Motec M4, so no money in the budget for the autronic or mw, so AEM it is....

Just my thoughts...

 

anyone else have any ideas as to what I could do to make this work???

 

One thing I have noticed with the AEM they are very sensitive to grounding, If you dont have the harness grounded well it can do some funny things. Also I found if the harness is not heat shrunk on the conections due to such a high draw it can short ....


Hope this helps

Glen

 

I ordered one of these when I had the rotary and AEM called me and told me to wait for their new model, which was supposed to have most of the issues sorted. At least a lot more so than the previous version. I believe the new one is red, vs the old one being a bare aluminum color. Do any of you have experience with the new one?

They also told me that mounting it in the engine bay was a big no no, and that if you could make air circulation around it possible (aka, cooling fan) that would be ideal. I had planned on mounting it in the driver side rear bin with two radio shack cooling fans, one to pull air into the bin and one to push air out. Figured that would be the best way. The AEM guy said that about 95% of the shutdowns had to do with heat, as well as 90% of all the warranty work.

I ended up going HKS twinpower, even though I knew it was vastly inferior from a spark intensity perspective. It was available immediately (AEM wanted me to wait months for their new version of the CDI), it was small and could really be mounted anywhere. Plus the HKS solved my ignition breakup problem. I never did get to see how it did on high boost though, as my engine let go after a wastegate line failure caused a major overboost in 2nd gear.

Now I am on the darkside of the moon with 8 pistons...

That's my experience with the AEM. It sounded like a great deal for the price, especially if it did everything that it was advertised to do.