Bogging out of nowhere?
 

I was driving down the highway right after the superbowl was over about 65 miles an hour and out of no where, my car started to act really weird. My "service engine soon" light came on and i noticed I did not have any power anymore. I turned the raido down a little bit and it sounded REALLY weird.

The only way i can explain what the exhaust sounds like is exaxtly like a WRX. it seemed like a constant mis-fire like it was onyl running on 3 cylinders.

I got out and checked my plugs. Took them out and instpected them. I thought maybe I fouled one out. They all looked "fine". So i drove it home about another mile and it didnt get worse, but it didnt get better.

I am not sure what to think of right now, but my first thoughts were:

1) spark plug fouled
2) Coil went out
3) Timing belt skipped a tooth (hope not)
4) valve spring broke?

I am not sure if any of those are even close, but thats just what was running through my head. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

It's possible a coil went out, but that would lead to a fouled plug. Did you check your intercooler for holes? Maybe a chunk of ice bounced up and punched a hole in your intercooler core. It's also possible your timing belt skipped a tooth or two. Check that before you drive the car too much more.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

I have had that exact same problem a few times since I've owned my car (3+ years) and have never been able to figure it out. Only does it on the highway at sustained speed. If you let off the gas it fixes it momentarily, but will usually happen again right away 3-5 times, then will be fine. My check engine light went away later that day or the next.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

I suggest the obvious, check your code or codes that were triggered!

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Hmmm? I drove mine for another mile or 2 and did not fix itself. I'll go get the codes read and see what they say.

Is there any places that test coils?

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Well, pulled my car into the garage and the 2 middle cylinders plugs were totally fouled. They were black and smelt like gas. So, i am guessing, when i checked them on the side of the road last night, i did not drive on them long enough for them to look like they were bad.

I am going to try and put 2 new plugs in and see if they atleast fire. Otherwise I think it is time for the SpoolinUp COP!!

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

It should be interesting to see what code is pulled. When it happened to me I completely let off the gas and coasted for a few seconds, could hear it was firing again, got back on the gas, happened again, rinse and repeat. Doing this 3-5 times and it stopped, but the CEL stayed as I already said.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Well I went to get the code checked. The autozone dude checked me code and he said "mis-fire in cylinder 1" which is totally wrong. The 2 cylinders that were black and gassy were 2 and 3. So that got me nowhere.

So what I did was take a coil off of 95talonracers can went home and put it on.

That helped me nothing. After mixing and matching plugs, wires, and coils, nothing seemed to do the trick. So I proceeded to unplug my battery and reset the thrown codes and see what happens. When I did this, i started the car and it sounded actually a lot better. I proceeded to drive it down the road and the CEL came back on (Boo!) and it started to do the same thing but not as bad.

So I came back and "rinse and repeat" and I tired it again. It has been seeming to get better but my CEL keeps coming on. I am going to goto auto zone tomorrow to see if there is anything different going on in there.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Cam angle sensor or a crank angle sensor going bad? Not sure which one(s) Evos have. If the ECU thinks there is a misfire it'll just turn off that cylinder completely, right? This used to happen in my 6bolt 2g before I disabled the misfire codes.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Oh really? I had no idea about that. That makes sense then because 3 of my plugs (2,3,4) look really rich and the one that I thought was firing good (1) was the plug that looked just fine...

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Now that I think of it, right after I got my car it acted weird when leaving a stoplight and died. Took a bit to fire up again, but got the code checked right away and it was a crank angle sensor error. Also, I don't think this problem has happened to me since I got tuned and Scheides helped me play around with the ECU, we may have turned those things off on my car.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Lol, I have no idea where to go with this now.

Is there any way I can test injectors?

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Try disabling the misfire codes in the ECU with a reflash.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Try to pinpoint which cylinder is mis firing for sure. I'm leaning towards cylinder no 1.
You can do it by either unplugging each injector clip or lifting the sparkplug wire or coil on each cylinder.
Once you know which cylinder it is, switch the injector in that cylinder with another cylinder and see if it follows the misfire. If it does then it's your injector.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

The test is done while the car is running. You will be listening for a change in how the engine idles. The cylinder that's misfiring is the one that won't change the way it idles.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

This is actually a common issue with the evo. There is now a way to flash it to go away.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Good idea! I'll do this when I get home. I tried to do this with the coil's and I swear i pin-pointed the issue as a coil issue, but it doesn't seem like I hit the nail on the head.

I have never looked at injectors before. Are they hard to take out and switch?


If I was going to flash it, how would I go about doing it? Would I have to bring it somewhere?

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

The plugs are easy to take off, which is all you need to do for this testing. Removal of them requires removing the fuel rail, only a couple of bolts.
Any of the local shops can help you out, but hit up Scheides and see if he's available sometime. He's becoming the local freelance Evo ECU flasher. He accepts beer and handjobs as payment.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Sweet! thanks for all the information! I'm gonna hit Scheides up right now. He was already nice enough to offer me one of his good coils. I'll post up what I find tonight when I get to testing.

The car is drivable, but i am not sure how good it is for the car. I might have to limp it over to him.

If i find that it seems to be an injector, should I replace it? or is there a way to test the injector to see if it is acting goofy and if it needs to be replaced?

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

did you pull the code?

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Yeah, it was:

Misfire cylinder 1

injector fault cylinder 1

They told me at autozone that it defaults to injectors when a misifre occurs... Not sure if thats true or not.

Does anyone know if the ECU turns off the entire cylinder if it detects misfire? Cylinder 1 spark plug looks normal, Cylinder 2,3,and 4 are black and gassy.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

No. The ecu will Not shut down one cylinder.

You will need a pick to remove the injector clips.
Reflashing will not fix your issue.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Ron, this is the guy I was asking about the injectors for.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Oh. Let me know if he wants to bring it in. I can test it and find the problem.
Another evo owner called and has almost the same issue but no. 2. He has an ad for wtb stock injectors on evomn. I came to his house because he put different injectors and wanted me to put a base scaling. Turn out not to be the injector because it did the same thing. He is going to check his rocker to see if it fell out.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Same issue huh? hmmmm? Maybe I should check the same thing.

What I noticed last night when I went in there and looked (tried to pull the injector clip off and couldnt get it.) but I threw in "krank vents" a while ago and it runs right over that first injector wiring. It seems to be a little oily... Maybe the connection is bad from it getting oil on it? I guess it couldn't hurt to clean it off.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Oil on your wires is not a good thing. Clean them off and figure out where the oil is leaking out from and tighten that connection.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Maybe I screwed up on putting the krank vents on. that one that comes from the intake to the valve cover SUCKS to put on. I am not sure if that is where it was coming from but i'll have to take a look.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

The fatter side goes towards the valve cover. Make sure the rubber lines are tightly clamped on. You could also check to see if maybe your valve cover gasket is leaking.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

I am pretty sure I put them on them on right. The clamps is what I thought needed a little adjusting. I'll take a look at that tonight.

When you say a "pick", is there an actual tool that you use to unclip these? I messed with it for a little while but with no light except my cell phone, it was a lost cause.

I got school tonight, tomorrow, and Friday night but I'll probably stop in on Saturday if I can limp it over to you guys. Hopefully nothing else breaks on the way down there :(

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

There are little clips that slide on to the injector plugs. You need to first take them off with a little pick. Its not easy if you dont have proper lighting.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Here are some used injectors that you could buy. http://www.mitsustyle.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25467

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

I'm tuning a car in the morning but I can take a break anytime. It's one of my previous employees car. So he won't mind.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Thanks Mike. I got some stock injectors for now to see if that is actually my problem. I have got like people throwing problems that it could be left and right. I am going to check all of them tomorrow.


Thank you very much. I am going to throw one of these stock injectors in when I get them and see if that is the problem.


Got a stock set of injectors off of Ebay from some guy who was selling them for a good deal. If that is not my problem, I am sure I can sell them for same price if not a little more.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

I took a look at everything last night and I found that cylinder 1 is not getting 1 drip of gas. The spark plug is totally dry. I pulled my coil-on-plugs off and i tested spark in each cylinder. There WAS spark (I just left the old plugs in the head and put a new one in each coil and touched it to something that was grounded) but cylinder 1 was completely dry while the rest of them were dripping wet.

I took the clip off of the injector plug in cylinder 1 and tried cleaning it, put it back on. that didn't help but probably needed to be done.

While I did that, I started the car with the injector plug off and it ran exactly the same way. I took # 2 off and it barely ran. I am hoping this is an injector problem and not an electrical problem. I have a stock set of injectors coming so I can throw one in there and having it back to normal. I am just kind of waiting.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Glad you got it narrowed down. Good luck.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Switch #1 and #2 injectors and see if the problem stays on cylinder 1 or switches to 2, then you'll know if it's an injector or electrical.

Re: Bogging out of nowhere?
 

Good call! I should have done that the other day. I guess I have a set of injectors coming already. So it is kind of to late because ill be replacing it anyways.