Firstly i want to say. Haynes is less help now than what it used to be. but its better than nothing.
Let me start with some history.
It's a saxo VTS MK1 1997 with the L3 engine afaik. And i've had it for about 6 years now. The reason i never messed with it is because i preffered playing around with N/A engines. And well, it scared me a little.
Within the first 2 years it developed what seems to be the regular bad idle, stalling and running rich problem which i've read numerous threads about over the years. All pointing to nothing in paticular apart from numerous sensors. I had no money at the time, so i had to make do with a faulty car.
Now things are slightly different. I've replaced the CAT multiple times because of emissions. So i'm now led to believe the engine runs rich, misses and throws a shit ton of fuel into the CAT. Clogging it and causing it to basically chug like a lawn mower. If you're lucky it won't stall at a set of lights and embarass you because you now have a flat battery from trying to start it again. This was just one problem, The other was general bad idle and random stalling.
After reading around a bit, i came to the conclusion that i would replace the most expensive part first. The ECU. The one that was fitted was the Magneti Mirelli IAW 1AP.41. I got a replacement from ecutesting.com. And the car seems to be more responsive and better on fuel but still randomly stalls. Plus it disabled my IMMO which i'm not keen on.
So more reading and some extra overtime later, i decided to change the next 2 culprits. The engine temp sensor and the coolant temp sensor. I read that either one of these can cause the problem of dumping fuel into the car when it's warm because for some reason it likes to tell the ECU that the car is freezing. Those i actually changed today. And after running the car for a while it just stalled randomly. I've yet to really try it on the road. So i still don't know if it solved the, run-like-a-lawn-mower-yearly-CAT-change-problem.
While i was doing this i cleaned the air filter. It's a green induction kit. And also removed the Idle Stepper Motor to give it a clean. In the hope this might solve the bad idle/stalling. The rubber ring seal was perfect. But, and i don't know if this is from regular use. The butterfly, throttle body, inside the stepper motor housing and inside the induction hoses had alot of oil in them. More than i was expecting to see.
Also the stepper motor plunger, the rubber nipple on the end was a bit engrained, which i cleaned up as best i can as i don't yet have a replacement.
My first question here is; Is that plunger able to be moved by hand at all? Because mine was solid.
I know there is an air temp sensor on the bottom of the inlet to the throttle body. I didn't remove it because not really knowing if that could cause the problem. I left well alone.
The Lambda sensor was replaced a few years ago but this made no difference to the problem when it was changed.
Haynes keeps going on about an idle control valve too, under the inlet manifold? Is that something i should look for? It doesn't explain (or differentiate between models) very well. I thought the stepper motor did the idle control.
Throttle position sensor. I've seen this mentioned many times but is this on manual transmision as well as auto? Again Haynes doesn't explain. It mentions them on automatic transmision. But only mentions Throttle Potentiometer on manual trans. Are they one and the same?
MAP sensor. I know what it is. Just not where. Could this cause bad idle/stall?
Crank sensor. Again i know what it is but not where. Could this cause it?
So, What i want to ask is where would you go next? I will replace the idle stepper motor. But if that doesnt stop the bad idle/stalling ~shrug~
Different subject: OBD
I've been reading about OBD too. (there's a punn in there i think)
From what i've read, my car wont work with one of those ELM OBDII thingies because my car is sad and old and was made before the industry got their act together and made a standard for OBD. But. Someone left a lead attached to the OBD port in my car. With the rather large block on one end and the small OBDII block on the other. Would i actually be able to read anything with my lappy if i did get one of those ELM diag things?
If not has anyone hooked up any other way?
I think that's enough for now.
I am an empty page.
Let me start with some history.
It's a saxo VTS MK1 1997 with the L3 engine afaik. And i've had it for about 6 years now. The reason i never messed with it is because i preffered playing around with N/A engines. And well, it scared me a little.
Within the first 2 years it developed what seems to be the regular bad idle, stalling and running rich problem which i've read numerous threads about over the years. All pointing to nothing in paticular apart from numerous sensors. I had no money at the time, so i had to make do with a faulty car.
Now things are slightly different. I've replaced the CAT multiple times because of emissions. So i'm now led to believe the engine runs rich, misses and throws a shit ton of fuel into the CAT. Clogging it and causing it to basically chug like a lawn mower. If you're lucky it won't stall at a set of lights and embarass you because you now have a flat battery from trying to start it again. This was just one problem, The other was general bad idle and random stalling.
After reading around a bit, i came to the conclusion that i would replace the most expensive part first. The ECU. The one that was fitted was the Magneti Mirelli IAW 1AP.41. I got a replacement from ecutesting.com. And the car seems to be more responsive and better on fuel but still randomly stalls. Plus it disabled my IMMO which i'm not keen on.
So more reading and some extra overtime later, i decided to change the next 2 culprits. The engine temp sensor and the coolant temp sensor. I read that either one of these can cause the problem of dumping fuel into the car when it's warm because for some reason it likes to tell the ECU that the car is freezing. Those i actually changed today. And after running the car for a while it just stalled randomly. I've yet to really try it on the road. So i still don't know if it solved the, run-like-a-lawn-mower-yearly-CAT-change-problem.
While i was doing this i cleaned the air filter. It's a green induction kit. And also removed the Idle Stepper Motor to give it a clean. In the hope this might solve the bad idle/stalling. The rubber ring seal was perfect. But, and i don't know if this is from regular use. The butterfly, throttle body, inside the stepper motor housing and inside the induction hoses had alot of oil in them. More than i was expecting to see.
Also the stepper motor plunger, the rubber nipple on the end was a bit engrained, which i cleaned up as best i can as i don't yet have a replacement.
My first question here is; Is that plunger able to be moved by hand at all? Because mine was solid.
I know there is an air temp sensor on the bottom of the inlet to the throttle body. I didn't remove it because not really knowing if that could cause the problem. I left well alone.
The Lambda sensor was replaced a few years ago but this made no difference to the problem when it was changed.
Haynes keeps going on about an idle control valve too, under the inlet manifold? Is that something i should look for? It doesn't explain (or differentiate between models) very well. I thought the stepper motor did the idle control.
Throttle position sensor. I've seen this mentioned many times but is this on manual transmision as well as auto? Again Haynes doesn't explain. It mentions them on automatic transmision. But only mentions Throttle Potentiometer on manual trans. Are they one and the same?
MAP sensor. I know what it is. Just not where. Could this cause bad idle/stall?
Crank sensor. Again i know what it is but not where. Could this cause it?
So, What i want to ask is where would you go next? I will replace the idle stepper motor. But if that doesnt stop the bad idle/stalling ~shrug~
Different subject: OBD
I've been reading about OBD too. (there's a punn in there i think)
From what i've read, my car wont work with one of those ELM OBDII thingies because my car is sad and old and was made before the industry got their act together and made a standard for OBD. But. Someone left a lead attached to the OBD port in my car. With the rather large block on one end and the small OBDII block on the other. Would i actually be able to read anything with my lappy if i did get one of those ELM diag things?
If not has anyone hooked up any other way?
I think that's enough for now.
I am an empty page.
The stuff I used is called deoxit. The DN5 series one. 
