Skysm182 Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 (edited) hello all, 91 spfi ea82 wagon with 176k miles on it. went today to get my emissions and safety done. before i took it for the inspections this morning I took off the MAF and cleaned it with MAF cleaner and took off the IAC and cleaning it with throttle body cleaner. (the idle was jumpy at around 600-800 and cleaning these parts seamed to improve the idle a lot.) I also set the timing by plugging in the green connectors under the hood and used my timing gun (distributor was all the way advanced at probably more than 30 degrees btdc) it is timed now at 20 degrees. When my car warms up, it idles at around 700 rpm but the temp gauge on the dash never gets above 1/4. I have a hunch the cts is malfunctioning the ecu into thinking the car is colder than it actually is. Mpg is around 22.5 with a mix of city and highway got a code 11 and 13 (crank angle sensor) from the ecu today (no check engine light is on) passed both high speed and idle CO idle standard: 1.2, my idle reading: 0.02 high speed standard: 1.20, my high speed reading: 0.21 failed both high speed and idle HC idle standard: 220, my idle reading 306 high speed standard: 220, my high speed reading: 526 Recently new items include: gas cap(2 months old), pcv hoses(2 months old), oxygen sensor(2 months old), plugs, wires, and rotor(6-7 months old), dealership thermostat and gasket(1 month old), and old owner replaced the 2nd cat about 15 months ago. I need help from you gracious people in figuring out why my car won't pass. thank you (I would like to fix the problem rather than patching the problem with the denatured alcohol trick.) Edited December 28, 2011 by Skysm182 add dealer thermostat and gasket Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralDisorder Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 Mileage is way too low. Air filter and oil change? Check the CTS against spec for sure. Clean the MAF also. Temp gauge is an unreliable measurement of actual engine temp. But since the CTS has nothing to do with cooling the engine or managing it's temp you need to check the ACTUAL temp with a temp gun ($20 or less from Harbor Frieght, etc) and possible replace the thermostat and insure that you are reaching the proper 190*F operating temp. GD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skysm182 Posted December 28, 2011 Author Share Posted December 28, 2011 Mileage is way too low. Air filter and oil change? Check the CTS against spec for sure. Clean the MAF also. Temp gauge is an unreliable measurement of actual engine temp. But since the CTS has nothing to do with cooling the engine or managing it's temp you need to check the ACTUAL temp with a temp gun ($20 or less from Harbor Frieght, etc) and possible replace the thermostat and insure that you are reaching the proper 190*F operating temp. GD air filter changed 1 year ago,(right after I bought it). oil changed about 5 to 6 months ago. have only put 2500 miles on it since I bought it. cleaned the MAF thoroughly this morning before I had the inspections done. thermostat is 1 month old straight from the dealership. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edrach Posted December 28, 2011 Share Posted December 28, 2011 air filter changed 1 year ago,(right after I bought it). oil changed about 5 to 6 months ago. have only put 2500 miles on it since I bought it. cleaned the MAF thoroughly this morning before I had the inspections done. thermostat is 1 month old straight from the dealership. Air cleaners are cheap. Pull yours and look at it. Not likely it's pristine clean after a year (even if you have low mileage). A clogged filter will certainly make the car run rich. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skysm182 Posted January 4, 2012 Author Share Posted January 4, 2012 I think I found the cause of my high HC. I started to pull the 3rd cylinder plug to see if it was fouled and noticed that the back area of the passenger side intake gasket had a small puddle of coolant there. I'm 90% sure this is why under acceleration it feels as if there is a slight misfire cause of coolant and/or air entering right there. can anyone chime in on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazyeights Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Do you have access to a gas analyzer? You can do a cylinder balance while monitoring the HC's and locate the problem cylinder that way. High HC's indicate the unburned fuel content in the exhaust is too high (combustion efficiency is low on one or more cylinders). Some testing will lead to the source of the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nwtech Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 I failed for HC as well a few months back here in washington state, all i did was fill the tank, added a can of seafoam changed the air filter, turned my idle to just below the wa state maximum of 1100 rpm and drove it hard at 70-80 mph for about 20 minutes, passed with flying colors Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeamCF Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 I failed for HC as well a few months back here in washington state, all i did was fill the tank, added a can of seafoam changed the air filter, turned my idle to just below the wa state maximum of 1100 rpm and drove it hard at 70-80 mph for about 20 minutes, passed with flying colors Yup. Might try some seafoam and romping on it a bit. When I was working at a Mercedes shop we used to get customers with DEQ failures all the time. Nine times out of ten we never had to work on it. Just drove it hard to clean the engine out over to the DEQ test station several miles away. Only charged them for their tags. Of course this was mainly because most of our customers only drove their sleds slowly on weekends and got the engines all loaded up with carbon. So it might not apply to you. And it sounds like you might have a slight intake leak. Different engine, but my EA81 had a loose bolt on the pass side intake, there was a sligt hint of coolant there. I got lucky and just re-torquing cured it. Smoothed out a rough running issue I had (though I can't say on it's effect on emissions, couldn't have been good, but I wasn't in need of testing it at the time). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skysm182 Posted February 3, 2012 Author Share Posted February 3, 2012 Update! Please bear with me. Got the intake off and the old cardboard gaskets off. While I was doing the intake gaskets I bought some small diameter tubing and replaced just about every small air and coolant hose in the engine, changed the oil, changed the oil pressure sending unit, installed the pcv reroute kit (thanks Stubie Subie) and changed the disty cap and rotor. Put everything back together and it started up fine. Took it for a test drive and it has plenty of get up and go. So i fixed the misfire. Got it home and checked the stored codes. When the engine is off I still have codes 11 and 13 but now I have codes 21( coolant temp sensor) and code 24 (idle air control valve). I then Cleaned the MAF with MAF cleaner. pulled the battery cables to clean them and clear the codes. Put everything back together and it wouldn't turn over at all. Went out the next morning and it started right up. Back history: The previous owner must have had a problem with the IAC cause there is a new wire that runs from the IAC all the way to the ECU. Before I fixed the intake gaskets (with the engine warm) I could unplug this wire at the IAC side and it would kind of affect the engine but only slightly. Now when I unplug that same wire with the engine warm it falls on its face and dies right away. I thought I read somewhere on here that the IAC is only meant to work with the engine cold or warming up. I think what is happening is with that the CTS or corroded wiring is telling the engine its cold and that's why its screwing with my IAC and the high hydrocarbon emissions. Just a hunch, idk. The car has always when cold idle around 1500 rpm I push the accelerator and it idles down and than slowing goes back up to 1500. When warm, the idles jumps around from 550 to 800. i need to get a multimeter and check the resistances of the cts. I want to replace 5-8 inches of the cts wiring on the harness side, can someone link me to the correct connector that plugs into the cts? I have searched but don't really know what I am looking for. Any thoughts or questions? thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilesFox Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 I would suggest to make sure the thermostat is the proper 195 deg oem unit. But the CTS controls ithe IAC you may be getting an IAC code because the CTS is out of spec. You will always get a crank sensor code if you pull the codes when the engine is not running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skysm182 Posted February 9, 2012 Author Share Posted February 9, 2012 (edited) Fixed my problem by ordering a new CTS from Rockauto (got an oem one under the brand name Ultrapower for $35). Fixed my idle issues, it now idles when warm at exactly 750 with very little deviation. And now I have no codes whatsoever. Soon will take it to get emissioned for the final test. Edit: took it for emissions and it passed with flying colors. Changing the old cts fixed my high hc and jumpy idle. Edited February 15, 2012 by Skysm182 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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