S300 Freaked, Didn't want to bury it in Dunc's post

smracing · Post by **smracing** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:55 am

Came out this morning, it was colder than hell last night (12-15F). Fired up the car and got check engine light so I tried to download the codes and see what was going on. Even tried to download the existing map in the ECU and I got the teminal pop up message about an "error at module 004422288 at address 000000004". It pops up a dozen messages and then shuts down Smanager. It showed no codes.

I tried to datalog and then save it, but Smanager kept shutting down before I could save it. I caught one datalog, but it doesn't show anything out of the ordinary. The first file is some of the wierdness.

When I started driving it I was having some weird part throttle issues. It was acting really lean at 4-8% throttle under light load (aka pulling out of the driveway). It hasn't done this before. The second file is the datalogging for this. Notice the radical swings in AFR at part throttle driving.

I found another file where I recorded the weirdness.

I included the current tune, unfortunately I didn't save the file before I changed the part throttle water temp compensation to fatten it up.

Preccord00 · Post by **Preccord00** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 2:04 pm

how do you have your O2 hooked up?

it's not normal to be reading over 1v on the O2, it's causing your closed loop to freak out.

for the "freaked out" one, just unplug your USB and plug it back in, you're reading erronious data, it just needs to be resynched, this is usually caused by EMI interfering with the USB and creating noise.

smracing · Post by **smracing** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:14 pm

Yeah the Freaked out one was a fluke. I have seen it before. Just unplugged it and reset. Seemed to work fine.

O2 is hooked up to the factory harness. I am running a stock four wire OBD1 sensor. I am running my widebacnd through the ELD.

Preccord00 · Post by **Preccord00** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 3:21 pm

look closely at your datalog for the cold one, your O2 dosn't match your wideband, the O2 is asking for more gas when the wideband is say oh crap that's a lot of gas.

I just think there's somthing really weird about your O2, there's a stray voltage or somthing going on there.

I would try driving around in open loop and see how it feels.

smracing · Post by **smracing** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 9:50 pm

My O2 is (or should be) reading the factory O2 sensor. the ELD is reading my wideband voltage, so the two should not be reading each other. I am using the Factory sensor for the closed loop and the wideband to tune with.

I bought this S300 back in the fall of 2005 right after it came out. I have had no problems at all with my unit. It seems like all of these problems came up after the new updates were loaded.

I am a data freak. Here are more datalogs.

smracing · Post by **smracing** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 10:06 pm

Here is the drive home from my shop. The only thing I changed was the target voltage for the 02 sensor under the closed loop tab.

Tomorrow I am going to pull the unit out and install the boost add-on. When I have it on the bench I am going to double check all of the soldered joints. I may even go over them to ensure positive joints. Although I seriously doubt this is the problem as it hasn't occurred until now. I am also going to go back to the earlier version of the software and see what happens.

Here is a couple of more logs from the drive home.

Preccord00 · Post by **Preccord00** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 12:10 am

I didn't really see anything wrong with that last "drive home" datalog, although your O2 was reading 1.04V at one point during the whole run.

It took your engine about 6 minutes to reach operating temperature, which I guess is normal.

I also noticed you're running about 10 pounds of boost.

other then the first paragraph that last one was pretty good, aside from running a tad rich when above 4-5k WOT.

smracing · Post by **smracing** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:03 am

It seems to take forever to warm up. I have actually put a piece of cardboard over part of the radiator to help it warm up faster on my short drive to the shop. Even then it takes awhile for it to hit 180F as cold as it is outside right now. But it does make great power when the IATs are 50F.

I am running 13psi and as soon as I get the Boost add on in, I am going to go on up to 15. SO it really ought to tap this poor turbo out.

I am beginning to wonder if the O2 readings are part of the other problems. The weird screen captures suggest the computer is creating odd readings. So I am not so sure the ECU getting the right info.

Preccord00 · Post by **Preccord00** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 1:45 pm

the best way to determine if the ECU is going bad is to set your ECU to datalog to the memory and do your OWN datalog to the laptop, after you finish your datalog, compare it to the one in ECU memory, I while back my laptop would freak out at 90MPH+ and I could never get any accurate readings from it after that, so I started doing the onboard datalogging and found that somthing was producing excessive EMI once I hit 90.

I found that adding more USB devices to my laptop caused the shielding to work better, so It's extremly rare for me to see all the crap on the screen any more.

check your fans while your car idles, watch and see what temp they come on, if they come on before your car reaches operating temp, replace your ECT sensor as well as your thermostat.

Your thermostat is suppose to oppose flowing coolant before it reaches operating temperature and the ECT sensor is suppose to create too much resistance for the relay to acctuate. Once you reach operating temp your thermostat should open up and allow coolant to flow and your fan will kick in because the sensor's resistance has decreased to a level the relay acctuates.

I agree, there's got to be somthing wrong with the O2 circuit/sensor, somehow you're getting stray voltages or somthing.

smracing · Post by **smracing** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:34 pm

My fan works fine and it is tied to an independent switch. I rarely run it in the winter time especially on my short drive to the shop. It helps get some necessary heat into the oil.

Preccord00 · Post by **Preccord00** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 11:05 am

if the cooling system is working properly then I have no idea why it takes forever to warm up, it's possible that the water pump isn't pushing the coolant, but at the same time, I think the heat would be felt regardless.

smracing · Post by **smracing** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 9:29 pm

I was thinking about something today: wonder if the computer problem is tied to battery voltage. Last night I checked my battery voltage and it read 12.7. The car has been sitting for a couple of days, plus the battery is mounted in the trunk. The past couple of weeks have been very cold here so perhaps the computer is having a voltage issue. I haven't been in the car in a few days. I had to carry some big stuff so I have been driving the truck. I'll try and mess with it tomorrow.

smracing · Post by **smracing** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 10:08 pm

Well scratch that other than the 24 volt readings voltage reads OK. I'll try and drive it tomorrow and see what happens. It has warmed up here so lets see if things are normal.

I am pretty sure this all started when I updated to the new updates.