elanscan results- first full scan

[Lotus54]

I did this starting from cold. Started ok (but not wonderful, it took a few tries)- it has been hard starting when cold, great when warm/hot.

Looking at the boost gauge it looked higher earlier than later, but may just be the gauge. The scan didn't seem to show that...
I'm not sure why the coolant temp went down so much, seems once hot it should have stayed pretty close to 80c or do they tend to cool down so much?

I have an old 'lean O2' flag, it sort of looks like I could 'richen' my base CO setting. I have an exhaust analyzer so I could set it, but it doesn't have a cat on the car now so I would think the readings would be way off from 'expected' at the tailpipe.

Any thoughts on looking at this?

My idle tends to stay really high (2k) when cold/cool and coming to a stop sign. Maybe EGR valve sticking?

Federal car (california).

mark

9-19-11.zip

[saska]

Any thoughts on looking at this?

This is a 1499 chip and not a 9949 (California) chip. It also boosts to 0.95Bar so looks like an Everest. What is the 13th number of the VIN?
I'd be looking at putting the car in service mode and checking base timing. The 4 idle periods in the scan show the spark advance very low.
Think the thermostat needs looking at since it appears to be either opening early or stuck open.
There are knock events and retard applied under high boost/revs but I'd do the above and rescan before looking for anything else.
The rest of the scan looks OK: secondary throttle, EGR, O2 sensor, etc. are all working.

[Lotus54]

Yes, I understood it has an Everest chip.

13th num is 3


The car has had mods done before me, I'm still figuring out what.
Lower suspension, chip, blow off valve, exhaust and a strange little lamp on the centre switch area that I have no idea what it does yet.


I checked base timing yesterday, it appeared too advanced, also set idle and so far seems better.

Thanks for looking at th scan and making suggestions.

Mark

[saska]

Yes, I understood it has an Everest chip.
13th num is 3

So definitely originally a California spec. car. Interesting that the 1499 Everest works in place of 9949 but not vice versa.

I checked base timing yesterday, it appeared too advanced, also set idle and so far seems better.

When you've had a chance to do something about the thermostat, rescan it and post it up.
Think this will also make quite a difference to the idle situation as the car never got above 77°C in the first scan.
Good luck

[Lotus54]

It is a new thermostat- 180f.
I believe it was seated properly, but I can pull it apart and check- although I think it will leak if not in right...maybe not though.

It does seem strange that it gets up to temp, them cools back down, then back up.
I thought the fans came on once during that scan, but perhaps that was later.

Mark

[saska]

It is a new thermostat- 180f.
I believe it was seated properly, but I can pull it apart and check- although I think it will leak if not in right...maybe not though.

Think it would be worth boiling it and measuring the opening temperature since if it opens at 180°F then it would point to a fault in the engine management CTS (reading low).
I know the thermostats are cheap enough to just replace but it may be worth testing the one you have as a diagnostic measure.

It does seem strange that it gets up to temp, them cools back down, then back up.
I thought the fans came on once during that scan, but perhaps that was later.

It doesn't ever really get up to temperature (if the ECU CTS is to be believed) since it doesn't ever go over 80°C in the scan.
Re-checking the scan, the MAT is generally steadily rising and if the fans did come on then this should occur at ~107°C and is controlled via a separate sensor again pointing to a faulty ECU CTS.
In the first instance check the 2 wires going to it but if you do opt to replace it note the info in the fine Wiki about the Esprit CTS which works and is much cheaper than ours.
Edit: since the temp guage has it's own sensor apart from the other 2 (ECU & fans) can you remember if the temp gauge ever got over 1/4 during the run. If it did then that is additional evidence for the ECU CTS being faulty since the scan reports a max temp of 77°C which I'd guess would be about halfway between 0 and a 1/4 on the gauge.

[Lotus54]

As I posted on the other thread, I messed up and the thermostat wasn't installed correctly (slipped down so water could get by, but gasket kept it from leaking)

Now it stays between 80 & 89 pretty darn well.

[GeoffSmith]

The O2 sensor output (CO potentiometer/Oxygen sensor? in ElanScan) looks a bit flaky at times - it could be that the lean flag is just a result of a previous dropout of the O2 sensor as the car hasn't been used for a long time. Now you've sorted out the thermostat, I'd be tempted to clear the fault flags and see if it reoccurs.

[Lotus54]

I'm still getting the occasional O2 lean flag...

Also, the boost is only going to around .8
I did disable the boost control and it easily pegged the gauge and shut the fuel off.

I'm not sure what changed, I changed the timing only a bit (i can't advance much more in any case, no more travel)
There are wires I don't know what they do, one with a switch...but I doubt anything to do with the ECU (my guess is alarm).

I'm going to replace the coils (coolant on them before and I'm sure corroded) but the car WILL develop boost so must be in the control circuit.
Unless I don't really have an 'Everest' and it was boosting too much before.
How can I tell?

I'll do another ElanScan as soon as I can bum the laptop from my wife.

Mark

[Lotus54]

I've been starting to clean connections etc.

I pulled the ECU to see exactly what was in the car.
Everest 4.5 (looks like the current one?)

I'm still not sure why my boost and power is down- but I'm going to replace the coils/ plug wires etc since they need to be done in any case.
Strange thing is it used to get full boost. But it also ran strangely fairly often. Now it is running much better all the time (just less power).

Mark

I'll pop a scope on the O2 sensor and see how it looks. Maybe it is just bad.

[saska]

I'm still not sure why my boost and power is down- but I'm going to replace the coils/ plug wires etc since they need to be done in any case.
Strange thing is it used to get full boost. But it also ran strangely fairly often. Now it is running much better all the time (just less power).

The O2 sensor is reading very low in this latest scan -- much lower than in the previous scan. Under high rev/high boost it is also reducing the Air/Fuel ratio more than I would expect.
It's reducing it to 7.8:1 whereas 10-11:1 is more normal under high revs & boost. 14.7 is stoichemetric (normal driving). Think this is why you aren't making the power/boost. The ECU thinks things are lean so increases fuel to reduce the A/F ratio to protect the engine.
Since the O2 sensor was giving more normal readings in the first scan then something appears to have changed between then and now.
An incomplete list of reasons why the O2 sensor might be reading very low are:
1. leak in intake plenum/manifold
2. leak in exhaust manifold
3. fouled plugs
4. anything causing incomplete ignition -- coil packs, leads
5. lack of fuel supply -- injectors, fuel pressure down.

I'll pop a scope on the O2 sensor and see how it looks. Maybe it is just bad.

Since the O2 sensor was working reasonably well in the first scan it is unlikely to have failed dramatically (possible but unlikely) so scoping the O2 sensor is worth doing but I'd be pulling a plenum vacuum hose and seeing if idle changed. If it does then you probably don't have an intake leak. If it doesn't then you probably do.
If I came up negative there I'd be checking the coil packs, leads, plugs.
After that would be fuel pump, fuel filter, injectors.
As an aside, you mentioned the spark adjustment on the CAS was at its limit -- this shouldn't be the case. Are you sure the cambelt isn't a tooth off?
Sorry to be vague but best I can do.