Engine power and Idle Revs

[jonmes]

I had a Injen CAI on my 3 for almost 2 yrs and had numerous problems including engine light staying on, power cutting out (like a bad sparkplug) and stalling later on. I finally went back to my stock intake and now the car is worse. It has absolutely no power and sucks back gas and when its warm and idling the engine revs up and down between stalling and 1500 rpm. HELP?

[steve220s]

Did you unplug the battery long enough to clear the ECU?

[jonmes]

i unplugged it for 4 hours

[MajesticBlueNTO]

your MAF (mass air flow) sensor is fux0red...

try cleaning it with electronic contact cleaner ...if that doesn't work, one of 2 things:

1) you may need a new MAF sensor itself
2) you may have a severed wire in the MAF harness that needs to be fixed

resetting the ECU already confirmed an issue exists that is apparent immediately after a reset so clearing it again won't solve your problem.

[sas]

The most often fault with CAI is wrong readings of MAF or impossibility to
correct the “base map” by PCM . Plus the MAF could be oiled from CAI.
This is causing the creation of too-rich or too-lean mixture.
If you drove with the CEL the long time, this can to cause a bunch of problems.
The too-rich mixture is clogging all by carbon (injectors, piston’s rings, spark plugs, valves, oxygen sensors, catalytic converter)
The too-lean mixture is oxidizing the same things. Too-lean is not so dangerous but…
If you have one of these problems you must to clean your injectors and spark plugs first, then do clean the MAF.

The first, you can do is to remove spark plugs (in order, to know from which cylinder they are)
Do them compare with each other and check their condition.
these plugs are looking normal for 25-30k KM:
http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2330420
the ceramic insulator of the central electrode could be light brown
there is some pics:
http://www.vintagehotrod.net/ContentExpress20-79-80.html
there is no picture with too-lean problem, usually plug is covered by gray or white-gray thin layer
If all plugs are white-gray, then maybe will be enough to clean the MAF.
If plugs are clogged by carbon then , more like, you need to clear injectors.
The flushing can help, can not.
The difference between cylinders usually speaks about spark plug or injector’s faulty.
If you don’t have the CEL you can to drive and to wait for the miracle.
If you still have it, then go to read error codes.

[kevcol74]

The most often fault with CAI is wrong readings of MAF or impossibility to
correct the “base map” by PCM . Plus the MAF could be oiled from CAI.
This is causing the creation of too-rich or too-lean mixture.
If you drove with the CEL the long time, this can to cause a bunch of problems.
The too-rich mixture is clogging all by carbon (injectors, piston’s rings, spark plugs, valves, oxygen sensors, catalytic converter)
The too-lean mixture is oxidizing the same things. Too-lean is not so dangerous but…If you have one of these problems you must to clean your injectors and spark plugs first, then do clean the MAF.

The first, you can do is to remove spark plugs (in order, to know from which cylinder they are)
Do them compare with each other and check their condition.
these plugs are looking normal for 25-30k KM:
http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=2330420
the ceramic insulator of the central electrode could be light brown
there is some pics:
http://www.vintagehotrod.net/ContentExpress20-79-80.html
there is no picture with too-lean problem, usually plug is covered by gray or white-gray thin layer
If all plugs are white-gray, then maybe will be enough to clean the MAF.
If plugs are clogged by carbon then , more like, you need to clear injectors.
The flushing can help, can not.
The difference between cylinders usually speaks about spark plug or injector’s faulty.
If you don’t have the CEL you can to drive and to wait for the miracle.
If you still have it, then go to read error codes.

Too lean can be EXTREMELY dangerous! It can lead to detonation!!! Detonation = good bye engine!!! Too lean can cause premature ignition in the cylinder, forcing the piston the wrong way... ever heard of a rod blowing throught the oil pan or block?? More likely result in damaged bearing and crank/rods in these engines, but the higher HP, the more chance of throwing rods out of the engine!!