Engine Light, Stalling, Spluttering, Problems already!

Apologies for the essay, would like some opinions though!

Picked up my Altezza yesterday from Sydney, drove back to Melbourne. About 70km from Melbourne the engine started hesitating a little in 6th at light load and check engine light came on (solid). Pulled straight over and turned it off.

Has oil pressure, fuel pressure (has a gauge in engine bay), didn't overheat.

Left it for 10 mins, started it up - sounds normal, idles fine and revs cleanly in neutral, once you take off it starts cutting out under any sort of load, check engine light comes on again and car shuts itself down.

We initially thought it may have been fuel, as we had down about 530km to half a tank and assumed the gauge was faulty. Fuel pressure however is fine (60psi) and RACV came and topped up 10l.. no difference. Towed it home and it now idles at about 1500rpm.. feels similar to when you pop a cooler pipe off.

It's running a 2871r with powerfc and 800cc injectors, drove perfect up until then.

My thoughts:
AFM dirty - CLEANED
AFM faulty
Intake pipe or filter blocked - CHECKED
Vac leak - CHECKED
Fuel filter blocked - CHECKED
CAS faulty - unsure if this one would cause these kind of symptoms
Wiring issue - ie. something melting from heat of turbo/manifold CHECKED
Turbo dead - CHECKED

99% sure it's a sensor, and not mechanical

Am about to go have a play with it and see what I can find - suggestions welcome!

I can't say for sure what your problem could be but it sounds similar to issues I've had when the wire on my O2 sim burned through. Maybe check all the O2 sensors leads are all in tact?

Apart from that you could get the CEL checked?

CEL is irrelevant as it's running aftermarket ECU (Power FC). I'll take a look at the o2 sensor.

Pulled off airbox, found pod filter had come off intake pipe, used AFM cleaner on AFM, put pod back on.. took it for drive does same thing. Stalls even when not under load after light cruising. Really feels like an AFM issue still.. or possibly TPS? Wouldn't mind trying another if there's anyone in Melbourne who has an Altezza.. but I'll keep poking around.

Turbo is fine, has no shaft play and spins freely. Bit of oil in cooler piping.

Anybody able to direct me to voltage specs for TPS/AFM etc?

yep- shoot me you email address in a PM and I'll email a pile of stuff over... Full wiring diagrams, where parts are, what the error codes mean..

A few people have been having issues with Power FC in their Altezza's from memory? Can someone shed some light on this?

ECU seems fine

I removed turbo looking for anything melted/broken.. fixed some very dodgy oil lines and changed gaskets, put everything back on.. cleaned afm 20 times.. it now idles smoothly - for about 30 seconds and then dies as if you have turned it off by the key.

Immobiliser perhaps?

Sounds exacly like the issue the boys are having with power fc. just have a read through the threads.

Thanks, from what I've read the cutting out issues with powerfc guys are having appear to be all turbo related - got a feeling the cam angle sensors don't like the extra heat.

Removing alarm in the morning and then turning my attention to cam sensor..

Altezza life is not going well so far

Part of the reasonI want to do it all myself so I know its done properly. Getting an Altezza in Australia was hard enough so I wasnt really upset when I started having issues with coils, clutch, brakes, ball joints, tie rods, steering rack, list goes on. Must have spent half as much as the car on the car by now and that doesnt include the turbo kit lol but I know I have a great car for the time being! Kinda wish I followed the sheep and did the 2J conversion on my IS though...

Alarm/Mobiliser removed, car still idles fine for 30 secs or so then cuts out.

Disconnected sensors one by one and tested - only the Cam sensor and the other sensor on the front drivers side of rocker cover didn't cause a check light.

Plugged in stock ecu, surprisingly it actually runs with 800cc injectors - doesn't stall. No engine lights - trying now to see if I can pull any error codes though.

No luck with error codes - engine light just flashes constantly, no pauses or breaks.

Anyone got some spare 3sge sensors I can borrow to test?

As far as the power FC goes it will give you only warnings for detonation (CEL will flash 3 times in 0.1 second intervals) and when fuel mixture is too rich or injector duty is too hight (multiple flash for 0.5 seconds) Solid CEL is obviously sensory failure (which you appear to have worked out already)

have you got the hand controller for the power fc as that will give you some good sensory output to look at as a start?

Thats what I thought - didn't think it had any safety type features with cutting engine. No detonation.

I bought a hand controller on ebay just yesterday, so hopefully that arrives some time during the week so I can investigate.

Also - when I disconnect the Cam Angle sensor there is no change in how the engine runs at idle, and it still cuts out in the same way. Normal?

To elaborate on above. Intake cam sensor disconnected - won't start. Exhaust cam sensor disconnected - no change.

Exhaust cam sensor dead from turbo heat mayhaps?

i was having the exact problem a couple weeks back it seems to be a realtioship error between power fc and a sensor i left it over night and the next day ran fine no problems at all a lot of the boys are having it as winnie said if some has a anwser give us a holla

Any guys with Altezza, could you do me a huge favour and unplug the cam sensors one at a time and try starting it?

It seems like my exh side one is gone, as it makes no difference to how it runs, however when I disconnect the intake sensor the car won't start.

Also it seems that all the guys wit powerfc problems seem to be turbo, making me think that this issue is heat related - especially as mor started happening after 800km of sitting in 6th.

Thanks for all your help so far guys!

Ill give it a go later tonight and update you

Legend!

Just stole friends multimeter and bout to test aps/tps/efi etc.

This car has ruined my long weekend

afm tested fine.

tps yellow/green to earth was in spec, however red/blue to earth measures at 5.08v regardless of throttle position or if cars running - i think this is my problem?!?

now im confused! tested APS green/yellow to earth - 5.08 again, regardless of throttle position. blue/white to earth was within spec.

Does this mean they're both fried, or that one is causing a false reading in the other"?

Feels abit like I'm talking to myself

Noticed that horn/fuel pump relays are same part no, so i swapped horn into fuel pump.. and it now runs for 2 mins or so before dieing, as opposed to 30secs.

More confused!

EDIT: Both relays now idle for about 2 mins before cutting out...

Altezza battery flat = fail sorry bud!

Haha thats ok - please give it a go when you get a chance!

Just took it for a drive now that it's idling for a bit longer. Can rev out to redline now and revs smoothly, though still cuts out occasionally - stalls when I come to a stop, though this may be because I removed the blow off valve and blocked it off (don't really believe in them!), I'll put it back on for testing though.

Still a little baffled at what it could be though, given that after playing with EFI relay it happily idles for longer!

Just curious, is your idle rough? Does it stall on cold start up or just when the engine warms up.