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PostPosted: April 21, 2014, 11:49 am 
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Joined: March 23, 2014, 12:39 pm
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Bblue, where in the world do you happen to be? I'm happy to try and help, I've done many installs and do remote tuning having helped benny_toe here most recently. He directed me to these forums. I can do some troubleshooting with you via email, PM me for an email address/phone #.

Scott


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PostPosted: April 25, 2014, 7:56 am 
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Location: Connersville, Indiana
Scott, I'm located in East-Central Indiana. Any and all help is welcomed.

A quick update. I emailed Matt at DIY, he requested a log of the tooth pattern. Posted it on Tuesday, have heard nothing else from him. James declared it to be fine. Sent him another email last.

I'm thinking of reinstalling the old ECU, even if I was unhappy with it and I would loose several features. It did function well enough to allow the car to run.

My email is weblue at comcast dot net.

Bill


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PostPosted: April 30, 2014, 9:07 pm 
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Location: Connersville, Indiana
After much more screwing around downloading and reinstalling the firmware a second time, we discovered the problem is in Tuner Studio. The "Not Synced" problem exists in all optional dashboards, but not in the default dashboard. Contacted Matt about this, he has no clue, forwarded the problem to the Tuner Studio support team. That was two days ago, have heard nothing.

In the meantime, we fired it up today. It runs good enough to tell me that everything is good to go, now to start tuning.

Bill


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PostPosted: May 7, 2014, 8:48 am 
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Location: Connersville, Indiana
Everything was good to go up to 2500, then it would loose sync. This is much like hitting a rev limiter. After much more screwing around (with MegaSquirt, not the car), I was told the problem could probably be solved with a 10k resister soldered in the VR+ wire. Worked!

I think the problem was created while trying to get the MS to sync. I had installed it on the stim, but could not get an rpm reading. I backed the tach trim pots out a turn or so, which gave me rpm up to about 3500. So I backed them all the way out. This gave more full range rpm, but made the system so sensitive it false triggered.

Currently, the car is drivable and Tuner Studio is tuning.

Documentation is scattered on the internet from hell to breakfast and you seldom know for sure if what your reading applies. For instance, you are told the v3 and v3.57 boards are the same, just differences due to different manufacturing techniques. Not true. The trim pots take a different trim, maybe other differences. You also see little gems like "Read more about this subject under MS2 Extra as much of the information applies to MS3." Sure, but which information does not apply?

In short, many people are involved with MegaSquirt, there are many variables due to improvements and features with no single source of information. It really is a jungle for the newby. But the unit seems to be fine.

Bill


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PostPosted: May 31, 2014, 1:55 pm 
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Joined: November 21, 2009, 5:56 pm
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Location: Springfield, Illinois
I'm sort of starting a duplicate thread here. The car suddenly started running very lean yesterday. At least that's the main indication I get using Tuner Studio software. See a more complete description of the problem(s) at viewtopic.php?f=27&t=16425


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PostPosted: May 31, 2014, 1:57 pm 
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What kind of O2 sensor are you using?

Any chance the sensor went bad?

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PostPosted: May 31, 2014, 2:11 pm 
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That certainly is something to check. I don't have a direct readout of the AFR, only what I get using Tuner Studio or shadow dash. I plan to see if I can test the O2 sensor shortly.

The sensor is a wideband unit from AEM Performance Electronics, model number 30-2001 UEGO Sensor.

Bill


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PostPosted: June 1, 2014, 10:24 am 
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Does it seem to run normally? 19 seems like it would be lean enough that the engine wouldn't really run with any significant load but I could be wrong.

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PostPosted: June 1, 2014, 12:08 pm 
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Nineteen sounds awfully high to me too. .. Like it might idle somewhat stable but ping horribly when you tried to pull away.
Could you have picked up a load of either low quality gas or a batch with way more than 10% ethanol?
BTW they're trying to make 15% ethanol the standard now. ... Despite the fact that there weren't many vehicles made before 2000 capable of running properly on a 15% alcohol solution except for Fords.

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PostPosted: June 1, 2014, 3:46 pm 
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Location: Springfield, Illinois
I agree that the AFR is too high. I've pulled a couple spark plugs and the center electrodes are pretty white, suggesting a lean mixture. The wideband controller is showing an indication of a fault when it is first energized and warming up. The documentation is not much help: it indicates the flashing light code is either a shorted wire or shorted sensor. (Not much help there!)

I've found a dealer that should have a replacement O2 sensor tomorrow, so I plan to try that next. The fact that the problem arose suddenly suggests that a sensor failure is maybe possible. Something else not really excluded is some mechanical problem with the engine itself. However, the O2 sensor problem needs to be corrected anyway, so hopefully it won't hurt to replace it.

Bill


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PostPosted: June 2, 2014, 8:52 am 
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Location: Duxbury, MA USA
It probably is the sensor, but just in case its not...
Capture a data log and look to see if the pulse widths make sense VS the AFR. It will be most helpful if you have a log of when things were working correctly for comparison. Also if you have O2 correction turned on and your sensor is giving a nonsense reading, then the engine is unlikely a happy camper. If its actually lean and the AFR correction is off, then something changed...fuel pressure, vacuum leak, MAP sensor, TPS sensor. You get the idea. You seem to know what you are doing...it will be fine!

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PostPosted: June 2, 2014, 11:27 am 
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Quote:
The documentation is not much help: it indicates the flashing light code is either a shorted wire or shorted sensor. (Not much help there!)


Do you have an electric meter?

So the Megasquirt software is not much help with diagnosis? I'm just starting to look at this stuff. It would be nice if it could evaluate how sensible it's inputs are.

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PostPosted: June 2, 2014, 11:48 am 
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Megasquirt can only report what the sensor is sending on the analog output. The flashing lights are on the sensor unit. Tuner Studio and MegaLogViewer are tremendously helpful when troubleshooting as you can look at all the reported sensor readings directly. Its up to the person looking at the information to decide if the readings make sense or not though...software doesn't do that.

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PostPosted: June 5, 2014, 8:28 am 
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Location: Connersville, Indiana
I had a curious thing happen yesterday. I am in the process of dialing in the IAC. While running in a parking lot, trying to get the AC portion dialed in, it suddenly started surging at idle. Could not for the life of me get it to stop and in fact, got worse. Shut off the IAC, which has zero impact. Finally discovered corrupted cells in the AFR table. One had jumped from 14.4 to 20!

I really hesitate to blame the MegaSquirt as the laptop was hooked to MS at time. The car had been very consistant for several thousand miles, then goes bad while being tuned is just too much of a coincidence.

Just a reminder that if things suddenly go South, it's a computer anything can go wrong.

By the way, does anyone know for sure what PID delay is? Instructions on line say it affects RPM drop when the throttle is lifted. The message in Tuner Studio says it delays PID start up. The good news in all of this, the guy who seems to be in charge of this phase of MS development understands the mess they have created over the years and is working to resolve the issue.

And so it goes.

Bill


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PostPosted: June 5, 2014, 9:46 am 
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Location: Duxbury, MA USA
I believe it is how long in seconds all other conditions for entering PID control must be met for before the code will engage PID control

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