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My car is running super rich! help needed

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Old 03-24-2009, 01:56 PM
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Default My car is running super rich! help needed

Ok guys, A few weeks after I put my fenderwell cold air intake on my car, my computer has reprogrammed itself. It's sensed the colder intake temps and increased flow and it's dumping extra gas into my cylinders, I'm getting 6 mpg worse gas mileage than before and less horsepower. I've gotta get this thing tuned ASAP. My car would barely even start a few days ago because of this issue. Yesterday I unhooked the negative battery cable and let it sit for around 20 minutes, it ran much better and the mileage was back but then today when I was going to work, it was inching back down the wrong way again. Today at work I unplugged the negative cable for around 3 or 4 hours so we'll see how well this worked. i'm getting the car tuned on april 4th, do you guys think that could fix the problem? A little background, I'm running a 3" stainless pipe from the MAF down through the fenderwell with a silicone coupler then another small pipe and a K&N cone filter. I have the plastic elbow from the throttle body to MAF, MAF, and most of the piping wrapped in header wrap to insulate the pipe from the heat from the crossover header from the front bank. I have a grand prix gxp just so you know. Thanks guys.

Old 03-24-2009, 03:32 PM
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I'm going to be honest with you.

Your problem isn't lower IATs.
Old 03-24-2009, 04:25 PM
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Do you have any ideas about what it could be? after I fired it up after work it ran like complete A$$ for about 3 blocks then was fine the rest of the drive home and now it's starting to do it again, not sure what's going on. I'm gonna take it to autozone and see if it's throwin a code and not showing a light.
Old 03-24-2009, 04:31 PM
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Did you hook your IAT back up? It will think its like -130* outside and will dump in tons of fuel if it isn't.
Old 03-24-2009, 07:00 PM
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the IAT controls spark advance not fuel. take it to autozone or a good tuner.
Old 03-24-2009, 07:27 PM
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thanks guys, i will try this stuff and get back to you
Old 03-25-2009, 03:29 AM
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Would a dirty K&N cause decreased gas mileage and rough idle? The car still gets good gas mileage while I'm cruising but in the city it's a little worse, I guess it could be adjusting to the added airflow from removal of the stock airbox though
Old 03-25-2009, 04:20 PM
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Unless it's a real pain can you hook up the stock setup again and see if the car gets better? That might eliminate or confirm it's the new setup.
Old 03-27-2009, 09:13 AM
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Ok, unplugged the negative for an hour or so, hooked it back up and let it idle for 5 or 10 minutes. it's running great now, getting 19.5 mpg city, but I still need to get it tuned because at WOT it's not performing like it should. My A/F's are all messed up. Thanks guys for helping. Glad it wasn't anything major.
Old 03-27-2009, 09:24 AM
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did you touch your maf at all? i bent one of the wires one time it was such a small bend you could barely even tell but it ruined it and my car ran horrible and would barely even idle. if so unplug it until you get a new one your car will run just fine without it
Old 03-27-2009, 09:56 AM
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Originally Posted by WS6Power
the IAT controls spark advance not fuel. take it to autozone or a good tuner.

Well that's really not true, though it's not the problem for this guy.


To the original poster, no one has come out and said it, so I will. Whenever you change the way that air moves through or around the MAF, it's calibration must be altered. CAI's have a heavy impact on MAF fueling.
Old 03-27-2009, 11:48 AM
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Thanks Frost You can actually calibrate the reading of the MAF? Or are you talking about adjusting the A/F ratios? Sorry if it's a dumb question, I don't know that much about tuning per se. I'm only a week away from getting it tuned.
Old 03-27-2009, 11:53 AM
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The two go hand-in-hand.
Old 03-28-2009, 10:15 AM
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Originally Posted by Frost
Well that's really not true, though it's not the problem for this guy.


To the original poster, no one has come out and said it, so I will. Whenever you change the way that air moves through or around the MAF, it's calibration must be altered. CAI's have a heavy impact on MAF fueling.
Are you sure? I have some pro shop tuners who will gladly argue with you about that, even the creators of EFI LIVE.

While I'm being very sarcastic, what I'm saying is actually true lol...
Old 03-28-2009, 11:40 AM
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It's pretty easy to prove Simply clocking the MAF like 90deg has a huge impact on fuel trimming across the board and WOT AFR. What alternative explanation can be had?

I find that removing an aftermarket lid, such as an SLP on a boltons car that was tuned (cumulative trimming to -2% to -4%) previously drives trims now to +4 to +7. Now that we replaced the less restrictive air lid with that of the OEM part, would someone really believe that the engine now needs MORE fuel, and to the order of 6-9%? We must realize then that the MAF is sampling a tiny portion of the air moving through it in order to make a very educated guess about total volume. This is the point of calibration.
Old 03-28-2009, 03:35 PM
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could it also be a piece of hair, fuzz, ect that got on the maf?
Old 03-28-2009, 04:15 PM
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Originally Posted by thunderstruck507
could it also be a piece of hair, fuzz, ect that got on the maf?
Usually something on the maf will force it the other way. Any type of debris on it will effectively "insulate" it and cause it to think it's flowing LESS air, resulting in a lean condition.




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