The car is still idling at 800 but it smells like it's running rich. It's returning 30mpg average on mixed driving which is about the same as before. I've just had a good look at the TB. The butterfly is shiny and there is only a tiny amount of mayo through the breather. However, i did see that the outlet to the carbon cannister has been blocked off. There is no carbon cannister. The rubber elbow on the tb spins no matter how hard i tighten the jubilee clip (guess it needs a different clip). Being a newbie to digi cars, what does the carbon cannister do and how would not having one affect the engine? Also, i only have one vac pipe. It goes from the top of the TB down to the fuel rail. The clip that holds the pipe has space for another one, does that mean i'm missing a pipe? Finally, when i do the unplug temp sender rev to 3k reset, the idle only drops to 1600 each time. This continues even after it's reconnected. If i kill the engine and fire it up again the idle then returns to 800. Is that normal?
the carbon canister is not needed, wont effect anything. not sure about the idle thing, I've never played with the setup on a 2e unfortunatly! you need to disconnect the sensor after the car is started btw, also have you checked and cleared the fault codes?
Yeah i did a bit of research and found out that CCs are just about fuel vapours. Pretty sure that the loose rubber elbow on the TB for it will be letting in some air though so will be sorting that with a tighter clip. I have been disconnecting the temp sender with the engine running. I thought this did clear the fault codes? To be honest i'm yet to be satisfied what the correct method of resetting the ecu is! Different topics and sites have different procedures! Some say do the 3x300rpm thing, others say batt off, key in, ignition on for 15 seconds, key out. Does anyone actually know the definitive answer to resetting the ecu? I haven't been able to get vagcom on it yet (the brake bill destroyed my cash). I'm a little suspicious of the loom tbh. I had it all off the other day to resheath it and found that two earth wires had been badly soldered together. They were then routed to the tab on the front of the block I cleaned up the wires and used a bullet connector on them but am now wondering if this was a good idea. Perhaps the bullet connector affects the earth path and leads the associated sender(s) to give a slightly false reading. The car is definitely running rich, i can smell it. I can't understand how that relates to the low idle though. It's still a tad jerky on pull off too and sometimes the idle drops beyond 800 on change downs. My head says temp sender/air leak/faulty earth.....
looking at elsawin theres no 3k over 3 times thing, you use vag-com to put it into basic mode then set the timing, and thats it. no idle or co to play with. you really need to get it on vagcom, cable is only 10ish from ebay, just need a laptop. a friends mk3 had a similar problem, turned out the supply voltage was too low because he hadn't connected the ecu relay up properly
Cheers, i did contact someone about getting vagcom but apparently the (cheap) software doesn't support windows 7 yet so it may need a trip to TSR in the near future. Good to finally put the 3x3k thing to bed.
the 3k 3 times thing is for setting the idle & co, and since these cannot be adjusted then theres no point even if it did work. on the mk2 to set ign timing you disconnect the blue sensor and hold it at 2.25k rpm, on the 2e lookin at elsawin you have to use vag-com to put it into setup mode
I'm still confused. When you say the brown connector plugs straight into the Vagcom port, do you mean there should be a port in the car or that the connector plugs directly into the cable for the computer? Soz if that sounds daft but i've always been a carb man and this computer stuff is totally new to me. All the Vagcom cables i've seen either have a 16 pin connector or two 2 pin ones. So i guess that means i'm missing something but i need an idiots guide to how to get it hooked up. Cheers. Also, a while back the MFA stopped showing the ambient temp. I take it the sender has either got disconnected or gone fubar. Does the ECU need a signal from that sensor or is it just there so you can go "wow 30 degrees!"?
what I mean is the grey/white wire runs direct to a vag-com port on the car somewhere, which you tyhen plug your vag-com cable on your lappy to. The 2x2 and 16pin ports are basically the same in terms of function, both will work with VAG-COM cable. just the 16pin one is easier since all the cables on bay of e have the 16pin connector. you can get a 2x2 adaptor for cheap though, so it really makes no odds. 16pin cable can be found on loads of cars in scrappy, not just vw. basically most if not all cars after 96 will have what you want, but a VAG car would be easier as it has the same wire colour codes as your car The 16pin connector actually only has 4 wires on it, same as the 2x2. you have: 4 - brown - earth 7 - grey/white - ecu diagnostics 15 - yellow - unused 16 - red/yel - live MFA has nothing to do with the ecu, the sensor is behind the light blanks on bumper, driver side
Cheers again, i had an incling that i'd need to get down the scrappy. Great to have the pin and colour info too.
Ok, a lot of water went under the bridge but i managed to get a vagcom port and jumper from a seat ibiza down the scrappy this week. I've also downloaded VCDS-lite. I'm gonna wire in the port at the weekend. There are lots of connector cables on ebay and i'm wondering if anyone can recommend a particular one or if they are much of a muchness. Cheers
vcds lite needs a specific cable, costs more than the earlier vag-com 409 cable which is all you need for this engine. vcds is more for the later vags with can bus i think? with the 409 vag-com cables they're pretty much all the same, id go for a uk supplier simply becasue they'll get here quicker. bought a few from hong kong and all work, just takes longer for delivery. if you can get one with the 2x2 adaptor included thats helpful
Cool, is 409.1 available as freeware/cheap? Also there are several cheap cables on ebay that come with vcds lite cds that purport to be suitable for any vag car with a 16 pin port??? EDIT, ross-tech state that 409.1 will not work with windows 7 and you must use vcds-lite on that OS. So short of buying a new laptop, what are the options? Should i just fit the port and pay a garage to do the diagnostic or is there an acceptable workaround?
if you can find cables with vcds lite on ebay then its all good, just be aware that the cheap cables arnt official and you should be careful which software you use with them. some proper copies of vcds can wipe the cheap copy cables to prevent them working. safest way is to use the version included with the cable then you know it should be ok.
Ok cheers. I just checked the ross tech site and they say that they don't supply cables for the new version of vcds lite. They say that as such it should work with most 3rd party cables . So i just clicked BIN on a cable with drivers and software. The seller says they have tested the cable with the new windows 7 ready version of vcds lite and it works fine. They've sold over 500 of the cables so far! So, i guess the odds are in it's favour, i'll have to see. Also to clarify, that shareware VCDS-lite won't work with can bus cars according to Ross Tech
Back of the net!!!! I wired in the port as rubjonny suggested and hooked it up via the ebay cable to VCDS-lite running on windows 7. It only bleeding works! So there you go the new VCDS-lite can run with 3rd party cables and on win7. Good news. The first code reading gave these results: 00522-Engine coolant temp sender (G62) 30-10 Open or short to plus-intermittent 00525-please register for translation 03-10 intemittent 00523-please register""""""" 30-10 intermittent 00552-Potentiometer to air flow meter (G19) 31-10 open or short to ground-intermittent. I then cleared the codes and went for a short drive. Only a few miles but the engine got up to temp and i redlined it a few times. Then got just one fault saying that the Lambda sensor has no signal. I know this because it's disconnected, waiting for me to shell out on a new one. Strangely the code given was: 00525- Oxygen level senser (G39) no signal. Odd that it asked me to register for a translation on the first reading but then translated it on the second! With regards to the first set of codes, i replaced the AFM a while back, maybe this was just an old code. I'm rather concerned however that there may be an issue with the loom. I say that because some kind soul has chopped and spliced a few earth wires on the sensor loom. The ones that are earthed to the front of the block. I've bullet connectored them but is it possible this could interfere with the sensors' readings? The car is still idling quite lumpily, the ISV has been cleaned thoroughly and disconnecting it stalls the car. The TB is spotless, breathers are clear and spraying wd40 around the inlet pipe PCV, ISV etc yields no surge in idle. Could this lumpiness in fact just be down to the blowing exhaust? The exhaust fumes smell rich to me but the spark plugs looked perfectly normal (light brown) when i replaced them a few weeks back.
Had a 50 mile drive up the motorway and at both ends of the journey the car seemed to be idling better. Not perfect but better. The car seemed smoother under load as well. Or do we imagine these things? I wonder if the previous temp and afm faults were down to me pulling the plugs on them from time to time to check things? Does the ECU build these past fault codes into it's decisions about fuelling and timing or does it just clear them from it's considerations? Like just keep them as a log?
