Hi all,

just got my car back from the shop... and after all the work, the idle is still HIGH. The car used to idle at about 750 rpm. The last time we ran the hammer on it, it did some adjustment, now it did none at all!!!! My EZK died and we replaced it with a rebuilt one. The car runs great, but the idle is 1000-1200. With A/C and in D, it runs about 950!!! this is unhealthy.

I have checked all the vacuum system
new ISV
New Idle Switch

Any help would be appreciated as we are running out of ideas.

Sincerely,
Khaled

 

I had a similar problem with my '85 (mine kept stalling ) and at the end the idle adjustment screw had to be turned 1.5 times to bring the base idle down. Has the shop tried to adjust the base idle on your S4?

 

If there is an idle adjustment screw for an S4 I am not aware of it.

Is your idle a steady 1100 regardless of being warmed up and driven hard?

 

Do you have the stock '87 chips in the LH and EZK?

 

S4 and newer do not have an adjustmet screw, idle is electronically controlled.

Rich,

My EZK and LH have the updated EPROMs (x.15 for EZK, x.13 for LH). Those EPROMs allow the car to store the fault codes and run through the Hammer for adjustment and should not be related (I hope) to the higher idle as they were on the older LH and EZK which ran at the lower idle.

Could something be happening that is over advancing my timing making my car run at a higher RPM? This is very frustrating chasing those little gremlins. Besides the high RPM, the car is running smooth as silk and the Idle is rock solid.

Note: My car is pinging depending on the throttle position... not sure if it is the arizona heat , but this is the only other thing that is not normal, but don't think that should be related.

Sincerley,

 

The car should not ping unless you got really bad gas. Someone should check the timing, although this is electroinically controlled.

Vacuum leak could make you lean, high idle and ping. The manifold can be checked for air tightness by plugging the MAF with the right sized plumbing adapters with an air valve installed and inflating.

Of course, throttle cable too tight or binding of the throttle by a breather hose would prevent it falling to idle. When you move the throttle slightly off idle with the engine off, can you hear the click of the idle switch? Can you feel the throttle plate coming to rest on the stop with slight cable slack? The cruise control cable should have LOTS of slack.

 

Bill,

My car has been pinging and i have noticed that the 350Z was pinging as well too, not sure if it is the heat or the reformulated gas in Arizona for the summer. I will check again. i use Cheveron and have tried multiple gas places, no change.

I had my mechanic do a vacuum test using the smoke machine while the car was off, and we did not see any smoke coming out. Did we do it right? How do you do a proper vaccum leak check with a smoke machine?

In this service, we have changed all the gaskets on the intake manifold so i am not sure if there is anythig else that needs to be checked there. This is VERY abnormal. The interesting part is that the Hammer was not able to adjust idle at all, I did not see the rmp needle move period.

I am thinking of diconnecting the whole cable assembly for throttle and all from the intake to see if that changes thing (would give it a lot of slack ) what do you think?

P.S. the high idle condition did not exist prior to the new EZK. I believe that is when it started to happen. Also do you think my throttle plate is not closing completely?

Sincerely,

 

Listen for the idle switch click as you move the throttle linkage off idle stop. Don't take the cables off, but just make sure there is slack and you can hear the idle switch click.

If this all started with the new EZK, then I would think about a swap. Aren't you near Rich Andrade? Isn't Precision Motorwerks in your area? These guys are the experts. I can't see how a good mechanic would let it out of the shop like this. There are a limited number of things that can do this and it just needs to be troublehot methodically.

 

Bill,

Don't be dis'n the shop. They do damn fine work and they have not been involved in the module changes. I spoke to Khaled about this already and we'll get together to see what is up.

This car has had many things swapped in and out - so other than web chatter I think it would be best to wait until we check things out before making wild guesses.

 

Oops! Did I put my foot in and bite on it? You and Precision are the best and will figure it out. You should have noticed that my advice was to contact you and/or Precision [Edit - that should have been Exotic, in your area], and it looks like Khaled has done that!

 

Bill/Rich,

I am working with Rich trying to see if the EZK swap had something to do with it - we both doubt it, but with these cars, you never know so we're getting togeather soon to try changing modules - seriously a gremlin machine ... The rebuilt LH and EZK from Rich have definitely smoothed my ride out and i cannot be happier. The idle is solid, no more running rich/lean, the missing is gone, the acceleration is linear and the vibration around 1600-1800 is about gone. I took the car for a spin 20 minutes ago and it is as smooth as it gets.
I have full trust in Exotic and they ALWAYS do a great job. We installed new cam covers with GTS breather setup (with an auxiliary 931 oil seperator in the lines), new seals and gaskets all around, new injectors with o-rings, a new Throttle Position Sensor (mine did not show WOT), a new ISV and cleaned the whole thing up. The car runs great.
I checked the vacuum by plugging the MAF and it died instantly showing good vacuum sealing (i think). We'll check the lines again on friday with the smoke machine and mitivac i guess.

from my driving tonight, here is what i have observed:

- Took the car in an acceleration run - SOLID through 120 in a linear acceleration. I slowed down after that.
- car is running a bit warmer than ususal - almost at 2nd white bar (passed it today in traffic and A/C). Maybe the AZ summer is here??
- no pinging with no A/C running, shows with load (A/C) and certain Throttle Positions (during the day experience)
- Car would idle between 1000-1100RPM
- Car in Drive Idle about 800RPM
- Car in Drive, A/C On, Idle about 630RPM! FREAK

Checked the cables at the intake and they all seemed to have slack, nothing tense, but what do i know. Oh BTW, in partially obstructed MAF, the RPM does drop... I am not sure if this helps anyone, but those are my observations. I hope it is something simple (but those are the hardest to figure ). Anyways the only thing that is intriguing me as well is that the Hammer was not able to change the RPM during system adaption making me wonder if it is a Hammer problem or a module problem, or what exactly. If it was a significant vacuum leak i am missing somewhere then the idle would not be solid and i should be getting missing which is not the case... so more things to ponder upon.

Sincerely,

 

I meant Exotic. Precision is another great place, in Anaheim, however. It sounds like the issues you had previously have been resolved. You have a few to go. Pinging is concerning. Perhaps the engine is coked up from previous rich condition. Maybe an Italian tune-up will help that. Regardless, pinging, fast idle and possible cooling concerns should be readily fixable with the help you have locally, and, as Rich said, this armchair, long-distance wild-*** guessing on my part is just idle Internet chatter. I thought you were winging this mostly on your own. Be patient and let the experts you have handle it.

 

Hi have you put a tachometer on the engine or are you using the dash tach ? Might be a slightly off dash tach

 

I am using the dash idle indicator, but it is definitely high. Last time we checked with a tach on the engine, the dash was pretty accurate. At any cost, there is something funky with the Hammer not moving the idle at all. The car is idling like a race car you can hear it and feel it. I don't like it.

 

Have you tried manually pressing the throttle linkage closed to verify it is not a mechanical issue with that?