St185 Trouble

[chrisE]

Hi

the engine system warning light came on in gt4 today, wen it does the car becomes sluggish n appears to hold back when you put the foot down.

wen i stop and switch the car off, an leave it for 20min or so and then drive it again it drives as normal for bout 10min till the warning light comes on again

just wanting to know if any one knows what the possible reasons are for this to occur.

cheers chris

p.s. the car is fitted with a greddy boost controller if this is anything to do with the problem

[Banjo]

Hi ive got the same problem the light come on mine when im over boosting.... If you disconnect the Battery for a couple of seconds it resets it. Try turning boost controller down!! Sounds like your over boosting or your getting fuel cut, which im having that problem so cant help you on that What boost are you running?

[chrisE]

hi, mate i was running it @ 15psi but wen i turn it down to about 8psi it was doin the same so i tried it when the boost controller was off n still the same thing. ill disconnet the Battery n leave the boost controller off to see what that does.

cheers

[chrisE]

hey all i disconected the Battery and took the car out for a drive it was running normla for about 15mins then the engine system light came on again and the car became sluggish wen the boost comes on.

i have removed the dump valve recently, could this be a cause of the problem.

cheers chris

[Cexy_Ratt]

Check for fault codes. In the passenger wing side of the enigne bay near the bulkhead is the diagnostics terminal block, short i think E1 and TE1 with a wire , turn the ignition on an the ECU light will flash witht he fault code, you will need to referance against the fault code list.

Sounds like thats will be a good start

When does it become sluggish, do you have an aftermarket boost gauge, i assume you are running more boost. It could be the car is Fuel cutting due to excessive boost. if so turn your boost down and check your pipes running to the wastgate are secured and not leaking, as this would bypass your boost controller if there were and raise your boost

Also how did you remove the dumpvalve, did you replace the T with the orginal boost hose, ie is the turbo to IC connection leaking, it may be sucking air in

[dawesy]

yep those are the terminals.

check and report.

the codes are a series of flashes short pause series of flashes long pause etc

so ----- ---- is code 54 (five flashes, pause, four flashes) right down the codes, don worry if you miss them as they will repeat. when you get a code repeated thats all the codes that are stored.

[chrisE]

hi all, sorry for the delayed reply just havent had toime to check the car.

got round to checkin ot today.

the error code was 52 which i found to be a knock sensor signal.

is this a major problem thats gonna cost alot.

thanks for all the help.

cheers chris

[Cexy_Ratt]

You can just about get your hands round the back of the inlet manifold to get the sensor out and put a new one in, the sensor might cost a few quid. Should either be a round or sqaure plug.. on the sensor itself..

[genicide_gt]

I just posted a topic on this very subject...

My ST185 boosts at 0.5bar and if it goes over this the warning light on the after market boost gauge comes on,

AND its sluggish all the time..not very many places here in Ireland that know alot about GT4s in general never mind the 185..

Pulls back like a fuel cut takes place every time i put the foot down :ffs:

[Cexy_Ratt]

Best thing is check for error codes forst, could well be the answer to you question

[Angus]

Just had this one myself ... got a knock sensor from TCB in Cornwall (with the plug - there are two different ones depending on the age of your car, £30) and replaced it.

Still had the error code.

I was advised by fellow members of www.celica-club.co.uk to change out the wire to the ECU for a shielded one, and that did the job.

Basically, I snipped the wire about 6 inches from the KS plug, and spliced the shielded one on ... ran it through the bulkhead grommet behind the intake manifold and under the dash to the ECU (forget which pin, but it's easy enough to find out from Chiltons etc).

Job done, error code gone.

The shielded wire, by the way, I got from a TV shop. The end of the shielded bit at the knock sensor needs to be left unconnected, with just the central core connected to the sensor wire. The shild at the ECU end needs to be run to a suitable grounding point - I stuck it onto one of the centre console bolts at the front.

The point: your knock sensor could be fine, it could be just the wire that needs looking at.

Also, changing the sensor is a bit of a pig - if you're slim enough, you can get one arm down the back of the intake manifold to reach it with the correct socket (19mm I think), but you're working blind and stand every chance of shredding your inner forearm on hoseclips, etc. And there's a pretty good chance of disconnecting vacuum hoses etc by accident.

Angus

[chrisE]

thanks for the help everyone