hi all, kinda new to the forum,.. second turbo soob.

i recently purchased an 03 bug eye(82k miles) off cl and clearly ran like s**t because of a cracked up pipe. all jittery, not getting full boost. seemed to idle ok though once it warmed up
now that i have a stock up pipe replacement (for smog or watev) it acts similar.. new gaskets. NO check engine light present. nothing. acts like a vacuum leak. TPS? MAF?? running a 3 inch turbo back exhaust with a tune? not sure, found softwear in the glovebox, again, there is no check engine light...
i have no idea whats wrong with it but i have a new fuel filter and NGKs to put in but what could it be?
also i found a line thats not hooked up(has not vacuum or pressure) thats coming off the drivers side back of the intake out a little sensor (TGV?)
maybe a combination of things but besides the steps im taking anything else i can do? i wanna drine this thang..
any advice is good advice.

thanx
-D

 

I suggest taking it to a shop. Check the i-club sponsors in your area and see if they can help you out.

 

There is one line back there that isn't hooked to anything. That one's probably the one you found.

I also recommend taking to a shop and having them do a boost leak test. Then go from there. It could also be that it had a tune for parts that are no longer on the car and he didn't flash it to stock or some such like that. Never know with modded used cars.

 

they are backed up for a while, i just had them order a new maf sensor. should have it by noon. i cant really afford to pay a mechanic an extra 100 bux

 

dont take this the wrong way bud, but maybe a turbo car wasnt he best choice if on a budget. i myself am going from RS to WRX and its not even in yet and im seeing the spike in costs. even for just a tune alone 300-500. and as someone else mentioned, unless you plan to work on the car yourself or pay to play, used turbos are a nightmare. people run these cars hard sometimes without the proper tune for the respective parts. Hope you get it sorted out, but definately take it to a shop before buying new parts and blindly installing them. in the end, you could possibly save $ at a shop. Goodluck bud!

 

Psssh take it to a shop lalalala whatever! Boost leak test it yerself. Theres alot of ways to do it. before you start ordering a bunch of parts try to isolate the problem. Is it running rough like misfiring?

 

well i tested the old and new maf sensor for resistance, and the old maf was definatley bad, but it still runs rough with the new one plugged in.
but if i unplug the sensor it runs great. (and strong too, sounds amazing)
could i be looking at a bad tps? ill try n read it with a scanner later today(tryin to find one to use)

 

Not sure about the tps, mines never had issues so I'm no help with that. But unplugging the maf with a vac leak would make it run better because it's giving the wrong info when plugged in. I say grab a can of carb cleaner and spray the suspected connections with the car idling and see if the rpms jump up a little. Turbo inlet, intercooler to Throttlebody. Y pipe.

 

appearantly you need some drive time to reset the parameters because the system must take all new readings after being used to running like ****.
a bomb back and forth to skool and she seems to be running better and better...
ran some codes today and one of two was fuel temp sensor? other was from the maf being unplugged.. cleared...
still not super jazzed about running the tgv hose into the boost vacuum lines but idk where else to tie it into...

 

im going to do a smoke down test sometime this week at school (UTI sac)

 

It doesn't go anywhere. Don't run it into boost or vac lines, it just hangs to atmosphere.

smoke won't find boost leaks. DO A BOOST LEAK TEST. You NEED to pressurize to find boost leaks. Most show up with only ~5psi.