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- Joined
- Mar 10, 2005
- Location
- Pennsylvania
Hey all,
I'm having a weird car problem. I'm about to name this car Christine. It's possessed!
Car in question - 1997 Kia Sephia, 1.8L 5spd stick.
1. The check engine light doesn't stay on all of the time. It'll go off at times, even when the symptoms haven't changed.
2. There's two stages of it acting up:
a) When it's really acting up, the car does not like to idle at all. No matter what you're doing, whenever the car is not in gear, either by having the clutch engaged, or being out of gear altogether, the idle will lope between 100 (yes, 100! ) to 500rpm's. It gets so low sometimes that it will either die altogether, the lights will come on; like it's wanting to die, or it will "wake up startled" and jump up to 1200 rpm, then go back to 500 or less. When it's acting like this, once I reach my destination, shut the car off and get out, it smells like it has an exhaust leak - but there's no leak! Also when this is happening, I will only get 20mpg. The norm for my car is 30; a drop of 1/3.
b) The other stage is on the opposite side of the spectrum. The engine will idle perfectly, but the idle will lope in the other direction - between 750 and 1200rpm. This is where it gets weird. Again, it will only lope out of gear, but only while the car is moving. Once the car comes to a complete stop, it idles a straight 750rpm or so. Once this 'stage' occurs, gas mileage and performance returns to my normal 30mpg. The smell of an exhaust leak is non-existent during this stage.
3. What really surprises me is that when it is doing 2a, if I disconnect the battery for awhile to "reboot" the computer, the car will start doing 2b!!!
When I had the car in for inspection (Dec), the mechanic suggested starting with the mass air flow sensor. This sounds about right, because I'm thinking that the exhaust leak-type smell is from the car running too rich (not enough air). The only thing I'm worried about is spending $200 on this sensor, and come to find out that it's the computer itself. Parts such as this are non-refundable.
I guess the bottom line is: Why does the car run great after a reboot of the computer?
Thanks for any help! :notworthy
ps: It's in stage 2b right now. I'm going to keep a log of how many miles it takes to start acting up again. So far It's been close to 150 miles.
I'm having a weird car problem. I'm about to name this car Christine. It's possessed!
Car in question - 1997 Kia Sephia, 1.8L 5spd stick.
1. The check engine light doesn't stay on all of the time. It'll go off at times, even when the symptoms haven't changed.
2. There's two stages of it acting up:
a) When it's really acting up, the car does not like to idle at all. No matter what you're doing, whenever the car is not in gear, either by having the clutch engaged, or being out of gear altogether, the idle will lope between 100 (yes, 100! ) to 500rpm's. It gets so low sometimes that it will either die altogether, the lights will come on; like it's wanting to die, or it will "wake up startled" and jump up to 1200 rpm, then go back to 500 or less. When it's acting like this, once I reach my destination, shut the car off and get out, it smells like it has an exhaust leak - but there's no leak! Also when this is happening, I will only get 20mpg. The norm for my car is 30; a drop of 1/3.
b) The other stage is on the opposite side of the spectrum. The engine will idle perfectly, but the idle will lope in the other direction - between 750 and 1200rpm. This is where it gets weird. Again, it will only lope out of gear, but only while the car is moving. Once the car comes to a complete stop, it idles a straight 750rpm or so. Once this 'stage' occurs, gas mileage and performance returns to my normal 30mpg. The smell of an exhaust leak is non-existent during this stage.
3. What really surprises me is that when it is doing 2a, if I disconnect the battery for awhile to "reboot" the computer, the car will start doing 2b!!!
When I had the car in for inspection (Dec), the mechanic suggested starting with the mass air flow sensor. This sounds about right, because I'm thinking that the exhaust leak-type smell is from the car running too rich (not enough air). The only thing I'm worried about is spending $200 on this sensor, and come to find out that it's the computer itself. Parts such as this are non-refundable.
I guess the bottom line is: Why does the car run great after a reboot of the computer?
Thanks for any help! :notworthy
ps: It's in stage 2b right now. I'm going to keep a log of how many miles it takes to start acting up again. So far It's been close to 150 miles.
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