problems after charging...looking for ideas.

[bigbirdSCed]

hey guys...havent been on in a while. well the SC install on my coupe went well and ran well. after 3 days the car wouldnt stay in boost and would studder as i approached boost, like the motor was choaking. adam, king and i thought it was the tensioner because it felt kinda loose...actually just like the one i had taken off of the gen4 before the install. after we installed the new tensioner after the SC install, the belt was tight, very tight. 3 days later the car wont stay in boost and the belt felt much looser.

ordered a new one and just replaced it this weekend. and still no good. the car wont hit boost and studders the same way. durring the RE install i noticed the top surface of the belt was worn, had what looked like scuffs that were about a 1/4 inch apart and belt material around the tensioner. so thats 2 brand new tensioners installed and both seem not to work. this latesest one didnt even work after the install.

my tensioner on my old gen4 was jsut as tight as this ons and i didnt have these problems. i cant even pass cars and the car has trouble down shifting. also, its worse when the engine is cold, the colder the motor the less throttle i can give and slower engagement it can handle before studdering. my expewriance with tensioners is that when they go...they go completely, no tension at all, not get loose gradually over a very short period of time and then jsut stop getting loose.

i cant imagine that BOTH tensioners were bad before i installed them. what else do yall think it could be? i have a 190 fuel pump with was also workign perfectly after the install.

any help would be great, i can bearly drive this thing and dont want to ditch the charger over somthing so (seamingly) stupid.

thanks
bird

[hskrsolara]

sounds like a vaccum leak. my car was doing the exact same thing...had a hole that wasnt plugged on the bottom of the s/c. plugged it up and no problems!

[bigbirdSCed]

well i have no problems at idle too if that info helps.

also heresa couple vids i took of the tensioner and belt when i put pressure on it and ill make a vid of the studdering tomarrow when its light.

[bigbirdSCed]

wow...not a whole lot of activity round here anymore.

well updated...took the car to toyota and had a service friend help with diag. he says its not the tranny, TC, fuel system, or ignition system. we found a few small boost/vacume leaks, fixed a couplke with what he had but still have a few. small leaks at teh EGR block off, boost gauge port, and boost gauge. my question is could several small leaks cause this?

and i still cant tell if this problems is jsut teh tensioner which i think its the biggest part but cant understand haw ive gotten 2 bogus ones.

[Eye8Pussies]

have you been able to keep the actuator open to see if the problem is directly related to the supercharger, or if it occurs even without any boost, etc?

and I've been trying to wrack my brain, but it's very hard to say what it can be....I was going to say ignition related, but....I don't know....it's hard to say for certain without actually trouble shooting each system individually, and possibly independently.

glad to hear that it's not a tranny or TC problem though. but if it turns out that you need a TC, I've got 2 sitting around that I don't need.

[no_escape]

I know it's been said that it's not ignition related but are you running the right plugs?

[ASG14]

^ He's running OEM Platinum's right now. We're putting in IK22's the 1st week in Jan. But as of now it seems like a big part of the issue was vacuum leaks.

[no_escape]

Gotcha, Keep us informed of what happens or if you find anything new that fixes the problem.

Sounds like you have everything covered that could be the culprate.

[bigbirdSCed]

yeah im not sure the plugs are the issue, the ignition was reading fine, even at high revs.

king - i had removed the actuator, plugged the vac line and zip tied the bypas valve open(its hooked back up now). still had the same issue but less violent except when it was out of gear, it would rev easily with no change. now its hooked back up and does it out of gear when reving from lower rpms but if im higher like at 3K rpms. it wont surge, buck, ect. i was keeping an eye on both the gauge and actuator both and they seemed to be operating normaly when reved.

im so stuck on this damn tensioner issue because several experianced people here have said that the way it is, is too loose. they said it was loose on my gen4 and its exactly now like it was then. it ONLY ran correctly right after the install for thoes 3 days and the belt was tight. when it started running like crap, the belt was loose. AND the top of the belt, where it contacts the tensioner shows signs of heavy vibration.

im sendint the one we installed first to Dayco to see if they can give me any information on the failure or why i would install one already in such a condition.

[Eye8Pussies]

hmm....so it still seems to be load related then...


and to confirm the problem with the tensioner....take the supercharger belt assembly right off and drive around with the actuator open as well...then your car should respond EXACTLY as though it were stock (minus the acis of course) and if it runs perfect, then you know for a fact that it's the tensioner/belt.

something that is possible then, is to check the bearings/resistance of the alternator and the a/c compressor pulley. they may be seizing up (though, they would normally make noise first) and putting too much load on the tensioner


another option is also to try a longer belt to put less stress on the tensioner. But considering that a number of us have been fine with the exact setup, it's a bit of a noodle-scratcher

[bigbirdSCed]

actually i was expecting someone to ask about the resistance issue on the other pullies. they are fine, i checked them each...including the SC. so thats out.

i didnt think to try driving it without the assembly on, is the stock belt size the same as the SC size?

you remember how tight it was when we installed it, was that the correct tension? cuz its just like the tension on the gen4 with its busted tensioner. herb and i did loosen the alt a little incase it was causing to much tension on the tensioner in the first place. but when we installed the brand new tensioner on sunday it was loose and i cant see how, judging by how tight the tension was when you installed it, how loosening the alt a little would have made such a differance.

im in contact with the dayco people so maby they can shed some light on this problem. there is a chance i have just gotten 2 bad tensioners from 2 different vendors.

[Eye8Pussies]

well, if you take off the assembly and drive without it, you don't need to replace it with a belt. The only thing is that your battery won't be charging up. I don't recommend driving around without it, but just as a trouble-shooting idea

as for the tension....the tension was good when we first installed it on the gen3. how loose it was on the gen4 was not what you want for sure, so if its similar to that now on your gen3, that could be the cause. but by the same token, I'm not sure why that would effect anything out of boost though

[bigbirdSCed]

well it definatly is as loose or looser then the gen4. whats kind of odd is that it does this at low rpms under load, right around 7 vacume(not sure if its still considered psi). i just tried reving in park. if i rev hard starting over 3K rps it revs just fine, no problems and the acutator work fine. but under that it will do it.

i have a feeling its gettin looser too, it takes less thottle to get it to skip when the wheel is turned in gear(more load?) and its now dimming a little when wheel is turned or i shift out of park. thank god i still have the gen4 around, i dont think ill be able to get this fixed before it goes south.

im thinking part of that is that i loosened the alt and if i tighten it up ull put some more tension in it but it still wont be fixed. i also reason the activity out of boost to the fact that if the tensioner is vibrating enough its going to loosen teh belt enough to skip or slip, which would then loose tension enough to slow the rotation of the blades(wrong term) in the SC and thus throw off airflow. but thats jsut an educated guess.