Thread: Reliability of tune, regarding IATS?

I was reading the March issue of SCC, and while just flipping thru it, something slapped me in the face like a whore that didn't get paid...

What are the possibilities of my tune being piss poor, due to the fact that my intake air temp sensor is still hanging in the stock airbox well, considering I'm now turbocharged? What are the effects/consequences of this sensor just hanging out? Technically, it could very well be WAY off, compared to the actual air charge slamming the combustion chambers...

Thoughts? My thought process is that "Oh CHIT!", considering the ambient temperature could very well be plus or minus 10 or so degrees. Not only that, but even though it's placed in that hole just hanging out, it could still very well be reading temps from the engine bay, instead of the actual air charge.

Say it reads hotter than the charge, would this richen my mixture? If colder than the charge, it would lean it? Or does the intake sensor have nothing to do with this function of the ECU?

Thanks guys.

I remember reading somewhere that the IAT sensors on our cars are pretty crude and didn't do much. I could see it causing issues on newer cars with more sophisticated sensors. Was SCC talking about a particular car?

It's definitely worth looking into. I'll see if I can find what I'm thinking of.

Found it:

http://www.sr20forum.com/sr20de-technical-corner/150778-intake-air-temp-sensor.html

Found it in the FSM too:

well there you go. Hmmmm.

Pretty much like the CPS then on B14's in the sense that it is only used for diagnostics.

If you have tuned using a wideband than you've already accounted for any ECU mistakes like that.

Edit: Oh, I guess nvm haha

Thanks, Swiss! Swiss sighting, Chriscar sighting, what's next?!

Sounds like a worthless sensor, then, if it's only going to throw a code, and do nothing else. Hell I could just put a resistor in the connector, if that's the case.

Reason I asked, was because I saw what they did with the project Focus SVT, in that they mounted the IATS to the intercooler piping. Didn't really read into it too much, but figured it was worth the question.