Thread: craziest thing!

Like in the title, the craziest thing started happening to my car, with the engine running if I lift the hood and drop it the engine will stall? And with the filter off if I put my hand over the maf it will stall or shut off. Wtf any ideas. I have a b13 with a Gtir swap, maf, ecu, and injectors all from donor vehicle. Where should I start?

Drop hood: You might have loose wiring somewhere. Check ALL of your grounds and check the terminals on the battery. Might as well check that the ECU/harness connector is tight as well.

MAF: The MAF measures air flow. If you are cutting off the air flow by covering the opening, the engine will read that their is no air flow and will shut the engine off to protect itself. It probably shuts off when you completely cover the MAF and stalls or hiccups when you partially cover it.

Battery terminals are on good and tight as well and the grounds on thethe intake, maf is grounded. this is the harness complete from original Gtir, only splices are to install resistors. At the maf there is a small chip in the plastic, also when the engine is running the lights, and the clock all dim in relation to the idle, could my alternator be part of the problem.

Post up a picture of the MAF and where the damage is. Chip, or crack with a hole?

You could definitely have an alternator on the way out. It could also be battery related as well. Make sure the alt connections are good/clean, make sure the alt is tight and the belt is properly tensioned. Next, I would load test the alt and the battery. With the car running, measure the voltage at both and compare. Then try turning on some accessories like high beam, stereo, etc; then recheck the voltages.

It is also possible that you may have an idle control valve issue. How low is your idle dropping. You may be able to bump up your idle to a 'normal range' if it's falling too low. This may cure the dimming lights issue, depending.

Sure you're not shorting out the battery when you let the hood drop? If your terminals aren't covered the hood slamming down on the battery might be causing this. Shouldn't happen, but who knows what size battery you are using or what things you may have changed in regards to that

When the lights dim there is only a minimal drop in rpms (between 10 to 5o rpm or so), not shorting the battery, the insulation is still on the hood, and I don't have to completely let the hood slam, I can stop it before it hits and it will stumble (the engine) nearly every time? Wierd

Weird*

the maf is pretty sensitive to air pressure,

it should be able to sense the change in pressure when you slam the hood.

I've never had this happen to me, but I'm guessing your intake might be the difference.