Thread: help me get vvl to activate correctly..

so i got the Intellitronix N3210 window switch to activate vvl, its got the digital display and all that good stuff, so i wired it correctly i believe, correct me if im wrong... i have the 2 brown wires connected with the red wire from the switch to my battery for a 12v power source, the other 2 wires from the solenoids are connected together with the blue wire on the switch which is the ground/negative side for activation, the black wire from the switch is grounded and i have the last wire which is gray tapped into the blue/black wire by the ecu for rpm signal.

now heres my issue as im driving i noticed that vvl doesnt always kick in, and when it does its choppy like itll activate at 4800, feels like it goes out at 5000, then at around 5800 itll come back and cut at 6800.. so then i decided to double check my wiring as the car was idling and i watch the rpms on the switch reading 900,800,900,2900... and then itll go to 7000 or something for a split second and back down to 900,800 ect.. another thing i also notice is when im cruising like at 3000-3500 itll sound like the cams are switching on and off at random.

any ideas?? the wire for the rpm signal wire was too short to reach into the car to be tapped by the ecu so i had another wire attached to it basically to extend it so it can reach.. just in case that could cause the issue.. thanks in advance:nightmare:

I have the same switch ,no problems whatsoever.I really like it for the price.
My guess is you have the wrong tach wire for RPM
I think its blue and black,but there are a few of them on the ecu,so make sure you get the right one.

I'm getting the signal off of the one closest to the driver side, cuz I found one on the pass side and it gave me no signal. Like I said I get rpm signal but its distorted it seems.. Last night I wired up a lil toggle switch and I got vvl to activate. Do you think there would be any interference where I extended the wire so it could reach into the engine bay or something?

To me, sounds like a wire is slightly loose and becomes more loose as you drive and get on it when stress is put on the unit due to the movement of the car. Let me ask you a question, if you are sitting idling, and rev the car, will VVL activate ALL the time properly?

I noticed one of my wires were loose and VVL would stop working (MSD window switch) on certain roads at certain speeds, it was the box moving around and a wire(s) making poor contact, especially going up hills since mine is installed in the bottom of the passenger floorboard. Gravity was doing it. I just tightened everything down and no more issues.

Nevermind after reading what eggman said..

Try to see if it can get rpm signal from the Coil - wire directly from distributor

If you have the N3210, what RPM did you set your deactivate point at? Ideally I'd want to set mine at say 5k on and 4.8k off but with the N3210 you can only set the "off" RPM point to be higher than the "on" RPM point. Did you pick, for example, 5k "on" and say 9k "off" - an unobtainable RPM point?

9900 off so it stays on over 5000,it goes back off under 5000 anyway.They stay engaged as long as you dont let the rpm fall off between shifts

The loose wire thing does seem like a possibility.. But I'm pretty sure they do have enough slack.. Last night I took it on a drive, all seemed well when vvl stopped activating all together, I look at the switch and its reading a constant 2900..

I originally had it wired by the ignition module threw the yellow/green wire, I thought maybe that was my issue but having it wired to the blue/black wire by the ecu still gives me the same issue.
Would it be the same color wire if I tapped into it on the coil? Or is there another way?

Yea I have it set to activate at 4900 and deactivate at 9900.

The loose wire thing really does seem possible because I currently have the wires just tied together since I keep getting bad signal I don't wanna make a permenant connection.. Maybe that's my issue.?

So I tried 2 other wires and got an rpm signal, but the same result.. It'll randomly go to 2900 and stay there for a bit and then bounch to 8000 or something and activate vvl at idle. I also tried reving it up while it was idling and it'll gradually rise like normal then jump to 2900 and stay there for a while.. Could bad ground to the switch have anything to do with it?