P0171 and P1170 codes when at low RPMs or idle

[kev0]

Originally Posted by stockysnail

I may get my car back next week. I'll give an update once I get it back. It's been 3 months without a car which sucks. Good thing I have a motorcycle as my backup transportation.

Hopefully you find the root of this.

[stockysnail]

Picked up my car today.
-The largest issue, and the last issue identified after all of the below was fixed was the throttle seals in the supercharger elbow and valve, which are supposedly known to have a faulty design in the early models that wear out and leak. The elbow was shipped back to Sprintex and they replaced the parts and bearings in the valve area. Sprintex shipped my parts to the wrong state so there was a week delay.
-The gasket/seal around the supercharger to the intake manifold had leaks. They replaced it. This took over a week to get the part.
-There were a lot of vacuum leaks in hoses that were brittle and aging after 10 years and multiple track days which needed replacing.
-The MAF sensor I bought to try to fix the engine code from Autozone wasn't reading correctly so they put in a Denso branded one.
-There were a couple small leaks in the JDL exhaust headers that were welded back up.
-They replaced the 2 sensors before and after where the cat used to be that plug into the headers.
-I had them clean, service and replace all 8 fuel injectors/seals. This was another multiple week even in which they were sent the wrong tool to remove the injectors then the wrong seals as the injectors on the older BRZs were different than later ones so the place they got those tools/seals messed up. This was a few weeks of headache for everyone as well.

Sprintex originally said leaks in the valve/elbow is normal even when the shop sent them a video of all the smoke coming out of it at idle. Doesn't leak anymore with their new parts.

My shop called the tuner at one point and asked them about checking the tune. They said it's not their problem and not the tune. Makes sense since the engine/tune has been the same for 8 years, but they could have been nicer and more helpful.

Special thanks to the guys at Jon Bond that service superchargers like the Sprintex as they were very helpful to my shop in discovering the Sprintex elbow/valve/bearings issue and getting Sprintex to put the new parts into the elbow.

The car ran well on my drive home and it's weird how the car is much quieter with all the leaks from the exhaust and vacuum. Pulls harder than my recent memory remembered. Finally this bad dream is over and I have a car again after 3 months.

This crap makes me never want to buy another combustion engine car again. I think I'll keep the BRZ forever and when Lotus or another brand makes an electric sports car that's under $100k, then I'll pick one of those up. It's been tempting to put money down on an Emira, yes I know it's still ICE, but don't want to blow all my money on a monthly car payment when I have a house to pay off first.

[Boccaccio]

Glad the ordeal is over (knocking on wood), Stockysnail.

Thank you for the update.

I feel your pain and frustration.

My modified 86 (built engine + HKS SC) will be the last car where I'll touch/modify the engine/drivetrain. I don't have time for all the potential headaches.

Will probably switch to an Evora 430 or 981 GT4 and keep it "stock", I'm not going down the "tuning" rabbit-hole again.

[stockysnail]

Originally Posted by Boccaccio

Glad the ordeal is over (knocking on wood), Stockysnail.

Thank you for the update.

I feel your pain and frustration.

My modified 86 (built engine + HKS SC) will be the last car where I'll touch/modify the engine/drivetrain. I don't have time for all the potential headaches.

Will probably switch to an Evora 430 or 981 GT4 and keep it "stock", I'm not going down the "tuning" rabbit-hole again.

The Emira is looking pretty sweet, but I do prefer the look of the Evora's circular and more muscular rear end. I'm having a hard time not putting a preorder down for the Emira. Only thing stopping me is I don't have debt currently and don't want another car payment. If the used car market wasn't stupid right now, I probably would have bought an Evora GT or 400 already. Even the original Evora from 2011 and 2012 are selling for $50+ which is crazy considering they were about $30k back in 2019.

[Boccaccio]

I love the looks of the Emira, but I would never want to be a first adopter. Perhaps a japanese car or porsche, but never in my life a Lotus

Let's see how it matures and how much "newborn ailments" it will have.

Evora was always quite pricey here in Europe. Compared to the rest of the used car market (SUVs in particular and hot hatches --> it's normal for a Golf 8 R to cost 50K€+ here, insane) the Lotus line-up prices haven't inflated that much.

[stockysnail]

Got the P0171 code again. Cleared the code and drove around a couple days and attempted to take it threw DEQ but engine light came on while waiting in line. Cleared the code while in line but the guy asked if I had my battery replaced as there wasn't enough O2 and other data stored. I just said yes as I didn't want to explain anything. It was working fine for about 4 months. Guess I'm taking it back to the shop to have them go through it again...

[kev0]

Dang that sucks. I've been dealing with mine for over 2 years. Never found the root cause of it. I just told my tuner to disable the codes. Not the smartest move but engine has not grenaded yet nor do I have a loss of power ��*♂️

[stockysnail]

Got my car back today. This time only just over 2 weeks which was much better than months. This time the vacuum leak was in the superchargers coolant hose fitting on the back of the supercharger. The o-ring and seal worn out and was leaking air and a little coolant. Removing the supercharger intake manifold is expensive/labor intensive so this little stuff isn't cheap when it needs to be removed. Almost $1k in labor. Thankfully they said they won't charge for the parts. They also replaced the supercharger to manifold gasket again just so it was a new one instead of reusing the old one even though it was pretty new. Hopefully no more vacuum leaks for many years to come.

Car is at 91805 miles. Now to get new registration stickers now that I can pass emissions since no engine code.