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On the plugs, the first thing to do is change them anyway. Easy and cheap. Check your handbook and use exactly the plugs the book says. If your car has the Direct Ignition system (a red lid that plugs onto all four plugs at once) this is even more of a must. You could try a gap of 0.9mm (some people prefer 1.0).
Next thing is to look at NGK's web site, which has really good photos of plugs showing the results of different mixtures. If they are obviously damaged, really oily or fouled, or if the electrodes are eroded, you need to change them anyway. Good plugs will look exactly the same as good plugs in a non-turbo car. Weak mixture can sometimes result from a diurty or failing air intake temperature sensor (screws into the inlet tract shortly before the throttle body, cheap and easy to replace).
You could always get a garage to check your mixture and emissions to track down problems with other sensors, such as the O2 sensor(s) in the exhaust system.
To check if you're getting base boost only, it helps to know where on the gauge that is. This is easy if you have cruise control on your automatic. Set the cruise and let it take you up a gentle hill so the car wants to slow down but can't. Press the TIP button to disengage cruise, then Resume so the cruise tries to bring the car back up to speed. The needle should then go to the base boost position because cruise control only permits base boost. If the needle isn't about vertical - halfway up the yellow - you may want to check out hoses, wastegate and so forth bofore proceeding further.
OK - check out the hoses anyway, including the little ones to the charcoal canister in the RH wing of US cars.
Typically, an automatic in good condition will, under acceleration, take the needle up to the start of the stripy section on the gauge. A standard manual might go to the end of the stripes to the start of the red.
Another generalisation: I think an automatic should be able to hold the needle up there right through the rev range, without the boost tapering. If the boost tapers, make sure you have good fuel in the tank. If you normally use a low octane fuel, try a couple of tanks of better stuff and see if things improve. Then you can decide whether any improvement is worth the money.
If you have periodic hesitation - not necessarily under acceleration - plus boost taper, and you've checked the simple things like hoses and plugs, you might suspect the DI unit mentioned above. Try borrowing a known good one before springing for a replacement.
Cars will vary, and so will gauges. If you want more accurate readings, you cany buy a calibrated gauge and connect it to one of the spare nipples on the back of the inlet manifold. You can run the hose out of the bonnet shut, through the door seals and sit the gauge on the dash as a temporary measure.
The solenoid is the black pot with three small black hoses and an electrical connector mounted at the front of the engine compartment, behind the radiator. This board often calls it the BPC and a search for this will give you more information that you need. As with the DI, borrow a good one if you want to troubleshoot yours. New ones cost a couple of hundred dollars.
Finally, I suggest you buy the Haynes manual for the 9000, which is the nearest thing to a workshop manual you can keep in one of the seat-back pockets. You just have to forgive the fact that it (like me) is the product of the UK.
posted by 213.122.17...
, Wed, 13 Oct 2004 11:30:52
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