Engine keeps cutting out during idle. Continuous engine check light. Beams

Re:Engine keeps cutting out during idle. Continuous engine check light. Beams (Tree)

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 18:11:32 GMT

Update:
So I changed the throttle body with the correct throttle position sensor and it miraculously ran smooth :D There was one misfire and CEL flash at the beginning but smooth after that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_yox_2KndA&feature=youtu.be
Radiator wasn't getting warm so I tried bleeding the coolant. Seems my radiator (changed at start of the year to eBay special/MR2 turbo) doesn't have a proper bleed valve :/
Started car again and problem came back. Coolant should have nothing to do with this tho. At least we can rule out the timing problem right?

Re:Engine keeps cutting out during idle. Continuous engine check light. Beams (kameleon)

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 10:02:03 GMT

No wiring guys work at IDB....

Who did the wiring for you?

Re:Engine keeps cutting out during idle. Continuous engine check light. Beams (TRD2000)

Sat, 25 Aug 2012 08:39:54 GMT

hmmm splicing can be dubious... thye tried that on my timing signal wire and it didn't work so well... car would run ok for a little bit then start missing and end up missing and farting above idle and wouldn't rev... they respliced it 4 times ( 2 different shops) and never fixed it.... i ended up having to replace the whole wire....

Re:Engine keeps cutting out during idle. Continuous engine check light. Beams (Tree)

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 19:52:25 GMT

Update:

Checked PCV - ok
Checked all fuses
Unplugged Idle control valve sensor - still does the same thing, but at even lower idle. So ICVS working.
Tried reading codes but no errors came up
Noticed the throttle position sensor was wrong part number compared to Beams spec. Will look at this next.

My original body harness (with Gen 2 3SGE) was spliced with the Beams engine loom.
But failure to read codes at all is still pointing towards loose ECU connection I suppose.

I was about the clean the ICVS but there's quite a bit of plugs and hoses attached to it, plus the coolant hoses are connected so I pussied out lol. TB was clean when I opened up but I will sum up some courage to try tomorrow anyways while it's easily accessible.

Re:Engine keeps cutting out during idle. Continuous engine check light. Beams (TRD2000)

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 08:10:53 GMT

loose wire on the timing sensor :) (i dont know about beams but the older engines will idle without a timing input to the ECU then missfire and die when you try and build revs.)

probably loose on the plug that goes into the ECU and when you plug out/in its just luck if the wires in the right spot. a bit like when your headphones start cutting in and out and you have to get the cord just right till you decide its all too much and get new ones...

thats my GUESS.

check the wiring in the ECU plug and make sure its solid... hopefully its not a break in the wiring.

out of interest is it a new loom or your original one?

Re:Engine keeps cutting out during idle. Continuous engine check light. Beams (Tree)

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 00:14:36 GMT

Swapped another AFM to see if mine was faulty but still did the same thing so shouldn't be the AFM. I got to drive it around the block once with the working ECU. Short lived happiness.

Re:Engine keeps cutting out during idle. Continuous engine check light. Beams (purple5ive)

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:21:59 GMT

yeah constant flashing means everything is ok.
could there be a possible revision change between the ecu,s like the gen 2 turbos have and maybe thats what is causing the issue. just a thought.
ideally i would try and swap the ecu for the running one and see if the car drives properly along the rev range and test your one on the other car and see if it works well.

Re:Engine keeps cutting out during idle. Continuous engine check light. Beams (Mrskylighter)

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 17:32:13 GMT

Did you drive the car when it had the ecu that worked in it?
Has the AFM been tampered with?

Re:Engine keeps cutting out during idle. Continuous engine check light. Beams (Tree)

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 17:06:00 GMT

Auto elec said it runs AFM not MAF. If the wiring or ECU is faulty, the scanner will have trouble reading apparently. I think for me the simplest solution is to swap my ECU with the one that auto elec borrowed off his mate's and somehow magically worked. I mean if my one works on his then he's got nothing to lose?

Re:Engine keeps cutting out during idle. Continuous engine check light. Beams (Tree)

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 17:00:30 GMT

Well according to auto elec, when it's a continuous non stop flash it means engine has no faults I think, meaning ECU is telling us everything's okay so he said it was a bit weird engine was hunting. When he tried pulling out some plugs (idle control i think) it still wouldn't give us any fault codes.
That ECU in the video was from a Redtop Beams Celica, I tested with another Celica ECU and another Greytop ECU. They are all interchangeable.

Re:Engine keeps cutting out during idle. Continuous engine check light. Beams (purple5ive)

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:53:03 GMT

Id take it back to IAN as he has knowledge about these engines afaik, and is probably a safer bet than letting someone with no prior knowledge of the engine tinkerign with it. (not having a go at anyone )

just out of curiosity u mentioned an AFM, i was under the impression the beams didnt have one.
also are these obd2 engines, if so didnt a scanner pick up anythign at all?

also as skylighter mentioned, was the ecu part numbers the same, see if you can buy the ecu or swap it for your one off the mechanic even.

lets hope its a simple solution and ur up and running soon
cheers

Re:Engine keeps cutting out during idle. Continuous engine check light. Beams (Mrskylighter)

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:49:01 GMT

So no fault codes were displayed when you put it into diagnostic mode? (Check engine light flashes)
Was the part number on the ecu that worked the same as all the rest?

Re:Engine keeps cutting out during idle. Continuous engine check light. Beams (Tree)

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:38:05 GMT

It just doesn't make any sense that the borrowed ECU worked and 3 others didn't but the others worked fine on the other car...

Engine keeps cutting out during idle. Continuous engine check light. Beams (Tree)

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 16:34:26 GMT

That time has come again for me to request the help of this good community. Sorry if it's a long one...
Anyways I've had an engine swap from 2nd Gen 3SGE to a Greytop Beams and it has been wired up by a reputable auto elec. Fuel lines and coolant piping have been routed and secured properly by reputable mechanic. There are no vacuum leaks. Fuel filter was done last year.
Here's the problem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK6W322xhtE&feature=youtu.be
As you can see in the video the engine keeps cutting out at just above 1k rpm, right after the engine light comes on. Cycle continues. That video was taken after I changed spark plugs and added more 98 with a bit of fuel injection cleaner
Initially the mechanic thought it was maybe wiring issue or AFM so auto elec came down to test AFM. Problem is still there. What makes this really hard is that TWO diagnostic tools cannot communicate with the ECU. Auto elec then tried forcing fault codes intentionally to see if the ECU was doing it's job at all. Still no change. We then deduced it was maybe a faulty ECU.
Auto elec came around with a borrowed Beams ECU and like music to my ears, the engine idled smoothly. I then went and bought one for myself. Plugged it in and the problem came back!! What are the odds of having 2 faulty ECUs?? Luckily there was a fellow Beams owner that was local and had 2 spare Beams ECUs. Tried both but to no avail. I then wanted to see if my original Beams ECU was actually faulty or not so I tried it on his car. To my surprise, his car ran fine!!

I'm not sure what to look for next. I'll attempt a compression test on the weekend but I hear you need a warm engine to get accurate readings. With the car running like **** (extremely rich) I'm not sure how I could get it warm without damaging the internals (from thinning of oil?).
Worst case I guess I might have to take it to IDB (but I'm kinda broke right now T_T)