Help!!! advice needed, error 34 and no ooomph!!!

[masterbateson]

Could the collected wisdom please have a ponder over the following.

Been out to see a car I want to buy today, however there was a problem on the test drive.

We went out and the owner gave it a brief drive and car boosted up well and flew along,engine sounded strong and nice and quiet, turbo whistling happily away and blow off valve working overtime.

Any way he pulled into a side road and handed over the reigns to me, pulled out onto a deristricted road and eased her up then once we were under way tried to give the old girl some beans!
But......
the car just seemed to drive like a N/A no kick in the pants, no boost just flat linear acceleration.
Kept my foot down thru 3k revs waiting for it to pick up and suddenly there was a sound like a detonation or a missfire, car spluttered a bit and was not happy.
Dropped it down a gear and tried to coax her back up and the car was hesitating and splutering, felt like a fueling problem or a missfire?

Anyway when we got the car back we shorted out the pins on the data plug and car reported back an error 34 code?

What do you experts think is the problem and the most likely culprit?
The seller has an ignition part arriving tomorrow as he thinks its that but i am not conviced its ignition related,neither does turbo tom on MR2OC.

Anyone had this prob before? any help would be greatfully received as i would really like to buy this car, but dont want to take on a major prob.
thanks in advance for any help.

[masterbateson]

And as i have already wondered about this, what on earth are
fcd, safc ??????


FCD= fuel cut off device? me think? yay or nay?

[Ryan S]

Code 34 is overboost. Walk away, it's madness to buy a car that can't go out on a 20 minute test drive man

Oh, safc is an air flow convertor or something like that, fcd is a fuel cut defencer. This bypasses the cars fuel cut so you can raise the boost past 12psi (rev1/2).

[Hez]

fcd = fuel cut defender, safc leans the fueling out i think some sort of piggyback device

[Hez]

also,the symptoms sound same as a boost hose popping off under boost, either way sounds like a bag of b0llox

[Ryan S]

either way sounds like a bag of b0llox

Have to agree, if it's throwing codes on a test drive then how will it behave once you own it? Move on, plenty more out there

[masterbateson]

Car is overall in good condition and is very promising, something tells me from the symptoms and how it runs normally that the engine and turbo is good.
It just seems like its a small niggly fault, seems like fueling/sensor ish.

I think i may have a punt on it, i know i prob shouldnt but the overall condition and recent works makes it a tempting purchase.
By that i mean new clutch,timing belt,starter motor and now ignition coil which seller has ordered as he thinks its an ignition problem.

There's just something about the car compared to the last 5 i have viewed that makes me think its been well looked after and is fundamentally solid.

I will sleep on it, you can all have a good laugh at me at least if i make a massive willy up with this one

[Ryan S]

Not at all man, i never even test drove my last one, the guy dropped it at my work and it was really busy, i just said bye as he drove off

[Hez]

[masterbateson]

See this old thread guys
http://imoc.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php? ... 5c4cb774c5

Symptoms were/are exactly like this and as i mentioned there is a moody looking superchip device which the seller says doesnt light up connected to the MAF??? or AFM if you like.

Take a look to the resolved prob on page 2 of above thread after rogue sport swapped the AFM.

[Peter Gidden]

Not quite sure what we're all doing trying to solve a problem on some randon non-members car , but what happened when the ECU was reset?

Any ebay-esque box of tricks tie-wrapped to the AFM is a waste of time.

[masterbateson]

Well the main Idea Peter is to decide whether i can safely buy this car despite the problem, by determining if its likely to be something minor.

As such at the moment, the fact that it played up under test drive makes it a usefull bargaining chip for me.

But of course i dont want to be buying a pup/ bag of spanners.

By the way, you are quite right, I am a bit Random.

[masterbateson]

Waste gate actuator problem also poss suspect?

[Peter Gidden]

Well the main Idea Peter is to decide whether i can safely buy this car despite the problem, by determining if its likely to be something minor.

As such at the moment, the fact that it played up under test drive makes it a usefull bargaining chip for me.

But of course i dont want to be buying a pup/ bag of spanners.

By the way, you are quite right, I am a bit Random.

So what happened when the ECU was reset?

[masterbateson]

not done it tried it yet, i am going back to the seller tomoro after i have finished working in peterborough.

He is hoping his ignition coil will have arrived and be fitted before i go back.

Not sure if i should maybe reveal what may be an ace up my sleeve re resetting the ECU?

But on the other hand, if we do that tomorrow, at least i will have piece of mind in buying the car, before i part with my hard earned money.

Car is decatted too if thats of any relevance.

[Peter Gidden]

Not sure if i should maybe reveal what may be an ace up my sleeve re resetting the ECU?

Nice!

[Ryan S]

What Peter is trying to get at is: is the code coming back once the ecu is reset, resetting the ecu will by no means fix the problem but simply tell you if a problem exists. Or tell you what problem exists.

[masterbateson]

I'd say its no worse than the seller advertising his car for sale, but not mentioning in his Ad that the car is currently got a running problem.

[thomp1983]

34's a tedious code as it could be a number of things. Id find it unlikely the sellers let you test drive it knowing theres an issue, they'd be more likely to do all the driving and mask the issue.

As for the issue some options are, some decats can foul the wastegate, if there's a boost controller fitted it may have been setup during warmer times and now it's cold and the air is more dense it's upsetting it. A guess and hope thread on here is definitely not the way to start diagnosing the fault.

Ultimately with regards the purchase would you accept a potential £6-700 bill for a turbo or another engine if it was a big issue? It's a gamble the same as any car you can only assess the cars history and your feel of the seller and accept it's an old sports car so it will want money spending regardless

[2mad]

Yep this ^^ .. how much boost is the car running .. is boost stable (is it spiking or creeping) ... fit a fcd like i did end of problem 15psi max on rev1/2 ..

Hitting fuel cut (its actually spark cut ) is very violent .. its just the ecu trying to save the engine .. not a problem and a good sign the car has not be ragged on 1.2bar boost using a fcd


Another way to fix this is to unplug or remove the vac hose and cap off the map sensor .. keep an eye on your boost gauge because this removes fuel cut, boost no more than 1.0bar (15psi ish)