jowen7448

I'm guessing if it's cold enough to freeze the coolant you have bigger issues to worry about. As soon as engine is ticking over the coolant heating up would presumably be enough to keep it going right. Wonder if a similar trick keeps windscreen washer flowing. I remember a nightmare drive one christmas eve in my trusty old Citroen AX (non GT i'm afraid) where it was so cold on my 420 mile journey that I couldn't wash the screen. Had to pull over every 40 minutes to use snow to wash the screen with. Was a loong trip. When I got off the motorway visibility was so poor with dirty screen and headlights, snow and no street lighting that I couldn't actually see anywhere to be able to pull over to wash everything. Luckily at 11:30pm christmas eve I didn't see anyone once off M25. Edit: Funnily enough ECU issues were what made me scrap it in the end.

Aye that's the real kick in the nuts. On previous cars have always done throttle body clean as part of my servicing routine and never had a problem. Makes me wonder if I did do something and it does knock the confidence a little. Thanks for the words of encouragement Btw when I too mine off I was practically special needs with a spanner so the chances of you doing anything wrong are pretty slim to be fair. I'd love to know the purpose of the coolant lines to the TB though? Anyone shed any light. Much as I've been around for 5 years I've never really questioned it. Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk Yeah I had wondered myself. Wasn't expecting to get green hands when I took those hoses off. If you do find out let me know. Seen post above now. Ta

Aye thanks, and thanks again for coming round the other day. Will hopefully speak to Mark soon and see if we get further along, fingers crossed.

Aye that's the real kick in the nuts. On previous cars have always done throttle body clean as part of my servicing routine and never had a problem. Makes me wonder if I did do something and it does knock the confidence a little. Thanks for the words of encouragement

Cheers mate, obviously am a little gutted. Still a chance it could not be that i guess but we will see. It's money that could have been put to nicer use like alloy refurb or something, oh well, still time in the future.

Just in case anyone is still interested in this, or if someone in the future has a similar problem and stumbles across this thread an update: There was no improvements after rechecking everything etc again. Chatting to Mark @ Abbey he suggested a proper ECU reset by disconnecting. So unplugged the ECU and battery and left it like that for approx 17 hours (as a side note, if you have HR you don't need to remove any trim to do this, I think you might need to on DE or pre-facelift, so don't waste time like I did, on your back in passenger footwell all reachable). Reconnected it all today. Started it, seemed ok at first, so went for a drive to get some fuel and problems returned. Will be having a chat with Mark shortly about options now but it's looking like NATS/idle corruption. Thanks for everyone's comments and suggestions so far, I will post further updates as I get them and will make sure I post solution when I am solved.

Hi mate, thanks for the suggestion, I tried all the resets after having driven around for a few minutes to get everything nice and warm. But as I am currently at my wits end I will try again. Decided last night I had to forget about the car temporarily as it was driving me nuts. Tried bleeding the coolant again to see if that helped. Some air did come out so I am starting to lean towards a stubborn airlock being the cause of my issues. Heater air isn't cold but it doesn't feel mega toasty either (don't know if I'm clutching at straws). Got some other things to do at the moment like assembling some furniture but will probably strip everything down back to the point of throttle bodies off and put back together again (3rd time lucky hopefully) and see if anything improves. Well mystified and peeved at this. RS don't appear open today either (fair enough, bank holiday weekend) so will keep plugging away at it til they open again on Tuesday.

Well the mystery continues, have tried bleeding the coolant a couple of times to release any possible air locks. Massive thanks to SuperStu who came round and plugged me in to his laptop. No codes stored on ECU. Did a small amount of data logging. I have produced some graphs of the results so if anyone can shed any light on the information in them I don't know what I'm looking for. We both thought most things looked pretty normal. On the short run we didn't experience the surging idle that I have on video, still not got a way to get that off my phone yet but did experience some rather grim hot smell from the back, not helped by all trapping itself in the garage. Think I will concede for tonight and give RS a call in the morning unless anyone has any brain waves.

Hi mate, ta for offer. Think I found on opposite side, by battery. Black Phillips head screw at a tee in the pipe? Released, have also released the pressure cap by dipstick. Lost a little bit of toasty coolant from the bleeder screw as engine was still hotter than expected. Mopping up now hoping I haven't boiled anything

I haven't mate. Is this in the same location on both HR and DE. I see no bleed screw near brake fluid cover.

bah of course it's Good Friday so noone on the phones at RS. I suspect they are shut.

Will do this as soon as the engine bay has cooled back down a little having got up to temp for the Idle Air Learning Peddle dance

PM replied to thanks mate.

Thanks for the suggestion. I may try that. I am reasonably confident the MAFs are fine as I did these the day before taking the throttle bodies out and everything was fine in the interim period. But as that is a potentially cheap elimination I may stick up a post asking if anyone is nearby.

I will get in touch with ZMANALEX shortly. When you say no interaction with the cooling system I am now confused. This pic shows two hoses attached to the bottom of the throttle body. When I pulled these to get the throttle body out some liquid came out which smelled and looked like coolant. Should that not have been there? I appreciate that ancillaries change the load but to my own experience it has always been the case that they slightly increase the revs. In my case what happens is the revs drop by about 600-700 (definitely not a small wobble). A new strange symptom is that this also occurs if I turn the wheel (I know I know shouldn't dry steer but I'm trying anything and everything to narrow this down) I have taken a video which I will upload as soon as I can work out how to get it from my phone to my laptop. I have just unplugged battery, checked every hose and clip twice, checked the pins on the power to MAFs and throttle bodies, all seem present and straight. Even gave them a quick squirt of contact cleaner to make sure. Did the resets and bugger all difference. I am starting to reach my wits end. Never had so much trouble from some proactive maintenance. I think I might have to give someone in possibly more in the know a buzz. Wonder if RS tuning Leeds have the consult software as they are near to me.

Well I was listening out for any change in idle tone indicating something being sucked in as well as inspecting visually to see if I could see any signs of a leak. I am in for the night now but have made a note to recheck intake pipes and jubilee clips again, thanks.

No worries, keeping my fingers crossed.

Carb cleaner on throttle bodies with rag. Electrical contact cleaner on MAF.

Well the mystery deepens. I spent some time spraying around the hoses and throttle bodies and definitely can not find a leak. I tried all the resets again, and the whole flashy CEL to solid etc definitely goes through, and then when you start the engine the rpm tries to lower and settle down, but it is almost as if it gives up. Where the real mystery seems to be coming is with the following additional symptoms. After performing the Air Idle Learning and it decides to idle high, turning on the rear screen heater and the aircon makes the rpm drop and become more steady (I find this really bizarre as usually putting air con on increases rpm). The car also seems to become insanely hot in the engine bay, much hotter than when I park up after a spirited drive through Yorkshire on the way home where I'm normally enjoying the Yorkshire roads and would expect a bit of residual heat. I was wondering if it was possible that I might have introduced an air bubble into the cooling some how and this is causing issues? I really am stuck for what to try next. I'm guessing taking the misses to visit her family over the Easter break (530 mile round trip) is off the cards now. Appreciate any comments Edit: It also seems to be a little smokier out the back than I would expect. I am now starting to **** my pants a little. How can cleaning throttle bodies cause so much hassle!!!

I am intrigued as to what the difference is between the Accelerator Pedal Release Position Learning and the Throttle Valve Closed Position Learning is. It appears to me that on performing APRP you are also performing the 2 steps needed for TVCP. Also would it not be the case that TVCP takes place every time I turn the ignition off after a journey? This also makes me wonder about the need to perform both first in the Idle Air Learning. I am not disputing the information in the OP just intrigued and seeking clarification.

Hmmm, will go back out in a min and check the gaskets. MAFs should be all plugged in and fine etc. Gave these a clean the day before and she was running no issues. Up until about half an hour ago I was 100% sure that everything was fully unplugged before I touched a butterfly. I don't know if paranoia is now making me doubt myself somewhat. I'm still pretty sure that I didn't touch them. I keep getting the impression that the Idle Air Learning isn't taking for whatever reason. Which is annoying as it's a pain doing it manually a few times before it seems to work and then it doesn't actually solve the problem anyway.

Went over all the bits that were removed in getting the throttle bodies off, can't find any leaks, everything seems torqued up, tried the reset procedures again, no change in the outcome. I feel like I am being punished for trying to look after my car. Does any have any other suggestions. I read on the American forum that it's not always the case that the Idle Air learning takes. I am doing this via the peddle dance method rather than consult so I have no way of knowing whether it successfully completes or not I guess. It does the whole flashing CEL light then going solid etc. And when I then turn engine on the idle does initially drop before returning to crazy mode. Not a happy bunny right now.

Thanks for the suggestion, will have a coffee while the engine bay cools down a bit and then go out and have a nosey.

Thanks, so that would be somewhere between the MAF and throttle body on each side correct? Just trying to narrow down my search space.

Well what started as an idea to do a simple 20 minute job of cleaning the throttle bodies is slowly becoming more of a nightmare. Apart from being rock solid to get the damn things off in the first place (earlier thread here: http://www.350z-uk.com/topic/106885-advice-wanted-on-removing-throttle-bodies/) I succesfully got them off and went on my merry way. Short version of the story: Had unplugged ECU and power supply to them, took them off. Used a load of carb cleaner, gunk poured off, look much more shiny, butterflies didn't feel as sticky as when removed (note was unplugged and completely removed from the garage before touching buttefly), wiped off excess carby, let them dry, all back on, hoses connected plastics reattached bla bla bla, jobs a good un. Was late at night so left the peddle dance resetting til this morning. Well did peddle dances, got the flashy CEL etc to make me think it was all hunky dorey, idle seemed to settle back down after the Idle Air Volume learn, maybe a little high but wasn't massively worried. Great I thought, she sounds healthy. Gone to fill up with Shells finest and whilst stopped at light idle decides it has got a mind of it's own. Bobbing around from 1500 to 2000 in a pulsating manner. Every time the idle comes down before bobbing up again, at the bottom of the needle travel, it sounds like ****. Have tried the reset again, and as before it seems to settle down, until I actually go anywhere and then it goes a bit nuts again. The couple of mile trip in a circle netted me only 8 mpg average (the counter had reset itself due to battery disconnect) and whilst I know it was a short trip with a cool engine this seems particularly low. Especially since I was hardly motoring it and I have never seen it this low yet. (I reset the mpg average every time I fill up) Naturally I am livid with myself. Have I done something awful here? I know there is the possibility to corrupt the ECU but I thought this was only possible if one did not disconnect the battery, which I did. Is it a case of just trying the resets again until it seems to be ok? I have no CEL or anything. Anyone got any advice? Am I potentially causing damage? I am supposed to be partaking in a 280 mile trip tomorrow and am now more than a little concerned. Comments welcome.