did i just imagine this?

[krillin]

ok, i was driving with my girlfriend and cousin to video store. we're just driving on an empty stretch; i'm in 3rd gear and i decide to punch it. when i did, i looked down at my boost gauge. i'm expecting the boost to hit 8.5lbs (low boost setting). i saw the needle move up quick PAST 10 all the way to 20 on my defi. i got scared and let off the throttle. did i imagine this happening? is it possible that it happened? it was only for a split second though. i'm assuming that something bad woulda happened right there but nothing did. i'm about 60% sure i saw it hit 20psi but now i can't recall. i turned my boost controller off (greddy profec b) and tried again. i just hit 5-6psi stock. then i turned it back on and just hit my normal 8-8.5psi. does any of this make any sense? thanks.

[SpicyMchaggis]

Well there are a few easy ways to figure this out.

1.) Did it feel like 20psi?

2.) Did your MSP catch fire?

3.) Were you smoking dust?

[Super Matty P]

I would double check all of your connections on the profec. Make sure there are no leaks. spiking is an unfortunate side effect of a turbo...gotta monitor those closely if you plan on adjusting the boost.

[krillin]

1. it happened so quick that all i remember doing was just letting off the throttle right when i saw it go past 10psi. by the time i let my brain told my foot to let off the throttle the needle was already pointing at 20.
2. no
3. no

[krillin]

I would double check all of your connections on the profec. Make sure there are no leaks. spiking is an unfortunate side effect of a turbo...gotta monitor those closely if you plan on adjusting the boost.

yeah, i've always experienced the spiking with my joep mbc which is the reason why i switched over to the profec b. i would spike rarely and when i did it was nothing more than 1-2psi.

i tried to reproduce the spiking but it didn't do it when i was on my way home from the video store.

[Super Matty P]

do NOT try to reproduce spiking!! hahaha, thats not smart!

[FSDET]

i think its just the gauge. i have an electronic greddy guage and it spiked to 1.0-1.2 bars a couple of times just fo split seconds but it sure didnt feel like 1 bar(14.28psi).
i think if it really had spiked that much u would have felt it for sure

[Dr.Sound]

yea louie, when i installed my MBC the wrong way on my orange car, the needle jumped to 15 psi for 1 second, but the car felt like a jet and the turkey was insane.

[kwiktsi]

i think its just the gauge. i have an electronic greddy guage and it spiked to 1.0-1.2 bars a couple of times just fo split seconds but it sure didnt feel like 1 bar(14.28psi).
i think if it really had spiked that much u would have felt it for sure

It's not the gauge. This has been beaten to death repeatedly. People want to blame an MBC, gauge, etc. It is just the nature of having such a small, fast spooling turbo coupled with a 9+:1 compression motor and trying to run low boost. The stock setup allows for fairly slow spool considering and it won't spike much because of that. If you do anything to increase boost, typically spool is increased with it and spiking can and will occur. Now, there are ways around it- I believe TurfBurn offers a spool/spike control which actually slows the spool down a bit, but I have no experience with it. There are better EBC's out there that allow for a spool or "response" control that you can use to turn the spool down- on me Blitz DSBC, I had to turn the spool almost all the way down, and I would still get spikes occassionally. Another way to try to avoid it is to downshift and keep the R's up and load down, but that is just driving style and preference.
Joe

[MSP #167]

ok, i was driving with my girlfriend and cousin to video store. we're just driving on an empty stretch; i'm in 3rd gear and i decide to punch it. when i did, i looked down at my boost gauge. i'm expecting the boost to hit 8.5lbs (low boost setting). i saw the needle move up quick PAST 10 all the way to 20 on my defi. i got scared and let off the throttle. did i imagine this happening? is it possible that it happened? it was only for a split second though. i'm assuming that something bad woulda happened right there but nothing did. i'm about 60% sure i saw it hit 20psi but now i can't recall. i turned my boost controller off (greddy profec b) and tried again. i just hit 5-6psi stock. then i turned it back on and just hit my normal 8-8.5psi. does any of this make any sense? thanks.

I have the same ebc as you....mine has spiked really high every once in a while. Its very weird. But i have my limiter set at like 11 psi and it cuts boost down 90% if it hits 11 so it won't be that high for longer than a spike.

But overall my car stays exactly at 10 psi and spikes to maybe 10.2.

[daedalus]

yea with the profec, as long as you have the limiter set, it should kill any spike. Mine is gonna be set at 99% for anything about 13psi, maybe more depending on how crazy i get.

[krillin]

when you guys say "limiter" you guys are referring to the balance knob, right? i have it set all the way up (clockwise). this has never ever happened to me before. today i was driving to universal studios with my gf and cousin. i was in 4th gear and just slowly gave it gas. it went past 10psi and continued to 15 when i just let go of the throttle. i stopped at a gas station to fill up and also reset the 'lo' and 'hi' knobs all the way down and started over. they're set again (7.5-8 for lo/8.75-9.5 for hi). seems to be working fine, but i haven't tested it enough to feel comfortable with it. what i don't get is why it just started happening out of the blue. i've had this boost controller for about a year already with no probs.

[mspdfreak]

I can hear it now..."My motor popped and the dealer won't cover it!"
"I'm gonna sue mazda...those bastards!"

[krillin]

why would i sue mazda?

=====================

ok, i went to return a dvd tonite. it did it again but this time in 2nd gear. just gave half throttle and it went to 15. i not convinced that it's a spike either, but i didn't want to stay on the throttle to find out. i turned off my boost controller all together so normally my boost would sometimes spike to maybe 8-9 then just settle at 5. but it also went up to 15 in 2nd gear. what's going on here? anyone else have any other thoughts? i've been driving with my current setup for a while now. the only thing i changed was my shift knob which was this past week. :P

[krillin]

i went to pepboys and bought some vacuum hose and metal clamps. i'm gonna try replacing the stock hoses tonite.

anyway, let's say that i replace the hoses including the one that connects to the actuator/wastegate. if i still experience this problem, is it safe to assume that it is the actuator itself and nothing else?

my car is still under warranty. i want to bring it in for them to check it, but what exactly am i supposed to tell them? is there any reason they would be able to blame the problem based on my mods? thanks everyone.

[MSP #167]

i went to pepboys and bought some vacuum hose and metal clamps. i'm gonna try replacing the stock hoses tonite.

anyway, let's say that i replace the hoses including the one that connects to the actuator/wastegate. if i still experience this problem, is it safe to assume that it is the actuator itself and nothing else?

my car is still under warranty. i want to bring it in for them to check it, but what exactly am i supposed to tell them? is there any reason they would be able to blame the problem based on my mods? thanks everyone.

whatever mods you have, take them off....you could have a stuck wastegate maybe...i dunno exactly how this stuff works.

But if you are taking it in, remove everything.

Also for a reason tell them you are bringing it in because the car all of a sudden feels much more powerful and you think something is wrong with the turbo and you don't want to break anything.

[Dr.Sound]

lmao

hey louie, brent stoleD your engine at night and repplaced it with his evo's.

[krillin]

ok, i just replaced the wastegate actuator hose and it's still doing the same thing. i also noticed that the turkey sounds a little different from before. still high pitched and longer too. i'm gonna start putting my car back to stock i suppose and probably just leave it that way.

[Dr.Sound]

damn louie....
maybe something's up with EBC?
try taking it off and see if it will do the same thing.

[krillin]

vic, i disconnected the EBC and i get the same thing. the turkey sounds different too.

[uclap5]

"...These go to eleven. "

[joka1]

did you look at your highest boost level on the ebc? mine on my profec b is 26.2......... once i saw that on the guage i backed off instantly but all i have to do is go through the modes on the ebc and like the 4th one is highest boost level.............

[Crock]

my car is still under warranty. i want to bring it in for them to check it, but what exactly am i supposed to tell them? is there any reason they would be able to blame the problem based on my mods? thanks everyone.

It depends on the dealer. Some will see a boost gauge and controller and say you're out of luck. Other dealers will actually look to find the cause of the problem and if it is not from your mods, they will fix it. The service dept. at my dealer actually encurages performance modifications and will not void the warranty with the exception of the mod causing the problem. Then only that part of the warranty is void.

Good luck.

[Dr.Sound]

louie,
take the gauge out and put a pass-through adaptor in its place......like the one we did on your MBC....remember?

maybe it's the gauge that causes the leak......

[noclue119]

ok, i just replaced the wastegate actuator hose and it's still doing the same thing. i also noticed that the turkey sounds a little different from before. still high pitched and longer too. i'm gonna start putting my car back to stock i suppose and probably just leave it that way.

yo ask ^tyrant^ he had his spike to 15 psi for a little while. then after that he had it hold at 15 psi which was bad. he took it in for warrenty work and i think they replaced his entire turbo.. Ask him.

[krillin]

well, the dealer that's cloesest to me has never mentioned anything about my mods. i'm sure they've seen them too.

when the plastic piece broke off my stock intercooler pipe they (a diff dealer) said it was my CAI that caused it because they said it was pushing up against the nipple. the intercooler pipe was replaced under warranty anyway.

my friend also told me that i should remove all my bolt ons (fmic, cai, dp). it's going to be so troublesome. sigh...

what causes the wastegate actuator to go bad in the first place? can the dealer blame those mods?

[Dr.Sound]

overboosting......
or it might have been bad since the beginning, but only really got forked up now.

[noclue119]

well mine wastegate actuator had a hole in it and it started to whistle under no boost. It actually started to cause underboost. But you can get the actuator to get too stiff that it does not open and it will cause over boost.

[Dr.Sound]

can u clean the actuator?

[noclue119]

can u clean the actuator?

not that i know of. the dealer had to replace the entire turbo for me to fix my problem. i dunno

[krillin]

i was just searching through old threads when it made me think of weird things that have happened in the last 6 months. i rememberd a high pitched whistle that i could hear at a certain RPM range that would go away as the RPM's got higher (i think i still have this, i don't really pay attention anymore). i also experienced a rough idle where it seemed my car was going to stall but it didn't, but almost did. this has only happened a few times though (at night i think).

[Dr.Sound]

idle is the plugs....i get that sometimes

[krillin]

yeah this is something i got a while ago. i switched my plugs a couple of weeks ago and hasn't seemed to happen yet.

does anyone know what would cause the turkey to sound slower? that's something i noticed when i was driving sometimes. instead of a quick, high pitched turkey sound i'd get a slower, high turkey sound.
kinda like when you press down on the throttle and slowly released it. when i did that i'd get the turkey sound (slower). that's kind of what it sounds like sometimes when i would be shifting.

sorry for all the dumb questions. :-(

[krillin]

ok, i took my fmic, cai, catless midpipe off last night. i drove it and the boost was still creeping up towards 10, but i didn't see if it would go above that.

this afternoon i started the car and checked underneath and noticed that there was quite a bit of air leaking between the 2 flanges (stock midpipe and catback). i had an extra gasket lying around and put that in. i drove the car today while running errands and drove WOT a few times. the car didn't boost above the normal 7-7.5psi. it seems to be driving normal.

can the leak in the exhaust be the cause of my boost going up all the way to 15+psi? i was convinced that it was the wastegate/actuator for sure this whole time and now i'm not sure anymore. i'm very very tempted to putting my mods back on now but i don't feel like spending another 8+ hours to do it. sigh...

any ideas people? thanks a bunch.

[Dr.Sound]

lmao
damn louie, this sux.
i hope that was it.

never heard of an exhaust leak being a cause of overboosting.......

[krillin]

i went for another drive again. my boost went to 10-11psi and that's when i let off. the overboosting doesn't happen all the time (like 1/5). so what happens if the dealer can't reproduce the problem?

my car feels so slow now, but it feels smoother. :P

[krillin]

i went to the dealer today to get my car checked out. they ran some diagnostics and didn't find any "codes". they said that my "aftermarket gauge" was defective (defi boost gauge), and that my car was working perfectly. i then asked him if they checked the wastegate at all. they told me that if it were the wastegate that i'd be boosting lower and not higher. ???

the service rep also told me that even if something was wrong with the wastegate that i'd get a CEL and that the car is sophisticated enough to prevent anything bad from happening. (dunno) i asked him what would happen if i took his word for it and my engine ended blowing up in the future. he told me that i had 8k miles left in my warranty and gave me a stupid grin.

i was kinda disappointed that they didn't even bother to do some sort of pressurized test on the wastegate. to make things worse whoever drove my car was messing with my b&m shift knob and twisted it. i couldn't tighten it straight anymore; it would stay loose. i complained with the service manager and he said that i shouldn't have bought a cheap shift knob, but ended up telling me to buy a new one and he'd reimbuirse me.

i washed my car just a few hours ago and noticed that there was a scuff on the front bumper. looked like it was bumped. i'm thinking that it could've been at the dealer because i didn't see it 2 days ago and i park in a garage.

i didn't really have a good day. i'm thinking of just forgetting it completely and just driving my car the way it is (stock) for the rest of the time i own it. i don't think i can convince the dealer(s) to fix the car unless i blow the engine before my warranty runs out. :P

[Dr.Sound]

sux
defi makes some of the best gauges arround.
plus u do feel like the car is more powerfull when it overboosts.

maybe drive to SD and have Chris at SPD check it out??

[krillin]

i pm'd chris. still waiting for his reply. the car does feel like it pulls harder but it could just be my imagination. i'm gonna pick up a cheap autometer gauge just to be sure.

[pb4ugoout]

subscribing to see what develops

[krillin]

ok. i was gonna bring my car to a shop in san diego to get my wastegate checked this friday, but just to be sure i tried contacting another dealership. this dealership is the one i originally purchased my car from. i spoke to someone on the phone and she was very nice and just told me to come in early today at my own convenience. i went in this morning at 9am and told them the problems i was having and how the dealership i went to a couple of weeks ago wouldn't even do a simple pressure test on the wastegate OR take a test drive with me. they were surprised with the crappy service i got and asked me if i wanted to take a drive with one of their techs. we went on the test drive but my car wasn't overboosting at all, although it was doing so on the way to the dealer.

anyway, i was telling the technician my story in the car and he immediately understood what the problem was. he knew right away about the wastegate issue. he said that quite a few people were coming in for "turbo problems". he seemed to know a lot about the problems on our cars and said he'd check it out, and most likely order a new turbo. they asked me to leave my car for a few days.

what was also really cool was that the technician asked me if there was anything else on the car that i wanted looked at since they were keeping it for a few days anyway. i told him about my front suspension squeek and he agreed to check the front AND rear suspension bushings which i thought was really nice. my kenwood has flipped out 3 times since i had it replaced but i didn't know if i should ask them to check that too. i didn't want to take advantage of them because they've been so nice thus far.

they gave me a car rental. i waited 45 min for them to get me a car because they didn't have any "small" cars available and were waiting for someone to deliver one. the enterprise girl tried to get me in a rx-8 for 20 bucks extra a day, but i declined. i waited for so long that she ended up lowering the price from $20 to $15 to $10. i agreed on 10 bucks a day. as i was about to sign my name i saw a mazda6 pull up. i was asking her how much she'd charge me for that. she said that i seemed like a really nice guy so she'd give it to me for no extra charge. so i just decided to go with that. i really didn't feel like paying to rent a car for a week. but anyway, that's my adventure for the day. :P

i'm supposed to be getting a phone call tomorrow so i'll keep you guys posted as to what goes on with my car. sorry for the long reply. it's been a long morning. i hope everything goes well. (nervous)

[Dr.Sound]

sweet!
keep us updated.

[DonSVO]

if you want to try a fix for the boost spike, remove your turbo and port the flapper door hole for the wastegate in the exhaust housing. opening this up will allow the wastegate to expel exhaust gases faster and reduce the likelihood of boost spike.

[krillin]

^^
i don't think the dealer will do that for me. thx fer the input though.

[Crock]

It sounds liike this dealer is treating you much better than the first one. Some places love to just jerk someone around. I'm anxious to see what actually happens with this.

[krillin]

I called the dealer just minutes ago to get a followup. They received my new turbo today and are planning on getting it done by monday or tuesday or next week. Cool! Can't wait get get my car back. :)

[krillin]

I got a call from the dealer today. They told me that my overboost problem was "definitely due to a bad turbo". They phoned the mazda tech line and they gave them the go ahead to replace it. They finished it today along with replacing my front bushings. I'm going to pick it up tomorrow. I can't wait. :)

[MSP #167]

nice!!!

[Dr.Sound]

awesome

ask them if u can keep the old turbo ;)

[krillin]

well, i managed to put my stuff back on my car. i put my greddy profec b back in and for some reason it doesn't want to boost past 5-7; no matter where i adjust the knobs. i'm pretty sure i connected the hoses correctly and didn't notice any ripes or holes in them either. you guys think my ebc if b0rken? oh btw, my gauge reads boost exactly the same whether my controller is on or not. i also noticed that since they gave me this new turbo that i've never seen it spike past 7psi at all, and the turbo itself looked a little different. hmm...funny how i was experiencing overboost initially and now i can't seem to get enough of it. :P

[MSP #167]

what does the turbo look like? Can you get some pictures?

[krillin]

well, when i think about it i dont think the turbo is different. it just looks like some lines were routed a little differently. i just noticed that i had the hardest time tightening the clamps on the turbo inlet for my injen because it seemed i had less room to work with. i never had that problem before. oh well.