Cobb accessport, safer? more dangerous?

[djuosnteisn]

I think we'd all like to read that...I know my car is doing some knocking stock and I'd like to get a handle on why before I do anything else with it.

knock can be caused by several things, independent of whether or not your hitting a load cap issue.

Part throttle knock is common on our platform, usually seen when pulling away from a stop. And some people will see lil episodes of knock while just cruising along. At part throttle and light loads though, this knock isn't really an issue and doesn't pose much of a threat.

Wide open throttle knock on the other hand can be very dangerous. Not sure if your running higher boost, or what mods you have, but you need to keep an eye on things like boosted air temps and afr's. If you have the ability to tune, you could always try pulling a lil bit of timing or lowering the requested loads slightly.

 

[keymaster]

I'm stock except for the Denso ITV22s I put in. I actually have a datalog plot to put up where I hit knock under load on the freeway (doing ~65 in 6th, give it some gas especially when going uphill, knock), it went up to about 8 on the sensor. I also see knock when I'm pulling on hard runs, but that's much lower and only hits right when I shift and only in the higher gears (and I don't feel/notice it). Always was like this even before the plugs.

It's the knock on the freeway that I can hear and feel that makes me worry just a little bit...when it feels like the ABS or traction control is stuttering but it's knock it's not a great feeling...

 

[Jonesy32]

I have a 2006 spd6 with only the MSCAI, everything else is bone stock. I have put 93 octane in it for the life of the car and have had three reflashes done from the factory.

My biggest issue is what you were describing in the last post. About 90% of the time when I am accelerating hard as soon as I shift into third gear the motor completely dies for about 1 second (almost like complete power shut-off but it even happens when I disable traction control).
After that second, the motor pulls again but the check engine light comes on. After two days the light goes off again. When this happened the first time I took it to the dealership and they said they replaced the EGR valve due to fault code F0008XDX. This was back in November 2009 and it still does the same thing to this day (i am actually due to go back in for service so I will bring it up to them again).

So basically, I am interested in getting either the Hypertech or Cobb AP so I can get more power down but I am hesitant to do this for fear of blowing my motor because of the problem stated above. Do either the Hypertech or Cobb AP take care of this issue?

Oh and I should note that when highway driving in 6th, whenever I floor the throttle the car bucks and sputters for about 2 seconds then picks up. I am wondering if maybe I have a vacuum leak in the stock BOV?

Sorry for all the rambling but I am getting frustrated at how finicky these speed6's are.

 

[coyfish]

Jonesy I would fix your problem before you get an AP. The AP can be the end of your warranty if you have it. All you have is a mscai so the problem is most likely some fault with your car. Do you have the air straightener for your intake??

Also you should never floor in 6th gear. Thats a really easy way to bend a rod. I never go WOT from a roll unless im at least pushing 3500 rpm. I never really accelerate in 6th gear unless its very gradual (under 1-2 lbs of boost)

IF I were in your shoes I would thoroughly check all your lines to make sure everything is tight / leak free. If that is to no avail then I would buy a dashhawk and do some logs / monitor whats going on. That should help you. And you can also read the CEL when it comes on.

 

[Blendercloud]

I have a 2006 spd6 with only the MSCAI, everything else is bone stock. I have put 93 octane in it for the life of the car and have had three reflashes done from the factory.

My biggest issue is what you were describing in the last post. About 90% of the time when I am accelerating hard as soon as I shift into third gear the motor completely dies for about 1 second (almost like complete power shut-off but it even happens when I disable traction control).
After that second, the motor pulls again but the check engine light comes on. After two days the light goes off again. When this happened the first time I took it to the dealership and they said they replaced the EGR valve due to fault code F0008XDX. This was back in November 2009 and it still does the same thing to this day (i am actually due to go back in for service so I will bring it up to them again).

So basically, I am interested in getting either the Hypertech or Cobb AP so I can get more power down but I am hesitant to do this for fear of blowing my motor because of the problem stated above. Do either the Hypertech or Cobb AP take care of this issue?

Oh and I should note that when highway driving in 6th, whenever I floor the throttle the car bucks and sputters for about 2 seconds then picks up. I am wondering if maybe I have a vacuum leak in the stock BOV?

Sorry for all the rambling but I am getting frustrated at how finicky these speed6's are.

I agree with coyfish about one thing, definitely figure out what's going on with your car before doing any aftermarket tuning. You stand a better chance to further complicate the issues you're having (as well as create new ones) than you do fixing any issues with an AP.

As for never flooring in 6th gear or never accelerating hard under 3500 revs, I couldn't disagree more. Those two recommendations are based on a very small sample of occurrences and haven't been truly validated. They are myths accompanied by theories and speculation and shouldn't be treated as fact.

Bottom line, drive your car how you want. If you bought the car as your AWD daily driver because you couldn't stomach the price of an Audi or BMW, then drive it like it's your daily driver. If you bought the car as your weekend warrior, drive it like it's your weekend warrior. If you do that, even when you break something (and you will, because all cars break eventually) you'll not have ownership regrets because you'll have taken full advantage of the car relative to your expectations to that point. If you spend the time you own and drive this car (or any car for that matter) in fear that you're going to break something, you'll hate every minute of it.

 

[keymaster]

Oh and I should note that when highway driving in 6th, whenever I floor the throttle the car bucks and sputters for about 2 seconds then picks up. I am wondering if maybe I have a vacuum leak in the stock BOV?

No, you're probably knocking, that is exactly how I would describe what happens with my car. And, I don't floor it when this happens, I just give it a little gas, but it acts as if I did mash the throttle. It makes me think that the throttle is more sensitive at that point for some reason.

The attached picture shows what it looks like in a Dashhawk log...you can see that the boost went way up even though the RPMs didn't change at all, and I definitely wasn't hitting it when I did this. It would be nice to understand why this happens, whenever I find some time I may try datalogging this some more and see if I can make some sense of it.

 

[tunersteve]

Jonesy I would fix your problem before you get an AP. The AP can be the end of your warranty if you have it. All you have is a mscai so the problem is most likely some fault with your car. Do you have the air straightener for your intake??

The MS6 MS CAI does not require an air straightener. That only works on the MS3 model. You can jury-rig it in there, but it won't do anything.

 

[Jonesy32]

Thanks everyone for the feedback and no, I don't have an air straightener for the MSCAI.

I have had a lot of issues with my car over the past 3 years but I have mostly chaulked it up to me being a little too anal when it comes to my car. For instance, at around 8000 miles I heard a whining sound coming from the drivetrain but ONLY at 45mph, not above, not below. It would do it even if I took it out of gear and coasted, as soon as I hit 45 you would hear it. The dealership ended up replacing my rear diff under warranty. I am now at 20,000 miles and it is starting to make that noise again.

At about 10,000 miles I went through a BK drive thru and noticed smoke all around me after idling for a few minutes. I thought to myself, "what jack@#$'s car is smoking, it stinks!" Then I noticed it was coming from me! Grey smoke from the exhaust and it smelt like buring oil, once I pulled out onto the road and gave it gas, the smoke disappeared and didn't come back for another 5 months! Again at a drive thru it happened so I brought it up to the dealer and they could not replicate the smoke. I even drove it around and stopped to let it idle to try to make it happen again but it didn't. The dealership noted the complaint but could not do anything further until they had proof it was smoking. The service manager told me that it is most likely oil being pooled into the turbo and burning off, once you step on the gas and blow exhaust through the turbo it expels the oil. Isn't that going to gunk up the turbo over time? Anyway, the smoke issue has only happened once since my last service, which was in November.

Now, the problem is fuel cut/knock/whatever but it is really taking the joy I used to have out of driving this car. I love it but it's like an annoying little sister or brother, it will play with you when it feels like it but when it doesn't like to play it really gets on your nerves! Also, does anyone think this could simply be a leaky stock BOV?

Coyfish, I guess it couldn't hurt to get a dashhawk just so I can give some more info to the dealer so they can help fix these issues.

Oh and this is my only car, daily driver and I only put about 6000 to 7000 miles a year on it. I live 2 miles from work so there are a lot of stop and go's with the motor only running for 10 15 minutes at a time, less sometimes.

Thanks everyone again!

 

[dougefresh_]

Recently we discovered a calculated load limitation in the ecu, that exists with the cobb ap as well. What this limitation basically does is put a "cap" on ecu's calculation of air in the cylinders, which is obviously used to calculate fueling. The level of the "cap" seems to vary from car to car, but it's safe to believe that it exists in every car.

When the your operating in the "cap" region for calculated load, the ecu is basically blind to any additional air that may be getting into the engine, be it from increased boost, more mods, or even just colder weather. When that happens, the afr's lean out and could potentially put you at risk.

I know one guy who was hitting the load cap with just an intake. I know another guy who needed a gt3076 before he hit the cap level. So, again, it varies from car to car.

The guy who hits the cap with just an intake (realgib on msf), had previously blown his motor, and is 99% convinced this cap issue caused it.

The AP doesn't cause this cap issue, but it also doesn't fix it. I believe the cp-e flashes do fix the issue, but i haven't tested it out on my own yet. They say that it does though, and i believe it from some of the numbers they've seen tuned with their flash solutions + sb, namely my buddy sean (socks on msf).

Long story short, if you start modding, you need to monitor your ish and make sure your safe. AP or not, if your modded, you need to monitor lol.


If anyone wants a link to the discovery thread about the calc load cap, pm me. It's a good read.

That makes sense, but I find it so strange that the cap would vary so much from car to car. You're saying that each this load cap will vary from ECU to ECU despite mods, is that correct? Having a load cap seems completely retarded. Why would a car manufacturer do that? I mean, why would it ever let your ECU go blind? Esp at WOT, high rpms & fuel pressure?

 

[Jonesy32]

update

Now, the problem is fuel cut/knock/whatever but it is really taking the joy I used to have out of driving this car.

Went to the dealer for service and, believe it or not, the problem described above was caused by my CAI filter being so clogged up that it was messing with the MAF. Problem has gone away.

Also, the PCV issue HAS NOT been resolved by MazdaNA. I was told that they are still working on it and they should see something this summer. I was told last year that a fix would be out this spring, but now it has been pushed back...again.

Regarding the smoking issue, my car hasn't actually done it since this past Jan but I took a picture and sent it into my service guy. At least they have on record the issues I have had with the turbo smoking.

 

[OJ Bartley]

Good to hear Jonesy.

I can't believe that there is still so much that the guys at Cobb and CPE don't know about the car. Like the cap, what a weird thing to discover. I'm getting more and more nervous about not having a way of monitoring knock, AFRs, and LTFTs.

I haven't seen any generally accepted list of warning parameters anywhere, although different opinions come up from time to time. It would be great to have a chart or something to refer to that says "Knock: between X and Y is acceptable", etc. etc. with any other important warning signs.

I still want to get an AP with a custom e-tune, but it probably won't be until next year, so maybe by then there will have been some more breakthroughs in the knowledge base. I just want to keep my car safe and strong, so I can drive her for a long time!