here's whats happening. if i drive the hell out of the car at 8lbs the CEL comes on. it happened a few days ago and then again today. if i disconnect the battery (reset the ecu) the lite goes off and it runs fine. today it was running fine until i had a longish drive (45mins) and when i got to where i was going it stalled at the lite...it stalled 3 times before i got the car parked off the road. when i set my turbotimer to read volts it says 13.3 at idle and when the rev's start to drop the volts drop also. it'll be sitting there and idleing just fine, w/ a vac of just under 20 and then the vac will drop to about 10 and the car will do 1 of 2 things, either rev and stay on, or stall. i've checked the vac lines and all seem attached and all. and also today i noticed some black smoke...well, LOTS of black smoke coming out the exhaust. the car was FINE this morning and fine until driving it around for a while. someone said my alternator is dead, and someone else said i'm probably just running really rich.

any ideas?? someone just tell me it's not a blown piston or rod or anything like that. PLEASE. i have no $ for a rebuilt at this point. any reassurances? tia.

ps about 2 days ago my car was leeking oil out of the back where the oil sender (which isn't working anymore) is. it was down about 1.5 qt's but that leak is fixed and it's full of oil. i'll check the oil level again, rite now i'm going to reset the ecu and see what it does.

You should do the key dance to see what code the CEL is giving you. That will help a lot. It's probably not a big deal if your car still runs, and it doesn't come back on immediately after you reset the ECU.

yeh, i'm thinking if it's running alrite for the most part it's ok, it seems to just not like me when i get on it a lot or drive for a while...i seriously don't know thou. i'll try to get the codes, but yeah -last time the cel didn't come back on immeadiately but i'll try next time, how exactly do you do do the keydance by the way? i've never done it before. and where do the codes output. on the dash somewhere?

pss it smells like shit.

ok i just reset it again and i didn't get a cel and it didn't stall but at idel the rpms drop (along w/ the vac) a little and the exhaust starts pulsating and w/ every pulse there's a puff of really black smoke. it'll almost die and then rev up to about 2k rpms (black smoke stops), then come back down to just below 1 and idle ok for a little while, but then the rpms will drop again and black smoke will start coming out the exhaust again puff after puff. it just keeps doing this. i didn't drive it around again, just turned it off and it's sitting in my garage now.

????????? i can take it in to the shop that did the custom turbo and have them look at it on tuesday. but between now and then i have to drive back to college (1:30mins) and then i'd have to drive back here on tuesday...should i leave the car here and see if i can get a ride back or whatever? my brother said it smelt like someone cooking some barbq if that means anything...

Hmmm...sounds like it could be from a couple of things; first, try to find out the engine code. You could borrow one from someone, or buy it from an auto parts store, then return it when you are done. Since you have a '98, the key dance method won't work.

Just guessing, but it sounds like either you have a lose vacuum hose, a reaally rich fuel system, or maybe fouled spark plugs. If all these check out okay, then you might have a bad O2 sensor, but unlikely.

keydance doesn't work on a 98? I thought it worked on all cars that were 96 and newer. For your info, if it does work on your car, you do the keydance by turning the ingnition on, off, on, off, then on. The codes will flash through the check engine light. Your first code will probably be a 12 for disconnecting the battery, then after all the codes have flashed, you will get a 55 for the last one. The codes flash one digit at a time. Two digits per code. If you can't do the keydance, autozone will check your codes for free.

thanks for the help, if the CEL comes back on i'll check it or goto autozone or something, talking to people on aim said the same thing, really really rich (bad plugs, bad o2, etc) but not internals which makes me a happy camper. this would explain why it runs better under boost than at partial throttle or at idle, b/c under boost it actually has air to match the tons of fuel. and w/o an o2 a nonturbo car would run rich, if this is the case, i'm running REALLY rich b/c of the inline fuel pump just dumping it all into the engine. also explains why it smells like a gas station on wheels. any more ideas keep them coming, thanks again for the help thou, it's much appreciated.

its running HELLA rich, same thing happens to me..with normal vacuum and then comes up to about 10. I know im running rich now and my car never did it before i blew o2 sensor. check fuel pressure, do you have AFC to see o2 volts? or a/f gauge?

>Just guessing, but it sounds like either you have a lose
>vacuum hose, a reaally rich fuel system, or maybe fouled
>spark plugs. If all these check out okay, then you might
>have a bad O2 sensor, but unlikely.

A bad o2 sensor would cause a VERY rich condition. (like mine is now) If the o2 isnt properly functioning then the ECU will just dump fuel. The ECU does it like this, better safe than sorry. Also, if your running that rich without a bad o2 sensor, then you might want to fix it and fast, it will destroy your o2 sensor and those damn things are expensive. If o2 is dead then you will notice how much badly your gas mileage has become and fast. I went from around 250-300miles per tank. With blown o2, im getting around 100-150miles per tank.

Also, if you can smell a lot of fuel, check the connection at the FPR; look at the gas in/gas return connection. I noticed mine leaked there a little--not very much, but enough to look wet right at the clamps. If this is the case, just reconnect it and apply a paste silicone sealant, as instructed by HRC, which I didn't do the first time.