WOT........ sounds fun. Italian tune up it is

i'll do that on my next freeway trip.

i've been trying to keep mileage high, that I hardly ever drive it hard.


so, those hypermiling Prius owners must have a lotta carbon in there huh.

 

Cold started the car this morning. The idle is better than before, but it still bounces up and down a bit at the beginning and slightly a bit later, and the seat still shakes ever so slightly once in a while just sitting in park.

Seems like either what they did wasn't the magic fix I was hoping for, or I'm being overly picky about what normal operation is... is there any chance that I need to give the new ECU more time to learn or something? Should I drop a bottle of redline into the gas tank even though the oil was just changed? I keep reading that stuff like that dirties up the oil (though I don't see how any of it should get into the oil in the first place).

I guess I will give it some more time before making a complaint about it again.

Before servicing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PGtpx2xYpU

After servicing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jff0JysolM

Dunno... Kind of disappointed that this really doesn't seem to have changed a whole lot from before they worked on it to when they brought it back to me. It's nice that they changed a bunch of parts, and if my o2 sensors really were bad then it will probably correct some drivability situations but it seems like there is still some kind of other underlying cause for what's going on here... air in coolant system, unidentified vacuum leak, bad coolant temperature sensor. Far as I know when the engine is cold started, oxygen sensors aren't doing anything yet.

 

I'd agree with you that it's not fixed yet. Doubt it's air in your cooling system or a vacuum leak. Regarding the O2's at cold start, you are correct. They are in open loop during cold start until they hit a certain temperature and go into closed loop. Well, at least that how they used work back in 03!

I think you should either ask them to stick or bore scope down and look for carbon buildup or do it yourself and go from there.

 

I routinely perform this maintenance procedure

I truly feel cars are not meant to be babied, trying to get 35 mpg by not crushing the egg under the accelerator pedal....WOT once in a while is fine, let the engine go through its band, clear that carbon out, let her breathe.....REPEAT

 

I confess I've never opened it up since I bought my GS. However, today, after reading this post, I took it out and did so (to the degree that I could). I was amazed how quickly it accelerated to 90 mph, which is when I backed off. This car is FAST!