Car dieing after Installs

Why does my car die after I install something. It's done it with my uicp and now with the ebay intake. With the uicp I though it was a boost leak but it just seemed to go away. This time, right after the intake I drove to school and the rpms would just crash right to zero when I pushed the clutch in. It died once and I had no power steering. The rest of the time I had to push all three pedals at once keeping the rpm at around 1000 so it didn't die! It still died a couple more time though but luckily I was in traffic. But now it seems like it has just gone away again. So I was just wondering is it the maps reajusting to more air flow? The only other thing I could think is that the neg battery cable is not connected well because I've taken it off so many times and cause I cant tighten it.

yea its probaly just your fuel trims readjusting. you might need to run some fuel injector cleaner and clean the throttle body and stuff. everytime you disconnect the battery for a minute or so it resets the fuel trim to 0. the fuel trim is what the computer uses to compensate for the quality of gas and how well the injectors are working

OK, so it's just reajusting then. Does it happen to you guys when you disconnect the battery?

I've d/c the battery several times, and the worst that happened was a lost radio code...

Anyone else had this happen to them?

you might need to run some fuel injector cleaner and clean the throttle body and stuff.

Would I need to do that with so few miles on my car? When I took off the intake I noticed a lot of gunk in their so maybe it would be a good idea.

Can anyone give me more info. I really want to get this figured out. Thanks for the help.

Check your idle air screw. Mine blew out about two weeks ago and some days it would idle fine, some days it would drop to 500 then spike at 2000, and sometimes stall out completely if I didnt feather the pedal. Check that... in case you dont know its located right on top of the intake manifold.

But it's only after I disconnect the battery. It happens every single time I do it and then a couple mins. of driving and it's back to normal. Can this hurt the ECU? I read that diconnecting your battery when the car is running to check if your alternator is bad messes the ecu up.

One more question, how do you guys go about taking your neg cable off? Mine's just loose enough so that I can just pull it off. That bolt is imposible to tighten any further than I have it because one side of it is covered by part of the battery terminal clamp. And tightening and untightening it would be a PITA.

Go pay two dollars for a new connector on that battery cable! Then you can rule it out as a problem.

You should not be able to just pull the neg battery cable off. That is not only dangerous, but it could lead to an improper connection resulting in many issues. so yes, spend to two dollars and get a new connecter if that is the case.

You should not be able to just pull the neg battery cable off. That is not only dangerous, but it could lead to an improper connection resulting in many issues. so yes, spend to two dollars and get a new connecter if that is the case.

What do you mean by dangerous? I dont think the connector is the issue really, although what do I know. :) What I mean is it doesn't seem like there's anything physically wrong with it. I should just take a pic but I'm too lazy. I dont know if it's the same on 1G's but the bolt to loosen the clamp is partially covered by part of the clamp so you really can only tighten it so much. How do you guys go about taking it off? I mean I have taken it off like 10 times so far and I've only had the car for like a month. Oh, I also cleaned the connector and post and put that protective grease stuff on there.

Cut the old connector off put new on, or go get a premade cable. Preferably something you CAN tighten. Loose grounds cause all types of weird shit.

yea its probaly just your fuel trims readjusting. you might need to run some fuel injector cleaner and clean the throttle body and stuff. everytime you disconnect the battery for a minute or so it resets the fuel trim to 0. the fuel trim is what the computer uses to compensate for the quality of gas and how well the injectors are working



wow my car has almost the same problem accept it doesnt happen all the time, it happens when i get on it hard mostly and push in the clutch when coming to the stop fromin , it boggs down real low and somtimes i can save it from it and somtimes i cant, i was thinking it was an alternator problem

Mine only seems to do it after I start it up after disconnecting the battery. After a while (couple mins to maybe an hour) it goes back to normal. Today, though it idled at like 1,200 rpm and every once in a while surged a little to around 1,400. Dont know if this is related. I always seem to have these rpm problems with my cars. :(

I recently had this "bogging" problem. I had just put on my evo III. I found a small (actually tiny) exhaust leak which seemed to cause the problem. I fixed it, and turned the ICS up so it idled at about 900, and have never had that problem again. Check for any small leaks, and adjust the idle screw. Do NOT just adjust the idle screw, chances are that it is not causing the problem, if you adjust it until it works, but its not the problem , later on your problems will become bigger.

Also, reset your ecu. to do this, 1) disconect the neg battery cable. 2) open your fuse box, and look for the "radio" fuse. It is actually under a small yellow thing which keeps it from actually coming out of the box. The radio fuse also keeps your ecu's memory, so pull the fuse for about 30 seconds and put it back in. If your radio presets resetted, then it worked and your ecu should have reset. Sometimes the ecu needs to "learn" when you put a new part on. This usually can take it up to 2 days.

I'm still having this problem so rather than start a new thread I thought I'd just ask in this one.

yea its probaly just your fuel trims readjusting. you might need to run some fuel injector cleaner and clean the throttle body and stuff. everytime you disconnect the battery for a minute or so it resets the fuel trim to 0. the fuel trim is what the computer uses to compensate for the quality of gas and how well the injectors are working

Can anyone give me more info on this? Is my car suposed to be doing this / is there a way around it? I have tightened up the battery cable clamp after disconnecting it for just a couple minutes and it still happens. For maybe up to 1/2 hour of driving, the car wants to die every time I push the clutch in, but it's Only after I disconnect the neg. battery cable. A lot of times the lights to the left of the rpm flash on for a second while the rpms drop to almost zero. It's getting on my nerves!

Let me get this straight, you are only having problems after disconnecting the battery? And these problems only last for 30 minutes?

If that is true, why not just stop disconnecting your battery?

Also, did you replace your negative battery terminal connection yet? You really should do that, improper grounds will cause all kind of really weird problems.

I see that all of this started after you did some installs. Do you have access to a logger? Did you remember to plug in your MAS? You aren't venting are you? Did you check for boost leaks? Are all of your connections plugged back in? There could be a lot of reasons why this is happening, but we need to start somewhere.

What do you mean? I cant just stop disconnecting it. If I'm, say, putting on a boost gauge, I need to take it off. Or for millions of other things.

I havent replaced the connector because it ONLY happens for a little while after I disconnect the battery. ANY other time it's golden, lol. I dont have a logger, no I'm not venting, everything is plugged back in, there may be some boost leaks but i wont be able to check until I get my air tank (I'm poor :( ). But again, it's only for a while (maybe 5 or so times of pushing the clutch in) after disconnecting. It doesn't seem like that would be a big deal but I've lost power steering while coming to a stop from it dieing, but that only halppened once. So this doesn't happen to anyone else?

On most cars your fuel trims readjust after the power to the ecu is cut. A few people already said that. It should take about ten minutes. No more than thirty. Give your car a few minutes to idle before taking it out after installing something.

On an unrelated note, go buy the battery cable. It's doubtful that's the problem, but it's good to have, and it's cheap. Kragen, Sears, and Napa all sell them as a generic part. When my negative battery cable connection was bad my car died on me and I got hella CELs, which was bad.

Alright, I'll cave in and give that battery cable a try eventually.

On most cars your fuel trims readjust after the power to the ecu is cut.

Give your car a few minutes to idle before taking it out after installing something.



The fuel trims will adjust faster at idle than they will while cruising. Just a little info to save you some time.