Motorcycle Manga

Lifted Directly from the Service Manual of my XT225

Pretty sure this is what a vacuum leak looks like in your engine...

Short term fuel trim spikes up after a rev. Need to fix this sh*t asap because its getting worse and throwing all kinds of weird codes like P0110 Intake air temp. If anyone is curious about fuel trims and wants to learn more, then check out this awesome video I found on youtube -HERE

Fuel Trims

Ok so we are using this program called Scan XL Pro to try to diagnose what I *think* may be a vacuum leak in our 1998 SLK230 4 banger. I am only *guessing* that it's a vacuum leak because it seems to be sapping our fuel economy and causing a rough idle. From looking at these graphs, you can see that our LTFT (long term fuel trim) starts out at 29% and eventually climbs to 31% which is awfully high. This means the fuel trim is trying to compensate for a lean condition in the engine. Anyhow here are the graphs-

This one is just us sitting in the parking lot revving the engine...

Things start to get a bit complicated when we take it for a spin on the freeway...

Judging from the way the MAP (manifold absolute pressure) is all over the place I want to say that its either something wrong with the MAP sensor, which is causing the fuel trim to tweak out, or a leak in the intake manifold gasket. What do you think???

OK one more graph, this one depicting the TPS (throttle position sensor)

New Camshaft Position Sensor

Its a small item but it was turning on the check engine light repeatedly-- trouble code P0341 - camshaft position sensor A performance bank 1.

 

So I ordered it on Amazon for $30 (I know ouch) and installed the new one today. Cleared all trouble codes and will be watching the car very closely to see if the check engine light comes back on. Here is a pic, you can see the old sensor on top of the engine cover.

While I was doing that I also discovered a cracked emissions hose. I don't know if it was already cracked or I did it while I was installing the sensor. But anyway, this hose was as dry and brittle as a piece of uncooked spaghetti! But the car is 17 years old so I guess no surprises there. Anyway we went ahead and replaced that as well, so perhaps that will take care of one of the other trouble codes we saw today, which was P0105 - manifold absolute pressure/ barometric pressure circuit. 

Did the repairs then took it out for a spin around the block and everything seems fine, no check engine light. Fingers crossed that fixes it. Also, Yuji was pretty happy with my repair skills and made me this certificate of awesomeness. Thanks dear!

Playing with Airbags!

This was funny! Francisco, the guy setting off the airbag thought it wasn't working, so no one was prepared when it suddenly went off, LOL! Total looney toons moment. And for the record, yes that is me laughing like a hyena in the beginning...

Just in Case Y'all Thought I was a Poseur

Yup, there's me working on my own car. Today we are replacing the fuel filter. There was some confusion on which part to order so we jacked up the car, took the wheel off and climbed under there. At first I was kinda nervous that the car would fall on my head but that wore off after a while, especially since we had 2 jacks and a tire supporting it. So yeah. Fun times!

The Junk Yard

Hey guys, so since part of my story takes place in a junk yard Yuji and I went down to the Pick a part in Monrovia yesterday and I snapped these reference photos. We found out later you're not supposed to take pics there, (luckily the guy did not see my camera) so enjoy..

A lot of it was really surreal. A surreal sun drenched graveyard for cars.

Junked Chevy S10

Here's the crew pulling an engine/trans out of a junked Chevy S10. The frame was bent so we are parting it out. Engine, tranny, tires, exhaust etc. The parts of a car by themselves are always worth more than the whole. Interesting right?

Below is Jose's crank shaft on the Buick Riviera. He was having problems with coolant leaking into his cylinders. We pulled apart his engine, removed the supercharger, cleaned out the intake manifold and applied a fresh gasket. Had some more problems so then took it apart again, and finally, started it back up again on Monday. It ran but the oil turned white (strange) so he put it on the lift and took down the oil pan to clean out any excess water that may have been left in the crank case/oil pan from the leak. Below you can see the crankshaft, cank case and the oil pump.

Fun times!