Unstable Low Revs on PowerFC

[400HP]

I'm about to buy a power FC from a guy in Melbourne. Apparently its "as new" and reasons for sale is he's selling his car. When I asked what "as new" meant he said that he has taken it out.. plugged it into his car..... initialised it and then the car started idling really badly down low so he pulled it out....

When I was with Franks and he tried to install it himself it did the same thing (even with the reset)... is this normal for all powerFC's? That they aren't full plug and play and need to be tuned to Aust. conditions?

[mr180]

Apparently some of the Power FC's are almost plug and play with pretty good mapping. Then there are others that barely run on the initial mapping.

I plugged mine in to make sure it worked and it started ok. Drove a little with very low revs to be safe and it was pretty good with no idle problems, although it was running really rich.

Yours could be one with nowhere near the right mapping. It could be something else though... have you checked for any sensor problems and made sure it has the right AFM selected?

[400HP]

Well I haven't actually got it yet. I am just wondering whether i should buy it or not cos this is what the guy described to me. I remember when I helped do my friends that it needed ot be reinitialised and have the right AFM's selected.....

But is it the general case that some don't work out of the box?

[predator]

Even if the settings are set for somebody elses' that could be a totally different setup to your car (could have had a big ass turbo, different fuel pump, etc),..you should just be able to reset it and at least it will allow you drive your car to a place to have the thing fully tuned and setup.

The default settings should allow you to at least drive apparently.

[Steve]

I had a few minor probs with idle, can you be more specific? Was it hunting, stalling? What were the idle settings?

[ed]

don't tell me you're gonna tune it yourself? :eek:

[GooGZ]

franks didnt idle properly at first because he had it set on an aftermarket boost controller (which he didnt have).. turned that off and it was idling fine. (remember?)

this dude might have been in a similar situation because thats it default setting.

[400HP]

Alright guys let me clarify.... Firstly the powerFC unit is BRAND NEW and has not yet been tuned at all. So this means that its not the settings of that specific car......

In terms of idle he didn't really say why this happened but more that at low revs it "didn't idle well"... I'm guessing maybe it was pinging? cos it would be tuned for a plug and pay situation on Jap high octane fuel. When Nissaner got his GTR with powerFC it was tuned for 107 octane fuel and was pinging everywhere....

I guess what I want to know is if the unit will plug and play directly in Australia and if out of the box it will idle rough (if this is normal or not)....?

[400HP]

Yep Ed... I'm tuning it on the YangstaDynamicsDynometer

[Guest KILLER-T]

Power FC's have a self learn mode when they are first installed i dont know if you can get it back into self learn mode after its been tuned.I have hunting idle with my power fc aswell because i got mine 2nd hand.Have a read of the instruction book on the apexi web site page 12 it tells you how to do it once the ECU is FIRST installed

http://www.apexi-usa.com/productdocumentat...ion/powerFC.pdf

[Silver-Arrowz]

When I got mine I didn't have the handset but drove it to get it tuned. Whatever you do don't put too much load on the engine. The previous owner removed the rev limiter on my unit. Either plug it in then drive to tuning house, or plug it in before you get on the dyno.

It will idle a little funny, but don't drive around with it too much.

[400HP]

Alright well I've got a few mixed impressions now about what to expect but yeh I think that its possible that out of the box brand new or second hand you can expect a bit of rough idle...

Silver-Arrowz - where did you get yours tuned?

[Steve]

400HP, if you reset the power fc after installing, it should be fine to drive as the initial settings are quite rich to prevent any troubles when you first intall them - even on austraian fuel. Also as mentioned, unless you have the boost controller attached, make sure you switch it off in the etc? menu.

[T0nyGTSt]

My PowerFC ran a little unstable first, get it tuned and it should be rite.

T.

[Guest Peewee]

400HP the box is fine or else it wont run. drive to where you get it tuned and install it there it's not worth risking your engine on i hope it's tuned ok!!

[400HP]

Alright thanks for the help guys.