Is My Car Hydrolocked?

[666DAN]

That's only true if you excessively heat the wire, good solder technique doesn't do that, you've fluxed, tinned and joined in under a second. 275 degrees for 1 second does not "work harden" copper. Excessive heat and excessive contact times does. I'm currently soldering IC components with copper wires around 1 micron that are highly vibration sensitive and can make a proper joint without raising the component above 70 degrees and have them perform with no dramas.

That's 100% true with welding, but then again how many degrees are you using there and what sort of contact times???

Come off it, 0.01v exponential or not does not influence bugger-all on an airflow curve...you'd see more of a voltage fluctuation from the change in resistance of the copper wire with engine bay heat....its been hot this week and my car hasn't plunged into an irreversible voltage chasm.

[Adriano]

True, but how do you know what the amplitude of the noise in the wiring would be?

[Adriano]

Just had a quick look, and the ecu breaks down the AFM input into .08v cells, but there may be interpolation between these

[666DAN]

I've actually tested shielded vs unshieled, around the time I put the Z32 in my car. The difference was nothing of note. The funny thing was the rest of the loom in the car that is unshielded actually causes more background "bullshit" than anything. The other thing was going from standard coils to splitfires saw me having to use ferrites on the cable going to the ECU so the datalogger didn't cut-out.

With the soldering I found some details.

For splicing, soldering is the go

In-line joints, if soldered it must be done so the solder doesn't wick too far down the joint (excessive heat and solder) and cause a stress point, twisted joint is a must.

In-line joints, if terminals are used, they can be joined but must then be soldered or heatshrunk with glue impregnation so they can't come apart

It's a matter of personal choice which way you go, but the last two are minimum requirements for auto

[gotRICE?]

The key to soldering is you MUST have a good quality Soldering Iron, that is actually hot enough to just touch the wires and join them like said above.

Keeping a slightly cooler Iron on there for 3 or more seconds is when you get the hardening i believe.

[nizmo_freek]

Got my 2nd hand afm today , have just installed it in the car and tried it, same problem, car will not start with it plugged in, unplugg it and it will start and idle 100% perfect, i even tried pluggin the afm back in while the car was idling and it just dies.

Either i have two faulty afms here or theres is a problem somewhere else.

Does anyone know if the afm circut has a fuse or a relay anywhere?

Need some more help, dont really want to take the car to nissan for them to sort out.

[The Dan]

Got my 2nd hand afm today , have just installed it in the car and tried it, same problem, car will not start with it plugged in, unplugg it and it will start and idle 100% perfect, i even tried pluggin the afm back in while the car was idling and it just dies.

Either i have two faulty afms here or theres is a problem somewhere else.

Does anyone know if the afm circut has a fuse or a relay anywhere?

Need some more help, dont really want to take the car to nissan for them to sort out.

I may have missed it but have you posted a picture of where the wires are going on the AFM yet? I know you are saying they are all correct and chances are they are correct, but just to cross it off the list could you take a photo of the coloured wires going into the afm and the configuration that you have wired them please.

Cheers, Daniel

DAN, I am not referring to inside the ECU. The ECU itself does not suffer movement of internal components. The loom, however, can move around etc. The solder does damage at even 70deg (god knows how you are measuring that anyway). It is a well known fact that solder makes the wire brittle beside the soldered joint, no matter how good you are. Most of the crimp terminals you are probably referring to are the insulated red, blue, yellow ones? I am not talking about these dodgy terminals, I am talking about proper wire joining crimp terminals. Motec sell them and, like i said, Nissan, Toyota, Mazda etc, all use them on their looms. Unwrap a few and you will see.

Also, if you want to do a little experiment, put a potentiometer on to you signal wire for the AFM and change the voltage 0.01V at a time and datalog the results. Let me know when have the results and I will point out every part of the map where you increased the voltage by 0.01V

[nizmo_freek]

I may have missed it but have you posted a picture of where the wires are going on the AFM yet? I know you are saying they are all correct and chances are they are correct, but just to cross it off the list could you take a photo of the coloured wires going into the afm and the configuration that you have wired them please.

Cheers, Daniel

DAN, I am not referring to inside the ECU. The ECU itself does not suffer movement of internal components. The loom, however, can move around etc. The solder does damage at even 70deg (god knows how you are measuring that anyway). It is a well known fact that solder makes the wire brittle beside the soldered joint, no matter how good you are. Most of the crimp terminals you are probably referring to are the insulated red, blue, yellow ones? I am not talking about these dodgy terminals, I am talking about proper wire joining crimp terminals. Motec sell them and, like i said, Nissan, Toyota, Mazda etc, all use them on their looms. Unwrap a few and you will see.

Also, if you want to do a little experiment, put a potentiometer on to you signal wire for the AFM and change the voltage 0.01V at a time and datalog the results. Let me know when have the results and I will point out every part of the map where you increased the voltage by 0.01V

There is a pic (not very clear sorry) on page 2, post#22, ive connected the 3wires back up to thier corresponding colours just like they were before i cut the standard plug off to fit the z32 afm plug, im thinking maybe i somehow shorted them out while i was soldering them and blowing a fuse or relay or something.

Have just looked at a fuse box diagram in english and i cant see anything on there for the afm, only thing that comes close if "Engine Control"

Will go out in the garage again tonight and check all the fuses just to make sure.

[666DAN]

You're missing a wire dude, you haven't linked the ground on the Z32 side.

[nizmo_freek]

You're missing a wire dude, you haven't linked the ground on the Z32 side.

Im using the stock afm, hence only 3 wires lol, you must be thinking im using a z32

I previously had a z32 wired up correctly, was running sweet, its only now that i have changed back to the stock afm that i am having problems!

Cheer

[nizmo_freek]

LOL just saw that, you've gone backwards with mods

Sure have haha, going to sell my car as standard so i can cure my gtr obsession hehe, this is the only thing stopping me from actually putting it up for sale at the moment though lol.

[666DAN]

Im using the stock afm, hence only 3 wires lol, you must be thinking im using a z32

I previously had a z32 wired up correctly, was running sweet, its only now that i have changed back to the stock afm that i am having problems!

Cheer

LOL just saw that, you've gone backwards with mods

[The Dan]

Sure have haha, going to sell my car as standard so i can cure my gtr obsession hehe, this is the only thing stopping me from actually putting it up for sale at the moment though lol.

The only way you could blow a fuse while doing that would be to do the swap with the ign on. You didn't do that did you?

Check all fuses, you're bound to find something there. In the event of no blown fuses, check continuity between the ECU and the AFM again. Then check the signal at the ECU. Also, sound stupid but make sure you have the ECU plugged in correctly. They have a habit of plug misalignment when pulling them down with the 10mm bolt. push down hard on both ends and re-tension the 10mm bolt if the plug went in further.

[nizmo_freek]

Have just checked all fuses, they are all fine, 3lit3 32 im pretty sure the connector would be plugged in fine into the ecu as i have unplugged that many times and its never given me a problem at all.

In my opinion i reckon it has to be a faulty afm, so looks like my original one had died and i then bought another dead one, just my luck, i will try and get my car to nissan tomorow to see if they can source exactly what is wrong with it.

[Adriano]

Why dont you just do a diagnostic search, that will reveal if the AFM is dodgy, ps what voltage is it seeing at idle?

[Hunting Lions]

car wouldnt be hydrolocked if u spilt fuel in there and left it for a few days it should evaporate anyways

[nizmo_freek]

Hmmmm, this is starting to get pathetic, ordered a brand new afm from rhdjapan last week (was quoted 1000nzd from a couple of traders on here, even they were shocked at the price when they gave me a quote), just received it today and have just tried it, same f*kin problem, car will start (actually starts a little bit better with the new afm) but then will just stall straight away, unplugg the afm and guess what? i starts and idles perfect, plugg the afm back in and it will die right way.

Have just checked how well the wiring loom connector is plugged into the ecu and it looks fine, checked all the wires coming out of the connector and cant see any problems there.

I dont know were else to look, but it has got to be a wiring issue for sure, i just dont know how the hell to figure out whats wrong with it, or a ecu fault or something.

Would appreciate any more suggestions as this is really really starting to get to me, i cant even get it up for sale because i cant get it running

Cheers

Edited November 17, 2008 by nizmo_freek

[gotRICE?]

Did you by chance check continuity on each wire?

Do try it now, find where it meets the ECU and see if you can get continuity on each AFM wire.

[MBS206]

Have you touched the fuel pump at all recently?

Had a car here that had those EXACT same symptoms just a week or two ago...

Fuel pump had nearly 100% died.

New pump, fixt.

Not saying this is your problem, but have you touched the fuel pump recently? If so, go look there...

[nizmo_freek]

Have you touched the fuel pump at all recently?

Had a car here that had those EXACT same symptoms just a week or two ago...

Fuel pump had nearly 100% died.

New pump, fixt.

Not saying this is your problem, but have you touched the fuel pump recently? If so, go look there...

Havent touched the fuel pump at all, its a nismo pump thats about 8months old anyway and was working perfect before i returned my car back to stock.

I dropped my car off to an auto electrician this morning so im hoping he can find the problem, if he cant find it i dont know what im going to do lol.