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Help Something Not Right With My R32 Gtr

2-3

By 2-3,
in Engines & Forced Induction

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2-3 Apprentice

2-3

Posted
Posted

Hi all,

Sorry for the long post but I wanna give as much detail as possible.

I have an R32 gtr which has been running fine until a couple of weeks ago. My problem began as an intermittent miss at high rpm's and this would only occur when the car had been running for over 20 mins. It wasn't anything real noticeable but I guess I should have taken it as a warning that something wasn't right.

Anyway this problem started to occur more frequently. It began to sound like it was running on 5 cylinders (a bit like a wrx sound) and lacked power but only when the car was up to temperature. I did a diagnostics test on the car and it was coming up with error code 21 which is the ignition signal system. Looking on the forums I saw that this could mean a few things were playing up with the most common thing I found being the ignition coils.

With the car running I couldn't see any arcing in the coils but before having a good look at them I inspected the spark plugs and found them to be in good condition however number 3 had carbon deposits on it. This made suspect that the number 3 coil was playing up.

Just to ensure that it wasn't the spark plugs I went out and brought a set of some cheap ngk's and put them in but the problem was still there. I then looked at the coil packs and could not see anything wrong with them from the outside, no cracks or distortion. For some reason, now I know it was probably a waste of money, I had it in my head it was the coil packs and went and brought a set of splitfires this was on Monday. Taking it for a drive it seemed ok at first but the problem showed back up.

On Tuesday I started it up and the problem was there as soon as I drove off but there was no miss while the car was idling. So it seemed to be getting worse. Today I took it down to Motortech in Wollongong and I have it booked in for tomorrow afternoon, there gonna put it on the dyno and see if they can diagnose the problem.

But this is where it gets interesting cause on the way home at certain points the car seemed to loose power, not completely shut off but just like it was being starved of fuel or something. I got it home and parked it in the garage and I could smell fuel. So now I'm thinking it's got nothing to do with the ignition and maybe more to do with fuel or the injection system. But I'm still getting error code 21 in diagnostics. Its beyond me what it is so I will leave to the guys at Motortech to sought out tomorrow.

Does anyone have any ideas what it might be?

BeEnAr Experienced

BeEnAr

Posted
Posted

Agreed, I had the same problem with my 32R. But would like to add another possible solution.

My GTR would stumble and felt like 5 cylinder running, only sometimes and sometimes worse than others. Try to accelerate out of it and it just bogged down. Tried plugs, oil, coilpacks, air and fuel filters, cleaned AFM's and none of this worked. I took out the AFM's and did the solder fix from the DIY section, this fixed it for a bit, well bandaided it then it started again but not as bad.

Took the coil pack loom out and checked it all and there were a few spots where there were splits in the insulation and you could see bare wire. Got out the trusty nitto tape and taped the whole thing up and problem has not come back in over 20,000KM.

The Dan Grand Master

The Dan

Posted
Posted

You reset the computer after checking the code right?

You need to do a reset to see if the code comes back otherwise it will just stay there for eternity.

so every time you check it, it will say code 21.

Beer Baron Grand Master

Beer Baron

Posted
Posted

well it's pretty hard to diagnose this type of stuff over the net, but if I had to have a stab in the dark going off your description of events I would wager it's actually a fuel pump issue. ignition is easy to check if its missing at idle it's easy to identify which cylinder has the problem. a bit harder if it's only doing it at high rpm. this is one of those things you will just have to work through testing things till you find the problem. luckily for you the car only needs 3 things to run. fuel, air and spark so it's just a matter of working your way through. :D

NZM.031 Grand Master

NZM.031

Posted
Posted

afm's FTW.

i had a similar problem.. everytime id go to overtake... it would die on me, not stall, just not make any power.. replaced the afm with a brand new z32 one and away she went... no dramas ever again.

CGB_R32 Proficient

CGB_R32

Posted
Posted
afm's FTW.

i had a similar problem.. everytime id go to overtake... it would die on me, not stall, just not make any power.. replaced the afm with a brand new z32 one and away she went... no dramas ever again.

Agreed, was experiencing the same symptoms had a dodgey AFM replaced today and shes back driving smooth.

payback21 Community Regular

payback21

Posted
Posted

Ignitor is my thoughts. I had the same problems with my RB26 until i replaced the ignitor. Problem solved!

BTW RB26 ignitors are exactly the same as a RB20 or S1 RB25 ignitor. Try borrowing one to try.

blind_elk Grand Master

blind_elk

Posted
Posted
You need to do a reset to see if the code comes back otherwise it will just stay there for eternity.

so every time you check it, it will say code 21.

Actually, only stays there for about 50 "start" cycles.

+1 for the ignitor. They tend to start misbehaving when they are old and they get a bit of heat happening. You might be able to diagnose it by putting a cold wet rag on the ignitor as soon as you get the problem - ignitor problems like this go away once the ignitor cools down.

2-3 Apprentice

2-3

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks everyone for their input, I ended up taking the car into motortech on Monday and he was able to confirm that it was the ignitor that was scattering the ignition signal.

Before I go and spend money on one though i am going to borrow a mates and see if it truly does fix the problem, hopefully it does.

Would faulty ignitor potentially ruin my new splitfires?

JET-25L Proficient

JET-25L

Posted
Posted

No they would be fine as the problem would be they're not getting enough spark. You would ruin coilpacks if you had way too much spark or if they were charging for too long which is not your case.

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