EJ22 Idle and Intermittent misfire underload

[1980ea71Brat]

Alright guys. The moment I have been waiting for.... After several weeks of diagnostic, scouring forums, trying out different advice from people here on the forum, I am happy to report the car is fixed. The idle problem and rich problem is gone. There may be a little hic-up in the idle but I'm good with that and its an old motor.

 

What was the problem? What is the primary sensor that controls A/F ratio??...... THE MAF SENSOR.

 

Yep. The one I replaced mine with was faulty out of the box. If you remember, I also had a mid throttle fuel cut issue, where the engine would stumble under acceleration sometimes. I replaced the MAF with a REFURBISHED napa unit, and that specific problem went away. But not the idle. Tricked me into thinking there was no way it could still be the MAF.

Let me tell you fellas, I really appreciate all the ideas, feedback and support on this. It's hard out there for a home mechanic and forums like these really keep a guy going at it. In the end, it cost me $550 for the shop to find the problem and replace the MAF (they did this before calling me) but I'm not complaining. I could have easily spent that or more if I kept throwing parts at it hoping for a fix.

Lesson learned. How does occam's razor go? If its the most obvious solution, that's probably the solution? Anyways. Hope this helps some poor fool down the road. I know I learned a lot about system testing and diagnostics.

 

Time to wrap up this car and enjoy it!