Cleaned ETM now throwing p0303

[SquareWheels]

Today i Got a CeL flash, and a pending p0303. I put new Volvo plugs in about three weeks ago. So today after I threw the P0303 I also had a spare new ipd coil sitting around so I put that on the third cylinder and cleared the code and now it came back, also pending, under the same conditions— CEL flash as I reached 3500 rpm onto the highway. The plug looked good when I replace the coil.

I cleaned out my ETM yesterday, before this happened. I noticed a crack in the small rubber hose (going into the intake manifold on the drivers side facing the driver. The one that's about the same size as the tcv hoses.) anyway it was punctured near the clamp so I cut it shorter and put it back on. I don't think that has anything to do with the p0303 but aside from the ETM cleaning, disconnecting the battery, that's all I did.

This only happens under hard acceleration. There is no noticeable performance problem that I can tell. Idles great accelerates without feeling or hearing misfire.

[howardc64]

This only started after ETM cleaning? If so, check the ETM installation again, the gasket is 1 use only. if tightened, can not be used again. The air hose feeding the ETM is also notorious for improper fitting for first timers. Use your fingers to feel the fit is on properly. I folded part of the lip on the hose fitting my first time.

[Allen]

Disconnect your battery, hold the terminals together for twenty seconds to clear the memory, re-install, drive, see if it returns. If it does, it's legit. Return to where you last worked.

[SquareWheels]

This only started after ETM cleaning? If so, check the ETM installation again, the gasket is 1 use only. if tightened, can not be used again. The air hose feeding the ETM is also notorious for improper fitting for first timers. Use your fingers to feel the fit is on properly. I folded part of the lip on the hose fitting my first time.

I'll check again, hopefully tonight. A cylinder-specific recurring code seems to be an odd result if this is the case. It was a new gasket.


Disconnect your battery, hold the terminals together for twenty seconds to clear the memory, re-install, drive, see if it returns. If it does, it's legit. Return to where you last worked.

I cleared the pending code with my reader and it returned on the following drive cycle. How is your suggestion different than clearing the code?

[SquareWheels]

5273


Maybe off-topic but...

What is this hose and its purpose (the one my thumb is on)? This is the drivers side part of the intake manifold. This pic is before I cut it 1/2 inch shorter because of the hole in it near the clamp. The stubborn clamp never mad it on as far as is it was, so now I'm wondering if the clamp may be squeezing the hose a bit, causing it to run lean. Anyone ever replace that hose with a silicone one? Seems difficult to track to the other end and is just as beat up as the old tcv hoses.

[SquareWheels]

Worked a bit on it tonight...

Checked air hose to ETM, Good solid connection that I can feel. Swapped coils, plugs, injectors to different cylinders. Still throwing a pending P0303 at about 4k rpm.

I guess I have to see a mechanic tomorrow.

[I_am_perfect]

P030X are miss fire codes generally, I believe the last number designates the cylinder. I was getting it in an s40 we have, changed the plugs and it went away. But you should know with these cars it can be a few other things.

[sjonnie]

Anyone ever replace that hose with a silicone one? Seems difficult to track to the other end and is just as beat up as the old tcv hoses.
Yes, that's blue silicone on my engine. It runs from the manifold to the air intake pipe right before the turbo next to the PCV nipple.

[SquareWheels]

Just did a compression test, was 160psi for the third cylinder. Does that mean I'm in the clear for any overhaul on the seals, rings, etc? I have an appointment for the dealer later this week.

[howardc64]

I was curious how an engine detects a misfire in a specific cylinder. Here is a link that explains it. The crankshaft sensor detects the "slow down" of a crankshaft when misfires occur! Must be a rather sensitive rotational rate sensor.

http://www.magnaflow.com/07techtips/TechBulletin/TB80011.pdf

I read up on links that describes miss fire code, quite a few possible culprits. Basically anything that can cause the the crankshift rotation to change

http://repairpal.com/OBD-II-Code-P0300

I guess if cylinder 3 is correct diagnose, it must be the plug, coil, wire, or fuel injector on that cylinder. But maybe its a coincidence cause by other factors?

[SquareWheels]

Thanks Howard. I'm just a little relieved that cylinder 2 and 3 are both reading 160psi (I didn't feel the need to check the others.) I guess the next logical step is electrical. I replaced the wire looms a few weeks ago so I recently got a chance to inspect them. Maybe it is on the PCM side of things.

I found this thread below that mentions a 2006 s60 with a p0303 which resulted in the mechanic finding a cracked vacuum hose. It seems really odd to have a cylinder-specific code for a fuel/air problem. But since I have a few feet of silicone tubing leftover from my tcv replacement, maybe that's worth a shot on the hose I found with a puncture in it on the intake manifold. I thought I fixed it but maybe there is more damage further down the line.

http://forums.swedespeed.com/showthread.php?158774-PO303-Cylinder-3-misfire-S60-R-2006

[SquareWheels]

Yes, that's blue silicone on my engine. It runs from the manifold to the air intake pipe right before the turbo next to the PCV nipple.

Ugh, maybe another day. That clamp is impossible to reach without disassembling something else. The rest of the hose looked okay so I'll leave it for now.

On a different note...

I feel like My MPG sucks. I did a complete tuneup about a month ago and it didn't help. I live in a very hilly urban neighborhood and I often am between 0-20mph and will always be suddenly stopping from someone pulling in front of me or frequent stop signs. I am averaging about 11mpg in my neighborhood. Is this normal? The instantaneous readings are often in the single digits between 3-9mpg from a stop to about 20mph and feels like the power is weak. I am wondering if this is related to a vacuum leak somewhere which happens to be causing a misfire in cylinder 3. My highway MPG, however, is right around 30MPG and the power is completely better than city power. Does this sound right?

[howardc64]

Ugh, maybe another day. That clamp is impossible to reach without disassembling something else. The rest of the hose looked okay so I'll leave it for now.

On a different note...

I feel like My MPG sucks. I did a complete tuneup about a month ago and it didn't help. I live in a very hilly urban neighborhood and I often am between 0-20mph and will always be suddenly stopping from someone pulling in front of me or frequent stop signs. I am averaging about 11mpg in my neighborhood. Is this normal? The instantaneous readings are often in the single digits between 3-9mpg from a stop to about 20mph and feels like the power is weak. I am wondering if this is related to a vacuum leak somewhere which happens to be causing a misfire in cylinder 3. My highway MPG, however, is right around 30MPG and the power is completely better than city power. Does this sound right?

On gas mileage, I see 30mpg on highway if measuring purely highway. Any city driving mix degrades it quickly. This said, slow speed with many stop and goes will kill mileage. And instantaneous mpg is low and bad in hills. I think your car is normal but 11mpg is indeed bad :( I live on the eastside in Redmond/Sammamish. Hills+suburban road here nets me 23mpg. Sound like you are in the city, mileage would probably be pretty bad in and around the hills in the city :( My Prius does really well in the city though, that kinetic energy recovery system works! :)

My car did run better after a plug replacement. I gapped it on the wider side with Bosch Platinum. Got smoother revs, slightly more power, and slightly deeper exhaust note.

[SquareWheels]

Ya know, I think I'm gonna buy another ETM gasket and reinstall it. I didn't clean the manifold or ETM areas that come in contact with the gasket. The original gasket was stuck to the manifold and peeled off. Maybe the gasket isn't doing its job. That's the last thing I can think of before the dealer looks at it. Any other ideas?

I sprayed areas with TB cleaner looking for vacuum leaks around the intake checking for a change in engine performance/sound. No findings there.

[howardc64]

It seems consistent number 3 cylinder problem would suggest only components related to the #3 cylinder. Since you've swap the plug+coils already, only thing left is the injector. I'm guessing you didn't touch the injectors right?

[SquareWheels]

Yeah, I already swapped the injectors. I had a bad injector causing a misfire less than a month ago. It was throwing p0202 and p0302 so it was more clearly and injector problem. These misfires are driving me nuts.

[Astro14]

Time to go back to basics on the misfires. I would start with 1. cleaning the MAF (ensure your fuel/air ratio is right), then 2. install new plugs. Just put new ones in. Eliminate the common (and cheap) causes...then see how the car is performing...

Misfires happen because 1. spark is weak or 2. not enough fuel.

You've been assuming all along that the plugs are good...well...that may not be a good assumption...

[SquareWheels]

You've been assuming all along that the plugs are good...well...that may not be a good assumption...

Well the plugs are 3 week old Volvo plugs ($$) and I've swapped cylinder plugs, so a fairly safe assumption. Also, cleaned MAF at time of plug replacement.

I did run across a few different threads about OBDII's giving wrong cylinder codes compared to Vida. A few threads where cylinder 1 on OBD was 3 on Vida, things like that.

[SquareWheels]

Well, I got back from the dealer and all they did was pull codes and do an ETM sweep test. The codes were ECM-3503, ECM-3533, ECM-903F. My ETM sweep test showed 75° variance in TPS readings! I took it back without them doing any repairs. XeMODeX is going to be here tomorrow. Fingers crossed that this is the cause of the misfire. At least I will no longer have to worry about ETM issues.

[howardc64]

Well, I got back from the dealer and all they did was pull codes and do an ETM sweep test. The codes were ECM-3503, ECM-3533, ECM-903F. My ETM sweep test showed 75° variance in TPS readings! I took it back without them doing any repairs. XeMODeX is going to be here tomorrow. Fingers crossed that this is the cause of the misfire. At least I will no longer have to worry about ETM issues.

Glad you found the issue. Looks like ETM indeed from the codes.

[SquareWheels]

I'm happy to say that my install of the new xeMODex ETM went well and it fixed my elusive misfire. As I uninstalled the old unit, everything seemed to be assembled correctly from my cleaning last weekend. The gasket that I purchased last weekend from an indy shop, seemed thinner, of less quality, had a small kink before installation that I figured would get evened out, and didn't bear the Volvo moniker on the packaging. The one I got from xeMODex was the opposite in every way– high quality Volvo labeled gasket. I'm thinking the gasket was leaking slightly. But it is still very strange that the car insisted on misfiring in the 3rd cylinder (confirmed by VIDA). I'm very happy that I discovered the TPS failure because of this incident and before it stranded my wife somewhere.

The responsive throttle has brought some life back into the car. Fun stuff! I finished the ETM swap in under an hour without removing the fan. [thumbup]