08 Lancer Running Lean?

[ehssohbee]

To get to the point: has anyone else set up a piggy back ECU from Road Race on a 2008 Lancer and had problems with the check engine light? It's throwing a P0171 error sporadically.

More detail:
I have a 2008 Lancer with the Cali ECU (detuned and all that good stuff). I recently added the piggy back from Road Race Motorsports. The car seemed a bit quicker, but the check engine light came on after a couple of days. The error code is P0171, and I'm not sure what that means for the 4B11 engine. From what I can find, for a lot of other Lancers, the code indicates the engine is running lean.

The check engine light seems to come and go, however, making it hard to figure out just what's going on. It went away on its own, then came back after about 4 days. It went off again the other day, then came on a few days later (today). I've had the piggy for a little over a week, so I'm thinking that maybe the car is still "learning," but I'm worried that this might be damaging the engine or causing some other harm.

When I talked to Road Race about it, they said that it's happened before and the code went away after a few days for another customer. They have mostly dealt with the "Federal" ECUs (no Cali smog detunes), so I'm wondering if this is something resulting from that or what.

Any advice on this would be most appreciated. Also, if anyone else has run into a similar problem, please let me know what you did to resolve it (if you were able to).

THANK YOU!!

P.S. Nothing against Road Race! They've been awesome...I just want to get this figure out before anything bad happens!

[polar1120]

Don't know but have the same product and have seen this problem arise. Hopefully goes away soon.

[ehssohbee]

I've been using the R4 software to try to figure out what's going on. In it you can see the voltage levels and corresponding RPM based on throttle position. What I've noticed is that the piggy covers a range of -.8 V to 5.2V. When I had the car out of gear and hit full throttle, the car never went above 3.8 volts. Most of the configuration of the piggy is from 3.1 onward.

I'm wondering if anyone knows what the throttle voltage is on a Federal ECU. If the car is floored and peaking at a much higher voltage on the Fed ECU, could that be the limit of the Cali ECU? Could that also affect how the piggy needs to be tuned? Or is my car just not quite right :P

I'm no expert on these things, but I'm curious if that has anything to do with it. If anyone has some ideas or input on this, please post it up here.

Id also like to find out user experiences for anyone who has a Cali ECU and has installed the Road Race piggy.

[Mystic_Korean]

From what I've seen. When the CEL light comes on, the engine runs at a lower HP and Torque than when the CEL is off. So, if u have a piggy back with the CEL on, it's killing the whole point of it, doesnt it?
Have you tried running a higher octane fuel? It might solve the lean problem.

[ehssohbee]

I was running 89 when the light came on this time. I thought about going with 91, so I'll try that on the next fill up. I do have a tool to turn clear the error code and turn off the CEL, but I'm trying to see if I can make it go off without cheating

Also, the piggy was designed to get more performance without upping the octane, so filling up with a higher octane defeats the purpose of the piggy, as well.

[chachipower]

Originally Posted by Mystic_Korean

From what I've seen. When the CEL light comes on, the engine runs at a lower HP and Torque than when the CEL is off. So, if u have a piggy back with the CEL on, it's killing the whole point of it, doesnt it?
Have you tried running a higher octane fuel? It might solve the lean problem.

Changing octane will not eliminate a lean condition, you will still be lean, but it will allow you to run leaner mixtures depends how lean your talking about though

only way to avoid lean is more fuel, not just more octane

I think those check engine lights are definetely being cause by some voltage level spike above what the ECU recognizes as normal. Could probably be eliminated with some adjustment to the piggyback

[2008BLACKGTS]

It may be reading the o2 voltages in conjuction with throttle position and thinking that they are below what the value should be. Only way to really tell would be to hook up a wide band and make sure you are within an aceceptable value. And if you go into limp mode you are prolly running super rich.

[SeRious08]

Could it be caused from poor connection in the splices? I soldered my connections in. In other words, if it loose the piggy is on-then off-then on ect. Could cause the spikes and drops causing a CEL. IDK, I havn't had anything but pure bliss out of the 1 and only original piggy!!

[chachipower]

Originally Posted by SeRious08

Could it be caused from poor connection in the splices? I soldered my connections in. In other words, if it loose the piggy is on-then off-then on ect. Could cause the spikes and drops causing a CEL. IDK, I havn't had anything but pure bliss out of the 1 and only original piggy!!

This is very true, I used clips on a S-AFC and it would cause crazy stuff to happen, soldered em and problems gone

[ehssohbee]

Alrighty everyone. Rob from Road Race suggested I up some settings a teensy tiny bit in my piggy to see if that helps...and I think it did. After I updated the piggy, I idled for about 15 mins and I could hear changes in the engine taking place. I drove it easy for awhile, then got on it. I was able to chirp 2nd , and the car seems to pull a little better.

I've also tried to do everything I can think of to bring the CEL back on, but it's been good so far and I'm up around 80 miles since the change yesterday. I'm currently running 87 octane and so far so good. I just hope the light stays off.

Before this change I ran a "comparison test" with my bro-in-laws fixed up Scion, and I'm going to try to do another one tonight or tomorrow to see if there's a difference. I'll keep you guys posted.

Also, thanks to everyone who posted suggestions!

[ehssohbee]

Alrighty, the change still made my CEL come on, but it came on after a MUUCH longer period of time. I think the tweak helped, and I'm thinking about grabbing a wideband to see what the actual air/fuel mix is. Should help me tweak the piggy just the way it needs to be. If I can figure this out by myself or with some help (most likely help), I'll post my results for other detuned Lancer owners running with the piggy, in case anyone needs it.

I'm waiting for my bro-in-law to get home so we can do that "comparison" I mentioned before

[ehssohbee]

Here's the latest:

I spoke with Rob, he talked to Mark at Split Second (manufacturer of the Piggy). Mark worked with me to tune the piggy and the car is running much better. Mark took the time to hook up various testers to see what was going on, and he found out that the car was actually not pumping enough gas. He says this could be due to the intake and exhaust (I also have a cat-back exhaust installed). I like to think the damn detuned ECU has a part in that, too.

All I know right now is that my "butt-dyno" is picking up on some serious changes, and the car seems to have it's pep back. I just had this done yesterday, so I'll let y'all know how it goes over the next few days/weeks.

A big THANK YOU to Mark at Split Second (http://www.splitsec.com/), and another big thank you to Rob at Road Race.

[FinestSoldier]

Man, im getting the same damn code, as soon as i installed my RRM intake, before the intake i did not have 1 code! im getting really aggrivated and upset, If this piggy wasn't for cali tunes they should put that in a note shouldn't they? I think i might just remove this piggy.

[Lancer09mx]

it is safe to change it ? /.. what about warranty ?

[watchpinoy]

anyone here change their stock fuel pump to a bigger fuel pump?