Ok im a 2.2 but my buddy has ur SSTC and we went for a pull today to see how bad it beats mine...all i have to say is...boost...anyways hecalled me me after and said his car is only boosting to 6lbs, the cars idle is all over the place, the check engine light came on, and he said the car is almost like shakin when he was driving it back to my place...so if anybody wants to help out that would be nice...oh its bone stock with 27000 miles on it

 

vacuum line came loose somewhere?

 

when u say vacuum line what do u mean? where do i look

ok update: i got home from class and he started the car for me and reved it when my hand was behind the tailpipe to see if anything came out of the exhaust...my hole arm was covered in black soot and a liquid with no smell...which i think was fuel because it turned my arm pretty damn cold...so he is still under warranty so he is going there tomorrow...

 

Keep us updated, please. Did he get any codes?

 

is there a hissing or high pitched air noise under the hood which could be the boost tubes blew off or a cracked intercooler end tank? I guess if its putting out black smoke that bad could be a big engine issue or like a turbo seal.

 

Making less boost... boost leak
Makes black smoke... rich... boost leak
Coats hand with liquid that makes it cold... gas... rich... boost leak

This explains the shaking and hissing/air noise (if it's got one) too. Mine made a hissing/air noise right after my stocker IC blew, along with the jerking.

 

^ x2

 

ewww i was just thinking he fouled some plugs....when u say blow the intercooler...ur say from the pressure? i wish i knew how to post a picture because i took one of my hand after it was covered and its almost like a diesel motor step on the gas right infront of my hand

 

the intercoolers end tanks are plastic (ie. where the charge pipes connect to the intercooler). if you hit something or too much boost they are kind of known to break. Also there is a TSB for the hot side charge pipe to blow off the ic, that could of happened as well.

 

^This.

In my case, I scraped it on a ramp going up to a gas station and the plastic broke.

These symptoms could be true of any large boost leak though, IC or not.

 

my roomate drove my car and she smashed a huge pot hole and it put a huge crack in the plastic of the intercooler. had no boost and the car would barely push over 4k rpms

 

Yeah, mine wouldn't go over 20MPH and then it'd go limp, coast to a stop, and didn't have enough power to even move.

 

I have broken 3 intercoolers. One on a racoon, and two more from the coldside charge piping slipping off after letting off WOT at 15 PSI. The IC tubing slips and the backpressure blows the IC forward because the brackets are flimsy and the endtanks are plastic. The endtanks break at a weak point next to the bracket. The two that I cracked from the coldside piping coming loose cracked where you see the red line on this pic


Apparenty my dealer's mechanics don't know their asses from a hole in the ground. They were securing the clamps right up near the tank, on top of the ridge that is supposed to signify where you stop the piping at when installing. They had it all the way up where the red line is in this pic:



When I got it back the last time, I moved it back to where the t-bolt clamp is right next to the barb on the end of the IC tube. I haven't had any issues since. The mechanic just wouldn't listen to me, like I was some kind of idiot.

 

After spending my fair share at the dealer waiting on things, I've heard quite a few interesting things customers have told the dealer. It made me more understanding about their point of view.

One of my favorites was when this customer came driving up in this truck, blaming an electrical problem he was having on his "Cadillac Converter".

 

I am a mechanic as well, just not on cars. I was just going to keep breaking them until they told me how right I was, but it was too much of a pain, so I fixed it myself in 10 minutes.

 

ok update: We went to the dealer yesterday and they said they took the maf sensor out cleaned it and now it runs fine...we took both our cars out for a joy ride after since it was nice out in Michigan...rarly happens...then drive through down around 7 pm after driving it for about an hour and it starts poopin out again...black smoke outta the tail pipe not as much as before tho...so we pull into my driveway and it sounds like the car has cams in it...it lopes funny like its cammed almost...so we are taking bcak to the stealership to tell them they suck and to fix it