Mysterious issues
 

Hello, everyone.

Setup: speedyefi pnp kit, quantum 255 fuel pump, sr20 turbo, ebay intercooler/piping, stock injectors but i have 750s that i haven’t installed yet. some random aftermarket fuel regulator the car came with when it was stock.

I’ll try and make this quick even though it’s a lot lol. I have a 1990 mazda miata. She’s been boosted for almost 2 months now and it’s super fun when it works properly. The problem is the car entering this “limp” mode. I’ll try turning it on sometimes and it’ll start right up but other times it’ll take many attempts at starting it to get it on while my gamma enrichment gauge on tuner studio is lighting up red. Once it is on, it either wants to idle at 400-600rpms and die after about 10 seconds or idle at 400-600rpms for as long as i keep the car running. If i try to drive it in this state, the car has almost no power on the bottom end. It’ll take 20+ seconds to get up to 20mph after freeing up and driving “normally”. I put normally in quotations because it doesn’t really drive normally, it’ll just have some power and keep itself alive while it’s moving lol. The only solutions i’ve found so far are to either reload the base tune that i downloaded on the speedyefi website or just letting the car sit for a few days without touching a thing. Each time the car shits on itself like this, i’ve just brought it back to the tuner and all he does is start a new project on tuner studio and basically copy and paste the original tune after going over it. Everything’s fine for the hours when he’s tuning the car and the issue has never occurred while he was tuning. Only hours after i’ve left him or days later. His most recent response to me when asked what i should do about the car is to load and keep the base tune speedyefi has on their website lol. I don’t appreciate that answer too much considering i’ve already paid this man over $400 total to have a tuned car just for him to tell me to use a free tune from a website as if i didn’t pay him? lol. I appreciate the help of anyone, i’m just trying to enjoy my turbo miata :(

If anyone needs a data log/tune file or anything specific about the car that i did not list, please feel free to contact me about it. My email is christian.pichardo617@gmail.com

I don’t think these sad face emojis can truly express my sadness.

Kinda sounds like your cold start settings are fouling a plug or two, or a coil is intermittently dying. $400 isnt even half a tune in this area, and would t even get you on a dyno. And if your shit is fucked, not really much he can do anyways.

its actually not crazy expensive around here. you could definitely get some dyno time with $400+ around here. ive only had street tunes mainly because im not focused on reaching a certain number. I just want a reliable turbo miata lol And what do you mean if my shit is fucked? what shit?

If your coils, wiring, plugs, plug wires, injectors, etc aren’t working properly, you can’t tune around that. If it’s fouling plugs when cold occasionally, and the tuner never has the car when cold, you can hardly fault him there. Just hate when tuners are thrown under the bus. 90% of the time it’s a mechanical issue with the car, not an issue with the tuner.

As much as I agree with you about mechanical issues Curly and I see this kind of thing a lot. I would think a reputable tuner would have an idea of what reasonable cold start settings might be, not to mention maybe they can see what the problem might be. I will say that I think BOV's are often an undiagnosed source of vacuum leaks that change with temperature, affecting idle.

I agree $400 is very little for a decent tune, but I am near SF so everything is crazy expensive around here.

Going into the tuner with the car sorted mechanically (relays, sensors, coils, etc) sounds like the only way to take it?
​​unless you like spending money twice after they tune around some of them...