freakin cold air

[Tifun]

So today I'm in the car, it's cold out....28 according to the cluster and the car is fully up to temp, been driving for about 30 minutes or so. Go to get on the highway and a rig didn't want to move over to let me merge so I smash the loud pedal and drop to third and move to about 80 quickly to get some distance.

In that time the car pulled like complete shit. I mean seriously bad. It felt like misfires, although it wasn't. I don't know how to explain it. Throttle felt blippy and a tons of small very minuet misses or cutouts. It only does this when it is cold out. It did it the other day as well at around the same temp. But once the temp got up a little more it wasn't there.....

How much should the colder thicker air affect the car considering the stg3 and all. And does the car actually need to adjust to the different pressures? I really don't think there is anything wrong with the car, just noticed it felt a little different in the colder temps below 34 plus or minus a few there.

[s42k5b]

Coil Packs maybe...not sure though

[JumboBlack1.8]

Did u have ur heat on? My car sometimes acts different when mine's on...it doesn't drive like shit, but the increased engine load does effect the throttle response a bit

[andyrew]

I dont know all the math, but if your on electronic boost control with the colder denser air you are running much more air through your intake than at lower temperatures. This can cause a lean situation.

How are you controlling the boost?
I noticed on my GIAC with the K03 the program changed the boost to about 15 in low temps and about 20 in high temps, this made the car feel the same in regards to HP at all times.

Now that I am APR stage 3 I think this might be an issue. I havent gotten on it when its cold, so I dont know quite yet, but at night when its about 50 out it does stumble more than in the day at 90 deg.

Next time your in a situation like that (and you have an EBC) just turn your boost down (or if your like me turn it to your super conservative setting of 15psi VS 23) and try it again.

GL

[DND]

Strange, my car feels much stronger when it's cold.

[Spykce]

DND if your is stock it probably would feel/be stronger with cold air. Stg3 and stock are world's apart for diagnosing problems from what I have been reading on the boards. Hope you can figure it out, that would be incredibly upsetting. Sounds like a lean condition but I have no basis for this really.

[Tifun]

I did have the heat on, I noticed it today as well. I paid a little more attention to things though. It feels like lose of power or lack there of. Also seems to have a definite cut or miss feeling but only up top in the RPM's. Another big notice was the drop in PSI. Seems to have dropped from 23 to 20. The HG's are the same as normal. Not sure if that matters or if this is all to blame to the colder weather. Again the car was fully up to temp for at least a 20 minute period when I went WOT. It did it at lower and higher speeds. At this point I am thinking there may be something wrong. Turbo might be going out possibly, any thoughts to that??????

[Tifun]

I suppose I should note that my stg3 kit has over 100,000 miles on it.....

[andyrew]

If your holding pressure, your holding pressure...

Try doing it again at the warmest portion of the day... (and post what temp that is)

[mike-2ptzero]

I dont know all the math, but if your on electronic boost control with the colder denser air you are running much more air through your intake than at lower temperatures. This can cause a lean situation.

How are you controlling the boost?
I noticed on my GIAC with the K03 the program changed the boost to about 15 in low temps and about 20 in high temps, this made the car feel the same in regards to HP at all times.

Now that I am APR stage 3 I think this might be an issue. I havent gotten on it when its cold, so I dont know quite yet, but at night when its about 50 out it does stumble more than in the day at 90 deg.

Next time your in a situation like that (and you have an EBC) just turn your boost down (or if your like me turn it to your super conservative setting of 15psi VS 23) and try it again.

GL

Car doesn't go lean because the maf tells the ecu there is more air being sucked into the motor even if the boost level is the same.


The issue is most likely the fact that he is running the wrong spark plugs for the very cold temps, so when temps drop a much hotter plug needs to be used.

[maxspeed]

i need to change my plugs too its been in the twentys and idle has gone to shit

[Tifun]

Car doesn't go lean because the maf tells the ecu there is more air being sucked into the motor even if the boost level is the same.


The issue is most likely the fact that he is running the wrong spark plugs for the very cold temps, so when temps drop a much hotter plug needs to be used.

I've ran the same plug all year round, never had any issues before with them. Temp was in the mid 50's today and the car still ran the same. I feel as though this isn't a temp thing and is thrown out the window. I guess the next step is to log it via vagcom.....something I've never done lol. Gotta go do some reading and give it a shot.

[mike-2ptzero]

I've ran the same plug all year round, never had any issues before with them. Temp was in the mid 50's today and the car still ran the same. I feel as though this isn't a temp thing and is thrown out the window. I guess the next step is to log it via vagcom.....something I've never done lol. Gotta go do some reading and give it a shot.

Maybe your plugs are just bad.

[Tifun]

Could be. I suppose I could check that. I change them every 3 oil changes. So close to 10,000 miles. I am coming up on my third change here in about 2,000 more miles. Wouldn't hurt to change them I suppose. Cheap and easy hehe.

[Tifun]

Ordered new plugs through APR. Nobody else had them in stock. I paid $80 for plugs. Not happy about that.....

[mike-2ptzero]

Ordered new plugs through APR. Nobody else had them in stock. I paid $80 for plugs. Not happy about that.....

What plugs do you use?

[Tifun]

What plugs do you use?

NGK PFR7B

They charged me $15 to ship them yay So the plugs were $65 but I including shipping into the final cost to me....

[mike-2ptzero]

NGK PFR7B

They charged me $15 to ship them yay So the plugs were $65 but I including shipping into the final cost to me....

Ouch. Yeah that is a bit much for shipping plugs, I guess they didn't have a USPS option.


RockAuto sells them for $10.80/each which is $43.20 for a set of 4 and they are in WI which is much closer then AL.

[Tifun]

I guess I will try them next time. I didn't have any luck finding anyone who had them in stock. Just bad timing on my part I suppose. All I want is for the car to run properly again.

[Jayh922]

I know exactly what your talking about. I am having the same problem. I think mike-2ptzero is right. While driving in the cold, i feel a kinda hesitation like a misfire or something. What type of spark plugs should i get for the cold weather that is here and to come?

[mike-2ptzero]

You can just get a plug that you run now but go 1 step hotter, this most likely will put you back to a stock heat range plug.

[Jayh922]

Thanks, i appreciate it

[Tifun]

This sucks. UPS left a note yesterday without knocking or ringing the bell...today I guess they just didn't feel like stopping by.

[gli_ryan]

i know you've already ordered/almost recieved the plugs, but i was having this issue with my car. it was the spark plugs, i went with ngk brk8eix and that fixed it. but i wanted to try something else, then switched to bosch f6dtc. they work the same.

[Tifun]

Ryan, are you running stock ko3 or bigger? You are in my region so any info would help.

[Tifun]

Plugs are finally here.....longest time waiting on plugs. Although I am too lazy to drive and get a plug gapper. I have one at work.....I'll just lazily do it tomorrow lol.