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Please read all of this and try to help me out..

Alright so i bought the car a few months ago and it had a few small issues when i got it, check engine light was always on for various small things. anyways i've had the codes read a couple times. one was the knock sensor and several other small things i dont remember.

but i replaced the knock sensor a few days ago with a brand new one.. the old was all cracked and beat up. the new knock sensor definately made a little difference. car was less laggy and hesitant feeling, throttle response was better and it just shifted through the gears alot more smoothly.
But. for some reason my battery light and ABS light will come on all the time and when that happens my headlights get brighter. ???
sometimes all the are on at once, CEL, battery, and ABS light. and the car will feel really laggy and hesitant. and every once in a while my cd player will just completely turn off, and then come back on a few seconds later. ?? some kind of electrical issues?

and heres the worst part.

yesterday i was coming up a hill towards my house doing like 65, and my car was super laggy, give it gas and like the exhaust seemed to get a little louder but the car wouldnt go any faster and was bogging down.. shift down to 4th, still bogging, slowing down, 3rd.. then i pull over because something was obviously wrong.

i pop the hood and my exhaust manifold under the valve covers was glowing orange.. wtf? and it was only in that one small spot. i was scared so i let it cool down for a bit and drove the rest of the way home very easily.

anyways today i went to a meet and drove about 60-70 miles back home and it did the exact same thing on that same hill. which isnt all that steep.

so im just wondering like wtf could make it get that hot in just that one spot?

and im really curios as to why its so hesitant and laggy and what the CEL and battery and ABS light have to do with that?


any help is greatly appreciated. thanks guys.

Bad alternator. Could be causing a lean condition, which would explain the hot spot and the lag could be a limp-home compensation from the ECU.

Anyone else have a guess?

Sounds like a bad alternator (a diode died) and a clogged converter possibly or the car is running very messed up creating extremely high EGT's.

dittoo^^^

Also.. forgot to mention. the temp guage inside the car was totally normal and the engine was not abnormally hot.. just that one spot was obviously very very hot.

My initial thought was a clogged converter.


The alternator should be easy to rule out. Stick a vom on it and see what is being put out with the car running.

Jeff

the car has no cat. also the alt is about 7months old. the car didnt do it during the summer. does it when the heater is on. it does have ac delete.

my old car.

Update.

Bought a new alternator and that took care of the electrical problems.


But now it is running like crap again.

For instance. Ill be in second gear and smoothly get on the gas (not flooring it but kinda getting on it)
i can hear the turbo spool up and the exhaust gets louder and the rpms slowly and hesitantely go up but the car isnt really going anywhere and its just bogging. The CEL will come on and when i let off and let the rpms come back down the CEL turns off again..

Any ideas or help would be great.

Thanks.

It does sound like a clogged converter, but your said you are 100% sure there is no cat. Do you have a boost/vacuum gauge, what does the boost read? You could have a boost leak that maybe causing the turbo to overspool beyond it's eficiency range. Is the glowing exhaust after the turbo or before? Have you ever cleaned the MAF? How does it idle, ever check for metered air leaks or vacuum leaks? How much boost are you running on the VF-11?

Checked the codes and its the Knock sensor again. i replaced the knock sensor a few months back with a brand new one. so im pretty sure its something in the wiring, which i know nothing about.

Knock sensor wiring is relatively straight forward, a inner wire and outer shield, both that get connected to the ECU. Some on the forum (myself included), have replaced the old wire with microphone wiring (since it's shielded too) when the KS wiring is suspect. Are you sure the KS connector is tight and doesn't have any play?

Also, follow the FSM below to double-check the wiring is ok.


Did you clear the code(s) after installing the knock senor? If not, you'll need to do that otherwise you're just reading latent/old codes. If you purchased the evoscan/revscan ODB-I data cable, then you could reset the ecu / clear codes and examine various ECU paramaters, which might give some additional insight on what's wrong.