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Why Does The Weather Affect The Way My Car Runs?

4drftn

By 4drftn,
in General Automotive Discussion

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4drftn Experienced

4drftn

Posted
Posted

hi, iv noticed that my car runs pretty poor in general, except when its a hot day...

the car doesnt keep a steady idle, idles high (1000-1100rpm) and poops and cackles ect. (in the mornings when cooler, or of a night), but when driving on a hot day seams to keep a pretty steady idle and lowers idle down to about 500-600rpm

now, the car was bought from sydney and i am in tassie where the weather isnt always as hot as it is in the mainland. iv been told that the weather could be a factor...

does anyone else have this problem?

could the weather be a factor?

can it be fixed by a tunner?

does it have anything to do with the microtech ecu?

could it possibly be the heat range of my plugs?

anything will greatly be appreciated

cheers

VB- Veteran

VB-

Posted
Posted

doubt it would be plugs, dunno about weather, could be, but take it to your tuner and he should be able to look over your A:F ratios, fuel and ignition maps etc and tell you if its a tuning problem, and might be able to tune it out. get in contact with the previous owner and see if they had similar issues in cold weather, might not have been fully tuned in the first place, might have just had a quick tune

adam-__- Grand Master

adam-__-

Posted
Posted

A tune to suit your climate should fix everything up. The reason it runs better in the warmer weather is because warmer air has I think less oxygen particles per cubic centimeter. Cooler air will have more. If your car is tuned to Sydney weather (warmer than Hobart), the air and fuel mixtures would be different. Something along the lines of that.

4drftn Experienced

4drftn

Posted
  • Author
Posted

thanks guys thought i might have had it all in my head, about what your saying about the denceness of the air and it sounds to me it makes sence when put that way.

as far as getting in contact with previous owner im unsure as to how the car really performed as to when it was picked up in sydney. didnt really take much notice to how the car ran being new to the turbo scene.

(OO)SKYLINE(OO) Grand Master

(OO)SKYLINE(OO)

Posted
Posted
hi, iv noticed that my car runs pretty poor in general, except when its a hot day...

the car doesnt keep a steady idle, idles high (1000-1100rpm) and poops and cackles ect. (in the mornings when cooler, or of a night), but when driving on a hot day seams to keep a pretty steady idle and lowers idle down to about 500-600rpm

now, the car was bought from sydney and i am in tassie where the weather isnt always as hot as it is in the mainland. iv been told that the weather could be a factor...

does anyone else have this problem?

could the weather be a factor?

can it be fixed by a tunner?

does it have anything to do with the microtech ecu?

could it possibly be the heat range of my plugs?

anything will greatly be appreciated

cheers

The weather can affect how you car runs. Turbo car inparticular due to hot weather the cars pretty much sucking in hot air. Only thing cooling the air is the intercooler. My mechanic told me the best temp for the car is 16c - 22c degrees (the best temp for a good day of performance)

The car will idle at a higher rpm in cold mornings / startup and then should go back down to normal idle rpm... 1000rpm (well with mine) when the car is warmed up.

If living in Tassie and its colder weather should = better, (Btw my car loves the cold weather. :( )

If you got "Drift" Spark Plugs, then the car will be quite slugish on startup cuz the plugs can take up to 10mins to warm up cuz they are designed to take a lot of heat as you know with drift racing you are constantly reving the engine.

Take it to your mechanic to check the air/fuel, ECU, idle timing if ya need, doesn't hurt I guess ;)

joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo Grand Master

joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo

Posted
Posted

when you have badly arching out coils the cooler weather can give you problems...

happened to me a while back...

there's a thread around somewhere that goes into good detail

Abo Bob Grand Master

Abo Bob

Posted
Posted
The weather can affect how you car runs. Turbo car inparticular due to hot weather the cars pretty much sucking in hot air. Only thing cooling the air is the intercooler. My mechanic told me the best temp for the car is 16c - 22c degrees (the best temp for a good day of performance)

The car will idle at a higher rpm in cold mornings / startup and then should go back down to normal idle rpm... 1000rpm (well with mine) when the car is warmed up.

If living in Tassie and its colder weather should = better, (Btw my car loves the cold weather. :P )

If you got "Drift" Spark Plugs, then the car will be quite slugish on startup cuz the plugs can take up to 10mins to warm up cuz they are designed to take a lot of heat as you know with drift racing you are constantly reving the engine.

Take it to your mechanic to check the air/fuel, ECU, idle timing if ya need, doesn't hurt I guess :cool:

Dude everything you said sounds great except "drift spark plugs". WTF!? Haha. It is worth pulling out the plugs and checking you have the right heat range but otherwise yes the weather, temp and humidity can affect the tune so getting it retuned locally would be worthwhile. Most of our cars run worse on hot days.

(OO)SKYLINE(OO) Grand Master

(OO)SKYLINE(OO)

Posted
Posted
Dude everything you said sounds great except "drift spark plugs". WTF!? Haha. It is worth pulling out the plugs and checking you have the right heat range but otherwise yes the weather, temp and humidity can affect the tune so getting it retuned locally would be worthwhile. Most of our cars run worse on hot days.

Lol! I was suprised myself when I first heard about it. Friend of mind had a R32 GTS-T 4 door set up for drift and thats what he told me. I'm sure the range should have to be the correct range but the type of spark plugs is what counts I guess. I just use NGK Iradium / Platinum.

4drftn Experienced

4drftn

Posted
  • Author
Posted

looks like a retune for me then, unless the humidity is hot then it willl play up even if warmed up after driving for awhile. but it might pay to check my plugs and my coilpacks also, hopefully its only as minor as this otherwise a retune down here is pretty pricey...

  • 2 months later...
4drftn Experienced

4drftn

Posted
  • Author
Posted

i changed my plugs, the plugs that were in there was gapped at 1.1, the new ones were iridiums that have a 0.8 gap and got rid of the unsteady idle, it was missing like mad before but now its a very slight miss on idel.

plugs have been eliminated, but i still have the high idle problem, would the O2 sensor cause high idle?

some_cs_student Veteran

some_cs_student

Posted
Posted

Are you running a stock ECU or aftermarket?

I noticed that with my PowerFC the car usually starts at 1500RPM and settles down to 1000 pretty quickly (maybe 1/2minute?).

With the MINES ECU it used to go to about 1200 and hover between 950 and 1100 RPM pretty soon after (as in it would stay constant for a couple of mins then change for a couple mins most of the time it stayed on the same idle....).

EDIT: Most of the time I've been using the car during warm/hot weather, not really cold weather...

4drftn Experienced

4drftn

Posted
  • Author
Posted

i have a microtech LT-8 ECU fitted, are you suggesting it could be the ECU? is it possible to alter something on the ECU to change whats happening?

full house can you explain what you mean by road damage? are you saying overtime the ruff roads may have shook and shocked the ECU?

some_cs_student Veteran

some_cs_student

Posted
Posted
i have a microtech LT-8 ECU fitted, are you suggesting it could be the ECU? is it possible to alter something on the ECU to change whats happening?

I *believe* and I emphasize that I am not an expert on cars, that the ECU would be involved here, I mean the computer does control the idle :laugh:

But I'm not sure if its causing any of the other side effects, you will need some more experienced who can help there.

And a steady idle of 500-600 RPM? My car would stall before it gets that low ...

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