California Emissions Fun
 

After fearing the California emissions test because of my check engine light, I bought a code reader and got the 1123 code failure. I searched around here and ended up cleaning the MAF and cleaning the throttle body. Went back yesterday afternoon and passed with flying colors. Not only that, but the car idles SO much smoother.

Many thanks to Pedro's Garage for the DIY (www.pedrosgarage.com), I'm no mechanic but you wouldn't know it from my results!

Here's my before and after photos.

[IMG]

Very nice cleaning job.... congrats on passing w/o any problems... :cheers:

Thanks!

I've been lurking around 986forum since I bought the car, this is probably the first time I've really relied on the available advise. The satisfaction I am feeling this week is undescribable.

Not to high-jack my own thread, but how's that conversion of yours? My former Porsche was a 1988 911 Targa, which was faster than my 2.5L Boxster. The reason I sold it and bought the Boxster was because of the fact that I was a much better driver after I test drove one. Now that I have driven this car for a few years, I have improved my driving skills and I was just thinking.......if only this thing was faster and more powerful.

While I am at it, how did you sell the expense of it to your Significant Other???

Hello
 

Wow man thats really nice to see that,,,,,

Hi,

I like it. I went from a supercharged 2.5 to this so it's really hard to tell how much I gained on the mid-top end because the s/c 2.5 actually felt like it had more oomph starting out because of the forced induction and the engine went before I really had any time with it, hence the 3.4 conversion

I've driven a friends 2.5 a some and I can definitely say the low-mid is better than a n/a 2.5 and I can drive around at lower rpms in higher gears without having to downshift unless I want to.

Once some of my savings come back (I just had my house painted, new windows and a new roof..ouch) I plan on getting it up to Jake Raby's to have a going over and possibly the IMS update done just to be safe.

- ian

How hard is it to clean the MAF and the throttle body? I tried opening both last week, and according to a quick analysis it seems both had some tricky obstacles.

The MAF has that security torx screw that on my car seems to not work, I think the grooves has worn down. The throttle body has inaccessible bolts, not sure how to get to these.

Why not pass on the advice, then you'll feel even better :D.

I thought it was reasonably easy, but I am a patient guy. This first time took about 4 hours. I had my kids there with me and I had to stop to get bikes fixed, watch various gymnastic feats in the front yard, serve lunch, etcetera. I thouroughly cleaned all the parts I took out and I was extra careful not to damage anything. Next time I could probably do it in under an hour.

As far as the security Torx, my bolts didn't have much inlet depth either, so it was a pain to remove them. I did it on the bench after I had removed the throttle body from the car and it still sucked.

The bottom bolts for the throttle body are more difficult, but patience is your friend here. It's not too difficult if you take your time and picture it in your minds eye as your doing it (use the force Luke). They are basically not visible, but they are accessible. I used a socket on a short extension (1/4" drive). Once I had it on the bolt I applied the ratchet to loosen. Once loose, I removed the ratchet and just used my fingers and the extension. There's not much room, but there is just enough.

I found the security torx bit at Harbor Freight for under $4 in a kit and bought the MAF cleaner at Autozone. I thought the hardest part of the process was removing the air-inlet tube from the car. For whatever reason I just couldn't seem to find an easy way to get it out other than wrestling with it.

Good luck with your project!