Boost Control Solenoid

bang

Well-known member
ISDC Club Member
Some of you may have remembered me losing all boost on the club AGM drive a few months back. It turned out to be the boost control solenoid need cleaning as apparently they get clogged up over time.

So i followed the instructions and cleaned it and reset the ecu and all was good until last week when i lost boost again.

I have had a new clutch fitted recently so have been driving on low boost until last week when i stuck it back to high boost [1.3] and then the problem of losing boost happened.

This issue has only occurred twice and both times i have been on high boost [1.3]

This time i said i would just try resetting the ecu as that is alot easier than cleaning the solenoid and it actually worked strangely enough, so all good now and i have been driving in only high boost the last couple of days to see if it happens again but no issues thankfully.

I dont know if it is a map issue but i have been mapped on ecutek racerom.

All good now but just wondering if anybody can explain what the possible cause could have been as I am kind of discounting the boost control solenoid now as if that was the issue surely an ecu reset wouldnt have resolved the issue
 
It’s not uncommon for an ECU to shut down the boost control system to limit the boost you are making. Depends on the parameters but there’s a chance you could be overboosting and the spikes could be triggering a failsafe - can you see any data? Give the mapper a shout to be certain but I’d say that’s what you’re looking at
 
:plusone:

If you are sure you in and around right boost pressure, and not actually overboosting (as per gauge or obd app), then more than likely boost cut threshold setting a bit too aggressive (if overall boost increased the boost cut threshold needs to be adjusted too and sometimes is forgotten). 2 minute job to change for someone with an ECUtek license (your mapper).
 
Thanks lads :thumbsup: At least I had the right train of thought.

I haven't got any boost gauge in the car, I thought the ecutek app would at the minimum have a boost gauge but no, so I must get a dongle for the Torque app and see what I'm boosting at.

I can datalog on the ecutek app so if it happens again I will send a file to the mapper to see.
 
if you have the ECUconnect dongle you can change what's displayed on it to show manifold pressure or boost error. Boost error is how far out you are from the target value so good to see if your over/undershooting target.
If your datalogging, check the IAM value, on a hawk it should be 1.0 but if it should drop to a low enough value the ECU will disable boost as a failsafe.
 
if you have the ECUconnect dongle you can change what's displayed on it to show manifold pressure or boost error. Boost error is how far out you are from the target value so good to see if your over/undershooting target.
If your datalogging, check the IAM value, on a hawk it should be 1.0 but if it should drop to a low enough value the ECU will disable boost as a failsafe.

Thanks man! I never knew that i could change the dashboard before. I will go for a drive later and see.

So the ecu connect app isn't that bad after all then.
 
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