Powerlogger doesn't work in my car

Its never done it with the old ECM (no power logger at all) and never (yet) done it with the I/O board disconnected. And yes I put the old ECM back in to confirm. I need more time with this thing messing up. I just have a hard time believing I have just developed a power/ground issue that never existed before changing ecms and adding power logger
 
Its an electrical gremlin. Double check all your grounds. . .and when you checked it, check them again. . Retorque all bolts. You would be surprised. .
 
Lol. Guys, I have checked the main ground on the turbo bracket, the grounds on the back of the head, starter wires, wires on frame rail, etc. I know everybody wants to say check grounds but let's just say if they are ok what else are your thoughts? I am by no means a newb to electronics or electrical diagnostics. Quite the contrary.

I know it's possible but come on. Go from never having an issue to having a very frequent issue after changing stuff? Has to be related to what I did / installed. I will say the plugs I installed and gapped were much different than what the previous owner had in the car. Maybe the coil / module is weak as was stated earlier in the thread and now I'm loading it differently. My next ideas are going to be taking the module and coil off my dads 87 TB and trying it out. I still need to come to the conclusion as to if I'm 100% confident that it only does it with the PL I/O hooked up. I may take my original ECM apart and install it isn't the modified cage so that I can use the PL with it.
 
Just finished running the crap out of the car again. Messed up with the I/O board plugged in, unplugged the I/O board and drove it 3 times as much and it absolutely will not mess up with the I/O board disconnected. This seems to be a pattern
 
Ok I was wrong about the I/O board. It did it with the cable unplugged from the PL board and I did Erics suggestion of trying it with the cable plugged into the PL but unplugged from the IO board itself. He wanted to see if the cable was acting like an antenna for interference. It messed up both ways.

I tried my OEM ECM with PL and same issues.

Removed the PL and two days of hard driving. Went through 2 gallons of meth. No more issues since removing the PL. I have an order in with Eric for a new 6.1 chip. I am hoping he will send me a known good PL to try. I just don't want to worry about if I got another bad PL of a batch. I need to confidently eliminate things from the equation and right now it appears my issue is like buickruss issue
 
Still no glitches since removing the PL. Driven a lot. Eric is sending me a new PL board to try. If that doesn't fix it I may try different wires. Bob mentioned he has seen weird issues with MSD wires so that may be my next try.
 
Update: Received Eric's new PL board today. Installed it and issue happened first WOT blast. Figured I would swallow my pride and go buy the special Goof Off stuff that is written in the instructions (20 miles each way) and give the connector another clean. I previously used acetone and thought it was clean. Re-installed, same issue. The car lost the tune during one of these glitches. This was only like the 2nd time that the tune reset after one of these issues. Drove back to the shop and spent the rest of the evening tracing power / ground as I've been told numerous times. Performed voltage drop tests on both ING 12V as well as the long term memory circuit, and both ECM grounds. Loaded each circuit with a headlamp test fixture that I have made for troubleshooting electrical problems in the past. Nothing interesting found. Used a second person to monitor voltages while second person pulled, tugged, and twisted on all grounds and power wires as well as body connectors. Everything perfect. I didn't expect to find anything as the issue only happens with PL connected to the ECM. My last test was done using my Fluke 87V on the MIN/MAX PEAK mode which allows you to monitor a signal and it will catch glitches down to 250uS (0.000250 seconds). I was monitoring for the min voltage but by this time I only got in 4-5 WOT blasts. Its 32 degrees here and started raining. The bald Nitto DR's are downright scary on 32 degree wet road. My next plan of action is to try my old set of wires tomorrow (as well as keep monitoring power & ground), and after that I guess I will run a separate power and ground from the battery to the ECM as has been suggested (although no testing supports this theory in my case, its not that hard to try).

On an unrelated issue, I thought I had a tune somewhat close yet still conservative. After getting a few PL blasts today while troubleshooting I noticed a ton of KR after lifting off the throttle due to severe traction loss (wet road) followed by mashing it again. like 9-13 degrees KR. Is this bad? It was only immediately after lifting off the throttle. I have no KR under WOT, off to search.....
 
I just read this post for the first time. I have had this same problem happen 3 times on a fresh build with all good tested parts on a previous build. I believe it is between the ECM and PL connection. I have a new chip, injectors and my stock 35k ECM to install and test. It will be a few months before I can install and test.

One bit of info I can add is if you interrupt the USB connection to the computer while the car is running it will die. This is very simulure to the symptoms that occur under boost.
 
I believe I would try taking the ecm out of the case and run it just the naked ecm and the pl , the case might be hitting the pl somewhere it does not like or putting pressure on it some how .
 
this last weekend i was messing around with the plug on the tps(which is where i get my 5v for the 3bar map)
unplugged it and was checking out the connection.didnt touch anything else or touch anything else and it stopped doing this wot drop.its been constant wot resets for weeks now.
thinking maybe the connection or the tps itself.is it possible inside the tps?
 
Idk but the problem never occurred with no PL for days. Put PL back in and problem came right back. Here is what I know for today

IS NOT: power or ground issue on either the long term orange wire, or either ECM ground. Still testing the 12V ing.

IS NOT: MSD wires. Put the old magnacore wires on, same issue.

Going to the track tonight. Trying to decide if I want to try to run with PL. I think I'm going to put the other ECM in without PL
 
So I took the PL out. Drove 1.5 hrs to the track last night, made 14 passes, and drove home. No issues.
 
No. Ran a 93 octane TT5.6 chip

Edited the title to be more fitting of my issue as it stands now. Idk if this should be moved to the chips section or not. I feel bad that my thread keeps bouncing to the top of the general thread, but I still haven't resolved my issue.
 
Last edited:
TurboBuRick said:
Time to send it all to TurboBob...
Click to expand...
Yea I agree. But I am sure its not the ecm or PL itself. Its got to do with my car somehow. I have a few more things I want to try and then I will be to the point that I would be willing to take the car to him wherever he is!

I want this to work sooo bad. It seems like a fantastic product for somebody like myself that is new to tuning, and is not ready to drop 2K in an XFI setup. My experience level nor my car is ready for that jump yet.
 
Has the car shown any symptoms without the pwoerlogger?

I one time had a powerlogger with a internal short. If I remember right, it was in the wideband circuit. Car would act up with powerlogger and run fine with out it. Long story short it was sent in once and cleared of any issues. Came back, still had the same problem. Sent it back to Bob where it finally jacked up on him.

Rick
 
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