[proudstiowner]

hey guys, just ordered my staticx grounding kit. before installing the grounding wires, the engine idles very smoothly. the odd thing that i noticed is that after installing the ground wires, my engine doesn't idle as smooth as before. the engine shakes often and you can feel the car rocking. maybe it's something that i did wrong.

i was having trouble removing the bolt holding the AC frame so i decided to remove the rectangular plastic electronic device thing above the bolt. i don't know what this is call nor the major function of it is. this device is held by 2 screws (1 up on top and 1 on the bottom). after removing the screws, i pulled the device out. as i pulled it out, i heard a clicking sound. right away i knew that this thing must have a sprung type hook up. could this have cause the rough idle? what is the right way to put this device back on?

i also pulled the vacuum hose off next to point 3 per staticx's instruction. i did forget to plug it back in and started the car anyways. it idles very rough. i turned it off and check the engine again and realized that i didn't put the vacuum hose back on. after putting it back on, it idles much better but still kinda rought. it's like the engine fluctuate every so often. when it does that you can feel the car rock.

i also popped out the air filter cover so i have enough room to remove the screw at point 2. i put the cover back on but i feel lke the air filter cover is not on there very tight... well... i mean i did make sure that the bottom latches wen in place before i push the cover in and pulled the met clips. could a loose air filter cover cause the engine to idle rough?

sorry for the long post... but would really appreciate some feedbacks.

thanks

[staticx313]

hey man, if you have anyproblems... email me first please. That is why i provide my email and what not. It sounds like you removed something very important. I believe that people have said something about that and its a TGV or something valve. Do you have a CEL? To reinstall the valve you have to turn it clockwise or something 90 degrees... there was a thread about this before. Also... which vacuum hose? I dont remember saying to pull any vacuum hoses? I will find you a solution for thsi and this is not normal. I have sold 140 kits now and not a single person has had this happened (except for a couple who removed the TGV or somethign valve and didnt reinstall correctly). Any more info you can give would be great. (Such as CELS, Pictures, anything).

Robert~

heres where im talking about:

mentioned in my huge thread - http://www.imprezawrxsti.com/postnuk...+cel&start=105

thread about the CEL - http://www.imprezawrxsti.com/postnuk...&p=51074#51074

Hope this helps!

[proudstiowner]

sorry i didn't mean to make it sound like the grouding kit wasn't working as it should -- my apology. about the vacuum hose, it's above point 3 (picture 5). i guess i mistaken the note in the instruction about the IC clamp for the hose --- as i usually don't follow instuctions real well. in any case, all is fine after plugging in the hose.

now then... to the long story.

this plastic electronic device that i'm referring to --- guess i know what it's called now (thanks for the link). my real problem comes into play when i removed the TGV sensor to get access to the bolt on the AC bracket. i was doing this pretty late last night so it's been a tough day for me now. i started at about 10:30 pm. got everything installed at about 11 pm. warning:::: don't have kids yet! yeah... my wife couldn't handle our new born daughter anymore. she just won't go to sleep. i have to take care of her for about 2 1/2 hours or so. finally... she slept. it's about 1:30 am when i put the TGV sensor back on. i figure i'll just screw the thing back on and see what happens. for sure, i didn't like the sound of the car when i started up her. i can hear loud knocking sounds with the check engine and cruise control light lit. i'm not too concern about the lights at the moment but i just couldn't bear the engine noise. i turned off the engine quickly -- don't want to damage anything. i have a hunged that it's probably the way i put the sensor back in. so i thought to myself for a little while and decided that since the sensor made a sprung noise when i took it off, i should put it back in sprung. i took off the cable from the sensor. with the cable connecting part of the sensor pointing up, i aligned the sensor in place and turned it to the right. i can feel the stiffness of the spring in the sensor when turning it. after securing it in place with the screws, i snapped the cable back in and started the car. it sounds much better now. no more knocking noises. i turned it off and went ahead to reset the ECU. after resetting it, the check engine and cruise control lights weren't lit anymore. i then proceed to optimize the ECU by following the link in the instruction provided. i took the car out and use the trick mentioned at the naisoc.com website. this trick worked beautifully. i didn't really notice anything different than before --- seems to be back to normal now. what had me concerned was when i got back to the garage. i left the engine running and popped the hood. i can hear this tick tick tick noise coming from the driver's side engine bay. on top of that the engine also fluactuate every so often. when it does, i can feel the car rock. i guess i'm a little over-exaggerating there. i can feel it rock only if i sat still and observed --- otherwise you probably wouldn't even notice it. this is now around 1:50 am. i'm not sure whether this normal or not so i'm a bit concerned. this is when i decided to post the message.

around noon today, i decided to go visit the dealership where i bought the STI from. i asked one of the salesman there to start up one of the STI they have there to see if i can hear the noise and also to see if the engine fluactuates. to my surprise, the same thing is occurring also. though the ticking noise is not as loud as mine and the fluactuating of the engine does cause the car to rock a little bit --- (only if you sit still and really observed). it's just that the engine fluactuation is not as noticeable as mine. well then.... guess i know why my ticking noise seems louder and my engine fluactuation seems more noticeable now.

the grounding kit really does have an effect on the car.... so much so that i thought my car was broken. but in fact it's working better. my car now idles at a lower rpm than before. it used to idle at 750 rpm but now i say roughly between 600-650 rpm. this in turn makes the engine a little less noisier than before thus giving me the effect of a louder ticking noise. the ticking noise is probably still at the same level as before -- just that i can hear it more clearly now with less engine noise. with the engine idling at a lower rpm, the fluactuating is more noticeable. it's probably still fluactuating at same interval as before but more noticeable. again, a little over exaggeration here. you'll need to sit still and observe otherwise you probably won't notice that the engine fluactuates at all.

i was really surprised how much effect it has on the car. the grounding kit really caught me off guard. by all means... if you haven't gotten your kit yet.... you should. didn't someone also mentioned that they have seen gains in mpg also? well... i can believe that now.

sorry for the long long long story. hopefully someone else find this information useful.

[staticx313]

That ticking is normal for any STi... its just valve tick no big issue as it happens in about all subys... they are loud cars. As for the fluctuations... check all your connections and see what electrical devices you have on. The kit was mainly built to fix that vibrating/fluctuating feeling. Well good luck!! Thank you for your feedback and I hope you enjoy the kit!! Give it a couple days and see if that fluctuating is still there! Thanks again for your support!

Robert~

[proudstiowner]

i'm not sure about the fluctuation but i'll check over the connections. it would be very nice to have a smooth idle at 600-650 rpm.