INTRODUCTION
The Premise
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My project begins with a car that had been stored in a garage over the winter. I had little to no idea what was wrong with it but I was determined to fix it. I didn't realize how hard the task at hand was until I got my hands dirty. The first hurdle in fixing this car was that the car wouldn't start. I chalked it up to a dead battery after testing it with an electrical meter.
REPLACING THE BATTERY
STEP 1
Remove key from ignition
Open turn-locks
Remove plastic lid
Pull off central vent hose
Important: disconnect the negative (-) ground wire first and put it aside, and then the positive (+) cable
Using a 10mm socket unscrew fastening screw at the base of the battery
Remove battery
STEP 2
Put new battery in place
Screw in fastening screw at base of battery
Important: connect the positive (+) cable first, and then the negative (-) ground wire
Push on central vent hose
Fit plastic lid
Lock turn-lock
Enter the radio code for the entertainment system and the car will reset
AFTER REPLACING THE BATTERY
After replacing the battery I attempted to start the car and to my surprise it started. Although it didn't sound great and the engine died after I touched the gas pedal, I was making progress.
|ASSESSING THE SITUATION
As the car ran I could hear an awful vacuum-like noise coming from the air-intake. I then put the controvertible top into service position.
Step one: Park the car on a flat surface, leave the car in gear, and set the parking brake.
Step two: Open the convertible top approximately 24 inches; enough to raise the rear cover to its highest point. Now remove the key from the ignition, to prevent accidental operation of the top.
Step three: Disconnect two tension rope the ball pivots located on either side of the convertible top. Pry gently, and they should pop right off. You may need to remove the convertible top hinge covers.
Step four: Release the cloth cover. Gently pull straight down on the plastic cover, right at the clip holders.
Step five: Lift the top up and grab the attached strap to secure the back of the top. I used a bungee cord to help. You just want to secure the back of the top so its out of the way.
Step six. Remove the Bose speaker by rotating the four black twist locks. They secure the Bose speaker. Then you can rotate it to get better access to the plug connection.
With the Bose speaker removed, the carpet cover should come right off.
Now you have access to the bolts. There are 5 all around the engine cover. Remove these and you have access to the engine.
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MY HYPOTHESIS
Mass Airflow Sensor
After listening to the strange noises coming from the air-intake and from my previous knowledge of the car, I hypothesized that the MAF (Mass Airflow Sensor) was not functioning correctly. The easiest way to check this is to simply disconnect the wiring harness. This causes the car's on-board computer system to put the car into a limited power mode, sort of a "limp" mode. After doing so, the car ran incredibly when compared to how it ran before I disconnected it.
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This video shows the strange noise coming from the engine.
COMPARISON
The first part of the video shows the car running well. Then I plug the MAF in and the car immediately stalls.
This video shows the car running with the MAF disconnected.
BRAKE LIGHTS
Now that the car was running well, and it began to get late in the day, Murphy's Law kicked in and suddenly the brake lights didn't work. I suspected that it might be the switch under the brake pedal. It is supposed to send the signal to the car's computer system to brake. However, just to be sure I checked all the wiring and fuses to make sure there were no bad connections. After doing so, I realized that the culprit was a bad connection with the switch under the brake pedal. To solve this, I disconnected the wiring harness and rerouted the wires. I checked the physical splicing of the wires for any looseness or wiggle and found nothing. By using a utility knife, I scored into the prongs of the connector to insure that when I plugged the wiring harness back in, there would be good contact. To my surprise, that did the trick. The brake lights worked!