V6 Supercharged electrical gremlin

[jesterhead]

Kia ora, lads!

I have a bit of a specific issue and I'm at a bit of a loss. For a while my VX supercharged V6 has had, on the rare occasion over the last few months, a guick misfire (by the feel of it) every once in a while. But today halfway home from work she decided to just run like a complete dog. For the last few weeks I've noticed it runs a bit colder (despite the weather getting hotter) and fuel consumption has suffered a bit as well.
Over the last few weeks/months I have replaced the fuel filter, crank sensor, DFI module, coils, leads and plugs (yes I gapped those), checked for vacuum leaks...
Today, it popped the 15A fuse labelled "engine sensors" three times consecutively.
I checked for logged faults using flash codes on the dash cluster, which came up with 32 (air flow sensor voltage) and 97 (canister purge solenoid). I understand both of these were logged from that fuse popping. I have spares so I swapped both parts.
It also threw out code 49 (cam angle or crank angle sensor signal intermittent), which is odd considering the crank sensor is brand spankin'. Unless there's a cam sensor I'm not aware of..
I'm a heavy/mechanic by trade but complicated electrics is a wee bit over my head.
The only other solutions I can think of is to check out the Oxygen sensors, check earth points and/or chase bloody wires for hours haha.

Any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Ideally I'd like to save some pingas and try fixing it myself. But with a busy schedule and patience wearing thin I may have to just bite the bullet and take it to a specialist.

Cheers, team!

 

[harrop.senator]

Yo homes cam sensors the small 10mm bolt head sensor up above the harmonic balancer from memory is changeable with the balancer still installed and just belt slipped.

Do you have the adapter to put works scan tool on it to them Cross reference the book to see if can nail it down?

How's the harness looking beyond the balancer sometimes people don't re secure it correctly after removing the balancer and it can rub could explain intermittent signal.

 

[jesterhead]

Aah right. I'll have a look for the little bugger.

No adapter and no scan tool. I pulled the codes by bridging pins 5 and 6 on the OBD socket

I'm pretty sure the harness is in fairly sound condition. I will double check though.

Shot

 

[harrop.senator]

All g . The scan tool we've got at work can run a error code and the book can sometimes have the things to look for when those codes come up can be quite hand. Like say " check harness for wear, check for this much voltage at idle " etc. Thought being a mechanic you'd have access to one we'd struggle to get through a week without using one with all these newer pos.

 

[jesterhead]

Hahaha
I work for a small outfit that's rather bare-bones. We actually don't fix too many cars these days, we mostly do
tractors and other agricultural machinery. Plenty of New Holland, Massey Ferguson and Case IH books to flick
through but no Holden books lol

 

[VK SL 3800]

The wires around the Cam angle sensor tend to go hard and have the insulation crack and fall off leaving bare wires to touch.

Find a wiring diagram and have a look at what exactly is powered by that fuse, its possible the harness may need some repairs.

 

[jesterhead]

Yep, looks like that'll be me this weekend. Luckily there's plenty of piss in the fridge :-D

 

[jesterhead]

Well, here's an update, lads...

I was doing some probing and found this.

It appears the Canister Purge Solenoid is rooted and was arcing out the side of the unit onto the cylinder head. So I swapped the unit with the one that was originally fitted and it doesn't seem to be spluttering any more. No dash codes logged either. I'll have to take her out for a good cane later to be sure.
Hopefully it'll be the end of it

PS: I know, the engine bay is in need of a good scrub

 

[Immortality]

Good find.

Sometimes it pays to check for wiring faults at night, those nasty sparks stand out real good with a lack of light

 

[jesterhead]

That'd be more of a summer thing. Gets a bit nippy at night in these parts lol

She's running mint so far after three 80km return trips to work. It's damn close to 300,000 on the clock so it's understandable that things starting to get tired