VF Random chat thread

[hademall]

Calais V6 (LFX) running rough

I was on a highway drive, the car was running on 1/4th tank of fuel, 70-80 kmph and all was good. I turned off the highway after approx. 50 kms and stopped at a redlight. It started feeling like the car was running out of breath - noticed (not so) subtle shaking and a dull response to accelerator. Took off gently from the red-light and the car was refusing to accelerate between 1700 and 2500 rpm. Above 2500 rpm it was fine. I stopped at the next red light and this time the shaking was a bit more violent and a flashing CEL with a "service ESP" message came up. A few seconds late I drove on and the CEL light went away, but the car was still not responding as expected, between 1700 and 2500 rpm. By that time I had reached my destination. I parked her there and went about my business. I came back a few hours later and the sluggishness was still present. I drove for approx. 5 mins and pulled over to the side of the road and connected my OBD scanner. There were no error codes but I saw some really weird long term and short term fuel trim readings on bank 2.

View attachment 259031 View attachment 259032

I managed to drive back home and parked for the night. The next day morning, everything seemed to be normal. Took her around the neighbourhood a few times - no shudder, no shaking and perfect throttle response. I came back home and connected the OBD scanner again and found a P1153 error code. Can someone help me figure out what I'm looking at?

Vital stats:
Model: 2016 Calais V V6
ODO: 70,100 kms
Service history: Upto date, always on-time
Battery: replaced the original battery less than 3 months ago
Driver: Not a nut case/ SBTF on the road (or off it)

Contaminated fuel?

 

[Angry8]

I like my VF except the paint is woefully thin just look at it and it scratches and chips .

 

[MaxCommie689]

Contaminated fuel?

Not likely, but possible. I've always filled up busy Shell, BP, Ampol or other major outlets with 98 or 95 rated fuel.

Even if it was the fuel, wouldn't it have an effect across the rpm range? If I put my foot down, all 210kW seem to be coming to play. Is there a way to check for contamination- other than by pulling out that fuel tank?

 

[hademall]

Not likely, but possible. I've always filled up busy Shell, BP, Ampol or other major outlets with 98 or 95 rated fuel.

Even if it was the fuel, wouldn't it have an effect across the rpm range? If I put my foot down, all 210kW seem to be coming to play. Is there a way to check for contamination- other than by pulling out that fuel tank?

Yeah, you are probably right. It was just one of my lame ideas.

 

[MaxCommie689]

Yeah, you are probably right. It was just one of my lame ideas.

Not at all @hademall. I'm just trying to find an explanation for this bizarre behaviour.

 

[dassaur]

How are the fuel trims? Same or evening out a bit more?
if they are evening out then it's hardly going to be a bad 02 and probably fueling.

 

[Skylarking]

Not likely, but possible... Is there a way to check for contamination- other than by pulling out that fuel tank?

Bad fuel wont always cause obvious problems.

Sometime it's subtle and may just be a barely noticeable ping (where timing is retarded) which may be felt as a little hesitation and in other cases you may only get 100m down the road after filling up and the car dies. Reality is it could be anything in between...

Problem with VF's, doing a simple sanity check and looking in the tank isn't easy or cheap because the tank needs to be dropped (with all the associated crap that entails). With some brands, it's just to lift the rear seat and then a little flap of carpet, unbolt the cover and remove the fuel pump to look inside the tank. With such cars, it's QED at home and costs nothing but 10 minutes of your time... Contrast this to 4 hours of labour and a few fasteners that must be replaced.

If it's running fine now, you may never find out what the cause was...

 

[MaxCommie689]

How are the fuel trims? Same or evening out a bit more?
if they are evening out then it's hardly going to be a bad 02 and probably fueling.

Did another run in the afternoon session and recorded a few more readings. The car is back to behaving normally and the readings also seem to be 'normal'. Anything abnormal/ out of place?

A few seconds after start-up

Driving (residential)

Driving (accelerating, on a highway)

Parked and idling

 

[dassaur]

To me it all looks fine except for that STFT bank 1... that's really high. It could just be an anomoly - but I would check again at idle. Ideally you want to stay in the +/-3% range

 

[NJD-1992]

I like my VF except the paint is woefully thin just look at it and it scratches and chips .

Ive noticed the bonnet seems to chip more than the bumper or guards, so part of me wonders if its due to the Aluminium bonnet and the paint not sticking to it as well as the previous steel bonnets

Have also seen mentioned that due to environment regs the paint had to switch to water based compared to the previous solvent based ones