perseuss69

There were quite a few leaks on both sides, interestingly. European salty winters make quick work of Japanese cars it seems. But they should be fixed for now and both O2 sensors read 0,9V at idle. I was hoping it would have some effect on the long term fuel trims as well, but no luck. I guess it's just due to weak compression or a mix of things.

Thanks! I'll be taking the car to a shop tomorrow and see if they spot anything.

Hi About a week ago I got a P0430 - Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 2) code, that I cleared and hasn't come back. From what I understand that could be caused by: bad O2 sensor/s, cat failure, exhaust leak, and perhaps even from short trips during cold weather. Now, today, after some driving I had the car idling at operating temp and decided to take a look at the OBD2 readings, since it was idling a bit too high. I saw that one O2 was at 0,8V and the other at 0,1V. That seems odd. I've added a short video of the car idling and applying light throttle for a second. Any thoughts on what could cause this? Exhaust leak? Bad sensor/s? Also as a side note: the car is and has been for a long time, running quite rich. LTFT1 at -20% and LTFT2 at -10%. Thanks. Screen_Recording_20240109_180453_Torque.mp4

Removed the air inlet pipe just to try it, and the car sounds way better at higher revs. So now I'm wondering, are there any downsides to removing it? It's all before the air filter and MAF, so shouldn't affect much. Only thing I can possibly think of is sucking in hotter air since the intake hole is now nearer to the engine? Also thought I heard a strange windy noise when it wasn't really that windy outside. Not a constant sucking per se but intermittent blowing. I'm referring to part number 7 in the picture.

Yeah, I can't get that either. Matter of fact, I can't get anything that people normally use for that process, so I'm going to be using a 50/50 mix of acetone and ATF.

Bit of a halt of plans currently. Turns out that you cannot ship aerosol sprays out of the UK. Not sure what a good substitute would be that I could get my hands on. Don't think there are many.

In the first post in this thread I mentioned that I replaced the spark plugs and did a compression test, so I am aware of the process :). That's a good point to do two oil changes. I'll think about it. Will cost a bit more but it would be better.

Thanks for the advice. I am going to use the soaking method, to have any potential effect on the rings at all. That means removing the spark plugs, spraying/pouring some amount of Sea foam into the cylinder and letting it soak. I read on their site that you should let it soak for 2-3 days while adding a bit more each day and cranking the engine. Since it is indeed advised to change the oil after the procedure, I'm thinking of using Liqui Moly's engine flush as well. Or would that be too much?

@Mr Vlad @Linas.P What do you think, should I only soak cylinder 3 (lowest compression) with Sea foam or all of them?

Could you post an Amazon link for it? I can't find any Seafoam products on amazon.co.uk.

Actually, I might. Is Seafoam available in the UK?

I think I tried looking for it, but did not want to order it from the US and didn't find it in the EU. I cleaned my valves using K2 carb/intake cleaner. Seems like the way to go would be to let the pistons soak with Seafoam, but in that case I'd only do it with Seafoam, not some other brands. Other than that I'd use Liqui Moly's engine flush with my next oil change. I'm in Estonia.

I was looking for Seafoam, but it seems that you can only order it from the US, which is very expensive. The shipping alone was about $50 USD. I didn't find any European vendors for it.

Why'd you have the cleaning done?

It's a 2008 that I bought at 162k kilometers. That is not high mileage. The page I linked above says to make sure that the engine rpm should be above 250 to conduct the compression test. I'm fairly certain mine did not rev that high. So that might explain the lower compression readings overall, but it is still clear that one cylinder is way lower than the rest. Might try doing an engine flush with my next oil change. Perhaps I'll try getting a borescope to take a look at the cylinder walls. I use 98-octane fuel from a decent brand. At first glance it seems that Terraclean is a UK-based service? I'm from Eastern Europe.