GT Starlet Turbo Light

[Mr GTZ]

So I have been borrowing my brothers GT Starlet lately and I am very curious about the circle turbo light in the rev meter. Being stock standard should the whole thing light up when you floor it right out to say 7-8000rpm, cause right now it only lights up 4 bars if im lucky. Basically is this a factory thing or is their something wrong with his car? Oh yeah to save confusion I am aware of the hi/low turbo button and I have been driving with it on High.

[sergei]

So I have been borrowing my brothers GT Starlet lately and I am very curious about the circle turbo light in the rev meter. Being stock standard should the whole thing light up when you floor it right out to say 7-8000rpm, cause right now it only lights up 4 bars if im lucky. Basically is this a factory thing or is their something wrong with his car? Oh yeah to save confusion I am aware of the hi/low turbo button and I have been driving with it on High.

It is poor man's boost gauge. Shows voltage from map sensor (sort of).

[molex]

Yes it should light up full bars on a dead stock setup, is it modified at all?

[Mr GTZ]

Yes it should light up full bars on a dead stock setup, is it modified at all?

Oh bugger that doesn't sound good. All it has modification wise is a Pod Filter and some sort of exhaust, not sure what it has. Ok so would anyone have a idea on what could be causing this?

[molex]

Boost leak after the turbo almost certainly. Or a buggered turbo.

Does it smoke at all?

[Akane]

Make sure the Lo boost switch is deactivated?

[Mr GTZ]

Low Boost switch is deactivated and can honestly say it doesn't smoke at all. So I guess I had better start looking for leaks.

[1hypo3]

It could be a faulty switch id bypass the switch or test it with a continuity test

[molex]

Actually you're not wrong, could potentially be the switch but more likely to be a faulty solenoid. You can easily check this by bypassing it entirely, pull vac hose that goes to the inlet manifold off, pull off the hose that goes to the compressor housing of the turbo and join together, voila - full boost all the time (and actually a little bit more than you'd otherwise get)

FYI hi/lo switch is a bullshit feature which does nothing but make you go slower and use more petrol. Bypassing it is something I'd recommend to anybody with a 4e-fte.

[Akane]

People in Japan might need it for the snow mountains, 135ps is serious business

[sergei]

Actually you're not wrong, could potentially be the switch but more likely to be a faulty solenoid. You can easily check this by bypassing it entirely, pull vac hose that goes to the inlet manifold off, pull off the hose that goes to the compressor housing of the turbo and join together, voila - full boost all the time (and actually a little bit more than you'd otherwise get)

FYI hi/lo switch is a bullshit feature which does nothing but make you go slower and use more petrol. Bypassing it is something I'd recommend to anybody with a 4e-fte.

Wrong, Solenoid bleeds the air when the "High Boost" is on. If connected directly it always will be on "Low Boost".

[molex]

Really? Because thousands of starlet owners (including myself) would care to disagree. I can't be bothered expending effort even thinking about how the system works, but bypassing it DOES set to the hi boost figure + 1psi or so.

[molex]

People in Japan might need it for the snow mountains, 135ps is serious business

Quite right, it was for low grip conditions. It's quite a bit easier to just use less throttle however...

In the Glanza's they got even more devious, to cut down on wheelspin boost was limited in 1st/2nd regardless of the setting on the hi/lo switch

[sergei]

Really? Because thousands of starlet owners (including myself) would care to disagree. I can't be bothered expending effort even thinking about how the system works, but bypassing it DOES set to the hi boost figure + 1psi or so.

The problem is that you don't understand how a bleed type of boost control works.


Solenoid works as a bleed, if you apply direct line bypassing the bleed to the actuator it will open at lower boost as there is more pressure going to the actuator.

If you trace hoses from turbo, to actuator you will find it splits in two where 1 line goes to solenoid while another to actuator. In this configuration the leak (solenoid open) will cause the higher boost as there is less pressure to push the actuator.

[sergei]

In the Glanza's they got even more devious, to cut down on wheelspin boost was limited in 1st/2nd regardless of the setting on the hi/lo switch

This also appears to be a myth.

Although I might be wrong on this one as the switch is not directly connected to solenoid but is controlled via ECU.

[Mr GTZ]

Really appreciate everyone's feedback. Helped me figure out what had happened. I couldn't find any leaks so I started investigating the vacuum hoses. As the diagram below explains the blow-off and intake vacuum hoses had been switched somewhere along the line. Same goes for the two hoses going into what looks to be a solenoid or valve/sensor. What a fcuken difference that made, see this GT Starlet is my brothers run around and he doesn't care for the power etc, so he never thought to pick up on it. Apparently it's been like this since he bought it for $1000. Thanks all once again.

[molex]

This also appears to be a myth.

Although I might be wrong on this one as the switch is not directly connected to solenoid but is controlled via ECU.

I have a Glanza. I have a boost gauge. I have personally witnessed on no less than half a dozen Glanzas including my own lower boost in 1st/2nd, not to mention it being common knowledge within the starlet community. Likewise I have bypassed the stock hi/lo solenoid on MANY starlets with the net result of full time hi boost + a bit more, this has been well documented time and time again.

I do understand solenoids, actuators etc, the standard EP82/EP91 actuator has two ports to facilitate the hi/lo functionality, bypassing the solenoid like I describe (and it's pretty obvious if you're in front of one how to go about it) definitely does NOT result in lower boost. k? thx.