viperrt96
Enthusiast
Calling out for some help on this one. A friend of mine buys a 2004 SRT with only 18k miles a month ago. He bought a Viper because I talked him into it. He bought it less than a month ago from a dealer in Chicago and has put less than 1k miles on it since owning it. He’s never owned one before and its bone stock down to the air filters. I preached that in his case a bone stock Viper would suite his needs and he would have the least amount of problems with it over a modded one – not always but in general that’s true about anything. Well…………..this car has proved me wrong. Two weeks ago when it was 100+ degrees here we went on a cruise together. On that day his car had a big time miss to it and it was running very poor / loss of power as he put it. He went around me once and I could smell the fumes (saw dark smoke too – seemed to be running rich). We got to our destination and he said the car is not running right. I said it’s probably the Heat.
Check engine light wasn’t on nor had it ever been on. I noted that the plugs / wires were all original so I suggested it wouldn’t hurt to do the wires / plugs. A good call since it’s almost 9 yrs old right? So he did. He bought Ab’s wires and put in new plugs. Well…….no change at all and it has absolutely no power and it bogs when you first hit the gas. I told him to bring it over and I’ll look at it. On the way over to my house it finally threw a check engine light. Now I’ve not worked on this car prior to this nor have I driven it. I’ve given the above background info so you’ll know what I got myself into
Here’s what I do know
I wanted to see the code it had thrown so I went to scan it with my scanner (Matco proscan or similar to an OTC Nemisys) and it wouldn’t link ? Said “Communication error “ My scanner is updated to 2009 and it is not a cheap scanner for a DYI’er like myself. Anyway the car is a 2004 (10[SUP]th[/SUP] digit) and my scanner wanted the 5[SUP]th[/SUP] Vin and it only opted for an ‘R”. The car has a “Z” as the 5[SUP]th[/SUP] Vin. So I went up a year to a 2005 and it did have the “Z” for an option. Great well same thing “Communication error” WTH? Anyway if I went thru the general OBDII option I finally got thru and the code was PO172B – Did a search here and not much out there on that code – but I know it’s a Rich / Bank 1
Anyway I checked Fuel pressure (55 – ok) I checked IAC (Good) with the scanner hooked up I could see general data stream and all other sensors seemed to be ok (TPS & O2 sensors ) – nothing out of the ordinary right. I then suspected the battery because I know vipers act funny when it comes to a weak battery. Voltage on old battery checked 12.5 / Interstate brand – no date on battery so I had no idea how old it was. Owner wanted a new one so I installed that. No change at all in how it runs. Starts right up / Engine bogs / stalls badly when the TB’s are first cracked open. Similar to a carbed car with a bad accelerator pump. Falls on its face then takes a few secs for the engine to catch up. And it doesn’t really rev like it should. At WOT it gets there slowly / very slowly. Owner threw old plugs away but to him they looked normal. He said they looked lean (light in color) if anything. No dark fouled plugs. I’ve checked all fuses and none are blown. It seems that it can get hot fast but I’m not pushing it.
The reason I’m posting this up here is because where or what should I check next?
Coil packs? Compression check (what should it be) or clogged cats ? Where would you start?
Check engine light wasn’t on nor had it ever been on. I noted that the plugs / wires were all original so I suggested it wouldn’t hurt to do the wires / plugs. A good call since it’s almost 9 yrs old right? So he did. He bought Ab’s wires and put in new plugs. Well…….no change at all and it has absolutely no power and it bogs when you first hit the gas. I told him to bring it over and I’ll look at it. On the way over to my house it finally threw a check engine light. Now I’ve not worked on this car prior to this nor have I driven it. I’ve given the above background info so you’ll know what I got myself intoHere’s what I do know
I wanted to see the code it had thrown so I went to scan it with my scanner (Matco proscan or similar to an OTC Nemisys) and it wouldn’t link ? Said “Communication error “ My scanner is updated to 2009 and it is not a cheap scanner for a DYI’er like myself. Anyway the car is a 2004 (10[SUP]th[/SUP] digit) and my scanner wanted the 5[SUP]th[/SUP] Vin and it only opted for an ‘R”. The car has a “Z” as the 5[SUP]th[/SUP] Vin. So I went up a year to a 2005 and it did have the “Z” for an option. Great well same thing “Communication error” WTH? Anyway if I went thru the general OBDII option I finally got thru and the code was PO172B – Did a search here and not much out there on that code – but I know it’s a Rich / Bank 1
Anyway I checked Fuel pressure (55 – ok) I checked IAC (Good) with the scanner hooked up I could see general data stream and all other sensors seemed to be ok (TPS & O2 sensors ) – nothing out of the ordinary right. I then suspected the battery because I know vipers act funny when it comes to a weak battery. Voltage on old battery checked 12.5 / Interstate brand – no date on battery so I had no idea how old it was. Owner wanted a new one so I installed that. No change at all in how it runs. Starts right up / Engine bogs / stalls badly when the TB’s are first cracked open. Similar to a carbed car with a bad accelerator pump. Falls on its face then takes a few secs for the engine to catch up. And it doesn’t really rev like it should. At WOT it gets there slowly / very slowly. Owner threw old plugs away but to him they looked normal. He said they looked lean (light in color) if anything. No dark fouled plugs. I’ve checked all fuses and none are blown. It seems that it can get hot fast but I’m not pushing it.
The reason I’m posting this up here is because where or what should I check next?
Coil packs? Compression check (what should it be) or clogged cats ? Where would you start?
