I think today is the closest I’ve ever come to being unexpectedly stranded by the mothership. Went out to my car, started it and the engine revved way up and then down to almost stalling before leveling out. Then the CEL blinked on. Tried driving and every little bit of load brought the engine to a near-stall.

Parked back in my office parking lot and started investigating. CEL blink code was for MAP sensor malfunction. Got a multimeter from the office and determined that the map sensor was faulty. Has +5V power and ground, was outputting a pretty constant +5V instead of the expected 1~3V.

Once I’d determined that the problem was the MAP sensor, I decided to just gently drive home since the perceived risk of engine damage was low. But after going a few blocks I realized low RPMs were unstable and high RPMs were better, so I hopped on the interstate and made it the rest of the way.

Now I’m kicking around trying to decide if buying locally is worth it. $60 or something for OEM replacement, $20 for sleezebay clone.

–ctag