Trying to remove ISV but big star bit in the way

[boredpilot 10]

Hi all, trying to get the ISV out of my VR6 as the car has started to miss fire and idle badly, but on the plastic cover there is a big star bit.

 

Any one know the size of this and is it a torx bit so I can order one, unfortunately I live in Guernsey so things are limited here so want the size so I can order a bit here.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Neil

Edited April 17, 2012 by boredpilot
typo

[Stonejag 10]

It's a twelve-point trisquare bit, aka a spline bit - not a Torx!

 

I'm pretty sure you need an M8 one but you may as well get a small set to keep in the car - if you ever need to get the covers off at the side of the road you'll kick yourself of you don't have any. Don't force an Allen key into it - you may get it out once or twice but if you chew the bolts up they're a real pain to remove - and the female ones are £4ish each to replace...

 

Stone

[boredpilot 10]

Cheers for that, will trawl ebay and find someone that will post to CI for me.

[Critical_Mass 10]

A large flat head screw driver will do the job too

[swiftkid 1]

How many time are you planning on removing it? I would just give it a go with an allen key, its only for a cover so you shouldn't need to be a rough ass with it anyway. If its stupidly tight then maybe buy the tool but I've always used an allen key and mine are still fine.

 

BTW have you considered the cause of your misfire/bad idle may be something else, ISV's generally don't cause misfires. You could just give the ISV a good clean and try that, spray some carb cleaner or similar through it. Personally, speaking from past experience its usually the MAF that is playing up

[boredpilot 10]

Ive got a obd2 cable arrived today, and its pointing to the lambda sensor, currently says

 

1 Fault Found:

00525 - Oxygen (Lambda) Sensor (G39)

03-00 - No Signal

 

So im going to look see if I can see any broken wires and if not ill order a lambda sensor, ill also give an allen key a try, thanks for your help guys

 

Neil

[Supercharged 2]

Don't use an allen key!

 

Halfords sell a set of Splines

[boredpilot 10]

Id love to have a halfords maplins asda tesco McD's B.King etc but un-fortunately Guernsey is some what limited, but do have a bid on a splin bit set.

[swiftkid 1]

I used an allen key today on mine... worked a charm

 

If I were you I would check the wires for the lambda sensor then just WD40 the plug wires, if that doesn't work turn your attention to the MAF, that's what usually goes duff. Unplug it when its at full running temperature and see if the engine note changes, if yes its fine, if no thats probably the cause of your bad idle and misfire

[boredpilot 10]

Ive cleaned the MAF in some carb cleaner, when I disconnect the MAF it almost kills the car so its working, have a new Lambda but bloody bolts on the exhaust are rusted solid, dont know if a Lambda wrench will give me enough leverage to take it out while the exhaust is still in place.

 

Fairly sure its the lambda thats causing my ruff running, as VAG says no lambda and when I plug the new one in but not in the exhaust to test it tells me that the lamda is out of range which im assuming is because its not in the exhaust stream.