27 APRIL 2025 WorldWide Drilling Resource® When Life Gives You a Lemon, Make Lemonade by Britt Storkson Owner, P2FlowLLC I own and drive a 1993 Suzuki Swift car with over 400,000 miles on the odometer. It’s a great car and gets around 38 miles to the gallon, even around town. I’ve gotten as high as 48 miles per gallon on the highway. It has also cost me very little in the way of repairs. I probably hold the record for lowest maintenance and repair costs vs. miles driven/time used. No one can accuse me of spending too much money on cars. I did recently have a problem with it. This car has a very basic computer and throttle body fuel injection, which worked well for many years. A few months ago, I noticed the car “cutting” out randomly when driving. The engine never quit or stalled, but it would suddenly lose power with a big jerk, then resume normal operation after a few seconds - like someone suddenly shut off all of the fuel to the engine. There was no popping or backfiring out of the exhaust pipe, which would suggest an ignition failure. I checked to see if I could get the computer codes out of it, but was told it was too old to get the codes. A mechanic friend of mine suggested a tune-up of spark plugs, distributor cap, etc. That didn’t fix anything. I surmised the fuel injector assembly failed so replaced it, but it didn’t change anything. I thought the throttle position sensor was bad and replaced it, but that didn’t fix anything either. For those who don’t know much about cars, the throttle position sensor is a device mounted on the throttle shaft and notes the position of the throttle and sends it back to the car’s computer so it can figure out the proper fuel/air mixture for the condition. It’s simply a potentiometer (variable resistor) that changes resistance and, when connected to a regulated voltage source, changes voltage which the car computer reads and converts to a digital value so the computer can use it. So the next thought was to replace the O2 (oxygen) sensor mounted on the exhaust manifold. It was a partial victory. It greatly reduced, but did not entirely solve, the problem as it would still cut out from time to time, just not as often. I did some research on the Internet and from what I gathered, the output of the O2 sensor should be around 0.45 volts during proper operation. If the fuel ratio is too lean (too little fuel relative to the amount of air), the O2 sensor output voltage is low at 0.1 volts. If the fuel ratio is rich (too much fuel in the mixture), the O2 sensor output voltage would be up to 0.9 volts. This is a feedback circuit which constantly adjusts the engine fuel/air mixture based on the feedback from various sensors. This technique is very common with computer controls. It is possible for me to make an adjustable voltage source to fool the computer, but would require knowing exactly how the car computer was programmed. Is the car computer “looking for” this 0.45 volts from the O2 sensor to indicate “all is well”? Or is there something else at play here? If I knew what voltages the computer was expecting the O2 sensor to deliver under various conditions, I could generate a voltage that would satisfy all of those conditions and presumably the car would run like new. Why can I do that? Because knowledge is power. But to make the lemonade from the lemons life gives you, you first must have the skills to make the lemonade. The microprocessor (brain of a computer) is an incredible product capable of creating these control voltages. It’s a technology very few people worldwide even understand - much less are able to utilize. It’s a great skill because microprocessors are used everywhere. I teach microprocessor technology at the local community college and one would think there would be considerable interest in this technology given all of the media hype regarding AI (artificial intelligence) lately, but there has been almost zero interest in the course. I’m puzzled by that. Why is there so little interest in such a pivotal and widely used product/technology? Is it a general lack of work ethic? Meaning this generation is not interested in applying themselves to anything? Is it that potential students feel inadequate or overwhelmed by the subject? Is a lack of interest because most people think computers are reserved only for “math geeks” when in reality one needs to know a little grade school math, but nothing highly complicated? If you have any ideas about this subject, please let me know. Britt Britt Storkson may be contacted via e-mail to michele@worldwidedrillingresource.com
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