'94 Q45 - Codes 32, 34, 53.

[Hardwyre]

Bought the Q a few years ago, but as I got shipped out for work for a couple years poor girl sat. Never did get to drive it much before I left.

I think sitting finally killed all the struts (which look original anyways) because the car rocks like a boat over sways in the road, but that's another story entirely.

The car used to have a bounding idle, where it would almost stall at times. I hosed down the TB and throttle plate with cleaner, along with the MAF and for a while she was running solid, though the idle in park was around 1200 oddly.

On WOT runs, I would get a little smoke out the pipes, appeared to be unburnt fuel, but other than that, only steam in the mornings briefly (prob. condensation). Water levels remain fine.

Did the oil, oil filter, still need to do the transmission fluid and filter.

Run the first new tank through her and ended up with 12.5 MPG - what the hell? And this is with me keeping my foot out of her other than the occasional WOT for a few hundred feet.

Noticed that the CEL would come on at times while cruising along the highway and she would feel suddenly like she's trying to drive through jello. The past couple days here, the idle stumble has returned, even dying in the parking lot today.

I finally pulled codes and ended up with 32 (EGR Function), 34 (Knock Sensor), and 53 (EGR Temp Sensor LH).

I manually actuated the EGR valve while running the car in park. The idle would drop a bit, but it wouldn't ever really die. If I pressed it all the way up, idle would dip, but then slowly recover. Thoughts?

I cleaned the MAF connector with contact cleaner and bent the socket slightly to make tighter contact. I also cleaned the TPS and what I think is the EGR temp sensor connector... as well as the connector on the idle air intake solenoid (I think.. back of the plenum).

After restarting her, she seems to be idling pretty smoothly again, but she was cool, not warmed up. Only seems to be idling slightly over 1000 rpm now instead of the previous 1200. I'll drive her to work today and see how she feels, hopefully she doesn't die entirely.

Thoughts?