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Possible vacuum leak?

RyeBread

New CEG'er
Joined
May 31, 2023
Messages
8
Location
Washington
Hey there!
I’ve read almost every thread to do with vacuum leaks I could find, i believe that’s what im dealing with, terrible idle, trying to stall, I also have shuddering in 3rd gear around 3000 rpm. Not sure if that’s related tho. I am a novice when it comes to cars, only performing oil changes and the like. I was hoping I could get some help saving my car, I’ve seen it could also be a dirty throttle body, debris in the fuel pump/ bad fuel pump, problems with spark, problems with intake, there are many reasons I could have these idle/ stalling issues. It also tries to die when I take off in 1st gear, it’s low on power and kicks and jerks a bit when I take my foot off the gas, I’ve always just believed that last bit was engine braking but it’s gotten progressively worse. I’m fact, all these issues were very miner to not noticeable when I got the car 4ish months ago, they’ve slowly popped up but in the past week they’ve become unignorable. I believe I have a vacuum leak and know there’s a tool to check if your engine is pulling a vacuum, is this required to diagnose? Are there other things I’m missing?
 
Is it throwing a check engine light? IAC and EGR are the two bigger causes for starting, idling and common vacuum issues.
 
I realized my issue, kinda embarrassing actually, with me trying to solve another issue, i unplugged my mass airflow sensor and didn’t plug it back in, the bad idle was due to what I assume was my non stock intake feeding more air to the engine, but the default built in ratio was messed up when it tried to assume how much air the engine was getting, so I was running very lean.
 
I do how ever have a catalyst system below threshold code, which is probably resulting in my power loss
 
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