This past Saturday the CEL reared its ugly head again in my wife's car. Prior to having the code checked I had suspected a bad spark plug or wire because of the bucking and hesitating at lower speeds. When I checked the code it was P1518, IMRC stuck open Bank 1. I immediately suspected the IMRC linkage had failed (little grommet fell out) or something like that. Once I opened the hood the problem was clearly visible, the IMRC cable had snapped just before the connection to the linkage.
My first thought was *!@# I'm going to have to replace the IMRC. Replacing the IMRC didn't bother me so much as spending $200 for a broken cable. I figured I had nothing to lose so I removed the IMRC and started to disassemble it. Once I had the cover off I could see that the there was nothing special about the cable and that it could possibly be replaced. It is simply a 1/16 cable with a round end (fits into IMRC box) and a crimped end at the linkage. A quick check on CEG confirmed that bicycle cable had been used by others in the past.
Off I went to Canadian tire to look for cable and sure enough they had a universal derailer (gear change) cable that was a close match. I also picked up some wire crimps for the linkage end.
To complete the repair I had to desolder the IMRC circuit board from the plug connector for easier access to where the cable needed to be connected and fished through the IMRC box. With that out of the way I connected and ran the wire through the black sheathing and the linkage connector and crimped the end on. With the repaired IMRC in place I went for a test drive and everything worked great.
Total cost for the repair was $5.27 and about 4 hours of time. It could be done much faster but I�m including my time to find the problem, formulate a game plan, remove the UIM and air intake for easier access, remove the IMRC, disassemble the IMRC, drive to crappy tire for parts, repair IMRC, reinstall the IMRC, reinstall the UIM and air intake, go for test drive and clean up tools.
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