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How can you tell if VRIS is Working or not?

One method I've read about is to put a little dab of white paint or marker on the stop of the VRIS actuators and while it's still wet, rev your engine up or drive it around. Make sure you go up to 6500 rpm. Stop and inspect the end of the VRIS actuator (a small bellcrank is the best description I can think of) and look for white paint. If it's there, then it's working. If not, either it's not working or the paint dried before you tested it!<P>There's also the paper test. Put a piece of paper between the VRIS actuator and the stop. Drive around, rev the engine up to 6500, and then look at the actuators. If the paper is gone, then they're working. <P>Alternatively you could follow the directions in the shop manual. There is an online shop manual on mx-3.com.

I also have a few questions on this system. When I look in the engine bay and rev the motor, I see the actuators rods move in and then they jump back out right away. Is this normal or should they stay in longer at certain rpms? or does the engine have to be under load of driving for them to stay in? <P>does everyone else have the noticable dip in power at about 3900rpms? I figure this is the VRIS switching but I don't think it should be such a noticable dip in power. if I change gears at the wrong rpm I land in this zone and lose some acceleration until I get out of it.

Go to the online shop manual and find section F2. Go to page F2-100. There is a sharp drop in the torque curve down to 3900 rpm. This is the point where the VRIS goes from both closed to #1 open and #2 closed.<P>The little 1.8L V-6 has problems trying to produce any appreciable torque and to make up for that the VRIS on the K8 has six different valve settings whereas the larger 2.5 only needs four. Some of the K8's VRIS transition points are only 700-800 rpm apart so some will happen pretty fast if you're reving the engine in neutral.<P>0-1900 both closed<BR>1900-2600 both open<BR>2600-3900 both closed<BR>3900-4700 #1 open, #2 closed<BR>4700-6300 both open<BR>6300- both closed<P>Looking at the torque curves in the shop manual, it appears that an optimum shift point could be about 5000-5500 rpm.

You will have to drive the car because they have to have load on the engine to work

My VRIS operate in neutral when I move the throttle. [img]shrug.gif"%20border="0[/img]

mine too

Yeah, I'm fairly certain it has a speed input only, especially since the check in the shop manual for proper operation suggests operating the throttle by hand under the hood and observing the actuators. Like most guys, I read the instructions LAST. <p>[ March 24, 2002: Message edited by: pelado ]

If you read on in the manual you will find that you can check that they work without load, but to test accuracy you need load especialy for the 3500ish setting

TBiller, what page is that information on?

We use a bit of paper between the virs 1&2 solenoid and the post that they rest against.<BR>At idle the left hand one is actuated (open) and the other is not (closed)<BR>You then take the car for a run and when you reinspect for the paper it should be gone!<BR>You most drive the car, as the virs system is responsive to torque/load.<BR>You can pull the codes from the ecu to see if the valves/actuators themselves are needing replaced.

Decided to try and check my VRIS just for the hell of it. I used the paper method. To my utter disbelief neither one of them are working. I haven't noticed anything different in power lately. I took it all the way to 7000RPM driving it around town. Should I check any ecu codes before replacing them? And how hard are they to replace??

Did you try the method of revving the engine in neutral while observing the actuators?

Yeah i tried revving while looking at the actuators. That's why i ended up trying the paper method. Fortunatly i'll be going home and checking in with my mechanic in a couple days hopefully it's nothing too bad. Has anybody ever replaced the actuators??

Before you replace the actuators check the solenoids and make sure they are working. You can use a vacuum pump to check the actuators. Check out the online shop manual.