Engine hesitation/flat spot (Liberty 2.0R)

[klam]

Just a question: is it possible to buy a new ecu or performance ecu! I know we can't tune our Ecu! I am convinced it's the Ecu cause the whole problem

sure you can buy a new ECU .. I thought of it as well, but every mechanic will tell you that for 99% it's not the source of the problem.. well at least 4 of 4 mechanics I've asked (Subaru, MRT Performance, All Drive Subaroo, and my friend-mechanic) told me that. give it a shot, be a guinea pig

[Jeffreyy]

The only reason I think it's the ecu is because I have read the problem is caused by the Ecu thinking the knock sensor is knocking at inappropriate times! I might try it! But first I want to know if my car has had the pak update! This car has cost me a fortune!

When you boys meet up for the throttle body swap, mind if I come! I would like to see the results and have a chat

[Caper]

Guy´s...I have the same problem as you and was searching Internet about it.
I live in Europe and drive a -09 Forester.
As far as I have found the only thing that helps is a remap because it contains several bugs.
I think we have the same shitty engine and ECU.

You can read about my problem here:
http://www.romraider.com/forum/viewtopi ... =3&t=10176

In United Kingdom:
http://www.uklegacy.com/forums/index.ph ... msearch__1

Seems like they have same problems in United Kingdom with Legacy 2.0, propably same engine and ECU.

Subaru fuc**d up and does nothing to solve it.

Edit: Corrected my link to UK forum, it pointed here...sorry

[dmh87]

The link that Caper had posted in the above post was an interesting read.
It mentions that it is a problem with false knocking

Caper considering your car is an auto Forester 2.0, do you happen to know the manufacturer of your ECU? All of ours over here appear to be Hitachi - which is un-tunable.

Feel free to join us Jeffreyy, although we probably won't be meeting up till the end of year if not early next year. We'll keep details updated here.
Maybe go see Subaru and get them to connect your ECU up to their Subaru Diagnostic System and see whether your car has had the update. If they plan charge to you an arm and a leg don't bother, I have a friend that works at Subaru that might be able to check it out for you.

[Caper]

I am not 100% sure but I think my ECU is Hitachi.
See I made a mistake posting link to the forum in UK, it pointed here.
Here is the correct link:
http://www.uklegacy.com/forums/index.ph ... msearch__1

[Jeffreyy]

The false knocking makes a lot more sense for the problem! But any part could be causing this false knock! This is mentioned in another forum saying something about waste gate chatter causing the false knock!

[Caper]

The guy who explained the problem for me in Romraider forums remap cars in Russia with this exact problem.
You can pretty easy log your own car using Romraider and a cheap VAG KKL cable.

In my case, everything he said makes sense to me and my logging verify his theory.
I can also hear a strange rattling noise when logging my car in heavy loads at low rpm.

The problem seems to be 2 different things.
A bug in the code that cause 8bit ignition advance calculations to overflow and as a result the ecu starts to retard ignition while trying to advance.
This has been there since the car was new, I have alway´s wounder how Subaru could release a car this weak but never checked it up because it was acting ok otherwise.
About AVCS timings, has alway´s been wrong but the rattling starts when car gets older and then it behaves even worse reverting ignition even more,in my case to 7-8 degrees under load.No wounder car looses all power and consumes a lot of fuel.
It seems to be my problem and maybe also yours.

[Jeffreyy]

I am going to buy a cable on eBay! So the program has no harm to the Ecu?
If that is the problem! How are we ment to do it? Do we need to find someone who can tune it to the correct values!
What's your plan caper?

[Caper]

No harm to the ECU at all by logging it.
You can also reset the ECU with Romraider, that seems to cure the problem a while since ECU is in learning mode.
After a while problems come back though.

My plan is as follow...

Contacted Subaru Nordic AGAIN this morning and explained my findings, mentioned the problems with Liberty 2.0R in Australia and Legacy 2.0R in UK.
When confronting him with the facts he admitted he heard about retard ignition problem.
They will send me their own logger and then send the file to Japan for analyzis and hopefully a fix by a new corrected software.

If that doesn´t work out for me I will try to find a used ECU and send to the Russian mapper, he explained for me how to extract the file from my current one and also send that.
Also he want´s me to log the car for 1,5-2 hours driving and send log file.

He knows how to remap them and he will also send the remapped ECU together with a modified k-line adapter so I can reflash it later if needed.

I really hope FHI can address this issue though, they must know about it.
Subaru UK have a new software to Legacy 2.0R where they tried to correct this issue, so FHI has to know about this problem.

I suggest you log your car as described in the thread at Romraiders forum.
Then check logfile to see if your car retard timings during load, mine goes all the way back to 7-8 degrees sometimes.
If you see the same things as me, I guess you better contact Subaru Australia first.
If they will not help you, try other options.

[Jeffreyy]

Okay thanks heaps I have ordered the lead and will go from there!
Let us know what happens please!
If they give you a code or numbers for the software update please let us know!

[Jeffreyy]

Okay thanks heaps I have ordered the lead and will go from there!
Let us know what happens please!
If they give you a code or numbers for the software update please let us know!

[Kormoran]

Its been about a month since taking it to JFM and the car is still running great., 2000kmish so far and this is the longest Ive been flat spot free for quite a while... hopefully it stays this way.

Will update again in a fortnight fingers crossed.

[dmh87]

Its been about a month since taking it to JFM and the car is still running great., 2000kmish so far and this is the longest Ive been flat spot free for quite a while... hopefully it stays this way.

Will update again in a fortnight fingers crossed.

Great news!

When you got the TB cleaned, did they mention anything that was possibly not right about it?

[klam]

the one thing not right about it might be the position sensor, or the mechanism responsible for opening the butterfly. I must admit that after cleaning mine I didn't experience such a heavy flatspot as before, currently it's ok for 2 weeks, though minimal hesitation is sometimes there (it's all psychological now ). God knows how they have cleaned it (Kormoran knows better), as the only way I see is just to spray it through and that's it. The position sensor itself is encapsulated and that part cannot be opened (no wonder) as it's bolted.

[Kormoran]

There was something about a servo that controls the butterfly, TPS and because it DBW... sorry I should've paid more attention! Honestly, I didn't believe the fix 'possibly' could be so simple..

Originally what caught my attention was they said a 2.0R impreza owner had a ridiculously bad flat spot around the same rpm and it took them 3 goes with UCC to clean all the crap out and afterwards it ran better than it had since the guy bought it.

Going to head back there before the weekend anyway to ask a few questions, hopefully find out exactly where/what they did.