Intemittent rough idle MY04 GT - FIXED

[snaza]

Good to see it's sorted mate.

I did leave it with subaru for the day (a few weeks ago) and they couldn't find anything.

surely if they plugged in the scanner they would have seen the cam timing issue
fkn retards

You'd think so hey

[MixGT]

Hi All, first post and I hope this will help:

Aaron, I also have an 04 GT, last year mine was idling rough, misfiring (had to nurse the throttle at the lights to keep the engine running), stalling, sulphur smell, pinging, etc worse when cold but pretty constant, I thought bad fuel at 1st. Seemed fine under throttle but not 100%. Took it to my mechanic, he had it for almost 2 weeks, plugs replaced, weird compression test results, O2 sensors, AFM and he even replaced the timing belt. He spent hours diagnosing but was getting nowhere, thank god he only charged me about $1k for the timing belt and a few hours labor.

I ended up doing him and me a favor and eventually took it Subaru Docklands, 2 hours and $275 later it was running like new again 1 of the solenoids for the variable cam timing had seized with carbon and only half the engine was running with variable timing!!! The guy there told me it isn't a common problem but they have seen it a few times, they clean em out and away you go.

Hope it helps and maybe saves you some time and a crap load of $$$$.

Mick

Hi mate,

Just read this but had the problem fixed yesterday.

It was exactly what you said. Banjo bolt filters had broken down and stuff was stuck in the solenoids. Computer showed one cam stuck at 52% and the other was 0%. problem was diagnosed by SERGE in 10 seconds and running as new in less than an hour. I'm so happy i called him as my local mechanic would have never found this. I did leave it with subaru for the day (a few weeks ago) and they couldn't find anything.

Thanks everyone for the help and advice

Great news mate

[bucky]

Sorry to dig up an old thread for my first post - but wanted to thank the people for the solutions in the thread. Have recently purchased a MY04 Liberty GT Wagon and in the last few days I started to get the rough idle issue - very lumpy, almost stalling when in drive or reverse. The first time it went away after the car warmed up, but today it has not fixed itself regardless of driving or engine temp. I took it to my old mans tonight and plugged it into his multiscan tool and sure enough the VVT Advance on the Right Side is locked on 51 degs. Will take it to his workshop on the weekend and hopefully fix it up.

For the record, there was no fault codes registered in the ecu despite the issue.

Attached is a pic of the multiscan screen while the car was at idle...

Stuck VVT

photo.JPG (108.99 KiB) Viewed 4601 times

[Dropz]

An oil change will often fix this, but for a more thorough fix clean out the valve.

[dr20t]

I was freaking out for a second there - was looking at the date above and thought "today is thursday 6th sept, so why is it saying tue 6th sept "



Carry on....

[bucky]

Managed to get it all sorted today at my old mans workshop. First thing I did was remove the banjo bolt and sure enough, inside was what was left of the filter - broken and crushed. I removed 2 parts, but the actuator was still stuck solid, so I removed the actuator from its housing (after applying a little bit of force to some others brackets to get the clearance needed to remove it). And sure enough, a third peice (the small long bit in the pic) had locked the actuator solid. Removed the offending peice and it moved freely again. Gave it a clean out with some upper engine cleaner and put it back in. Car idles perfect now, and the multiscan tools reads 0 degrees for both actuators at idle as it should.

Thanks again for those who posted the solution here - you saved me a lot a time and no doubt money.

Interesting, I don't think the three peices I found make up the entire filter - but despite looking as best I could for more peices, I found nothing. Hopefully I am wrong, or the remaining peice(s) is resting somewhere out of harms way???

[cruisn]

Wish you had of taken pics of the entire process....

Would of made an awesome DIY...

[Dropz]

I'll have a look in a workshop manual and do a write up if you'd like mark?

[cruisn]

Not for me personally, I have a workshop manual.

Definitely do a write up. Would be helpful to others as its not an uncommon problem on the 2.0T.

[KiDo_Tuning]

Thanks mate, Just spoke with the subaru guy at Capalaba brisbane (forgot his name) and he said he doubts its the O2 censor as it would show computer errors. He said he can loan me an AFM to see if that helps.

O2 sensors can still generate a voltage/current but not the correct value Never rely on CEL's to diagnose a fault.
A good example of this is the LS1 SS Commodore, common fault for O2 sensor CEL to go off, few hundred $$ for new sensors and code comes back on a few days later. Actual problem is a PCV valve hose leaking air into the engine, makes it run lean and throws a CEL for O2 sensors lol

[cruisn]

My GT did this yesterday.

You could hear it was the LHS on start up.

Removed today to find a small piece of broken filter in one of the ports stopping the spool from actuating correctly.

Literally a 20-30 min job per side only requiring a 10 and 17mm ring spanner.......

Removed battery and oil filler for better accessiblity...





Solenoid disconnected and removed....



Banjo bolt, you can see the filter is all crushed...



Filter removed and fragment removed from solenoid spool...

[Dropz]

Ha! I was way off. I've done one on the rear somewhere.

[cruisn]

I was a bit off when I rang.

Was pretty much the first thing I looked at when I opened the bonnet this morning.

[Sheik Jabooti]

This was an interesting read.

But I still can't figure out how the hell the filter got crushed in the banjo bolt? Was it a faulty install by a mechanic?

[Dropz]

At a guess it gets brittle with the heat and oil and when the oil gets dirty it starts to clog up, then oil pressure can be enough to break it.