club.liberty.asn.au

Hey all,

I've been going through the steps, trying to diagnose what initially felt like a miss when the engine was idling, after going through the motions about the only thing that seems to stick out is the Left Exhaust VVT is way out.

When the car is at idle, I get an intermittent drop in RPM, nearly stalls sometimes, then the RPM's come back up only to drop again a few seconds later. It's very regular. Normal driving doesn't seem to be an issue, only idle.

I have:
*Checked for air leaks - Inspected hoses and used throttle body cleaner around all air hoses listening for rpm changes, nothing.
*Cleaned the throttle body, now shiny.
*Removed and inspected the coil pack and spark plug closest to the turbo, thinking maybe the plastic had gone hard and was starting to crack. Both look pretty new. Coil pack is still pliable rubber, no cracks.
*Bought a Tactrix (Yay) and started logging AVCS parameters. And noticed this, all the way through to log too, not just in one spot:



I'm guessing, this isn't normal or ideal? OCV needs to be removed and cleaned or replaced?

A member went through this recently and found a blocked oil filter on one of the exhaust OCV housings.
So find & remove the filter & clean the OCV before replacing the OCV...

Yeah, that's going to be my next step. Just looking through every piece of reference material I can get my hands on to figure out how to do it. Never done this before... :/

http://opposedforces.com/parts/legacy/e ... tration_1/

So part 8 & 17 are the exhaust OCV manifolds, basically bolt on housings for the exhaust OCVs...
Banjo filters are in parts 3 on both heads for inlet OCV's and turbo oil supply...
Just trying to nut out the location for the exhaust OCV filters...

Here it is on the ru site and with more detail one can see the OCV's going into the mani at right angles to the inlet ones.
http://www.neoriginal.ru/cat/subaru/par ... _006_03_A1

I think this is a pic of the exhaust avcs manifolds:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthr ... ?t=2392133
So maybe remove them, look for filters, clean them in WD whist activating the solenoids with a 9V battery and reinstall with new maybe gaskets...

Thanks heaps for that! Looks like I'll be spending tomorrow underneath my car.

Pics! Spares from eg Celtic if you have time will be more affordable

I just had something very similar to this, except mine was giving me an ignition delay too. It would drive perfectly fine after starting, but then when it got up to temp it started to idle crazily and even stall nearly.The G-scan was originally telling me it was related to the cam or angle sensor. I replaced cam angle sensors and tested the continuity of the wiring too, first thing I did. No luck. I checked everything listed above, removed filters, pulled rockers off to inspect cams, checked gears etc. basically started pulling the car apart.
What it ended up being was when I changed turbos I must have somehow damaged the earth wire going to the cam angle sensor right inside the wiring lume/harness on the sensor, it was only hanging on by two strands which was enough for it to convince the multimeter that the continuity was fine. I only tested it when the car was turned off originally. When we tested it with the car on and the wire under load we found the issue. Something so very small caused so much drama.
Check every wire going to your exhaust and intake cam angle sensors lumes, give them all a gentle jiggle where they connect and if you can check the continuity under load. Believe me, it is worth a try.

bigBADbenny wrote:A member went through this recently and found a blocked oil filter on one of the exhaust OCV housings.
So find & remove the filter & clean the OCV before replacing the OCV...

I had it in the LHS inlet OCV.

Banjo bolt filter had deteriorated over time and a piece had broken off and become lodged in the OCV solenoid causing it to remain "open" meaning the cam should not retard to less that 45* advance. Made for a seriously lumpy idle!

azza: Look down the passenger side of the motor between battery and cylinder head. You will see a blue wiring loom plug. That is the solenoid

Thanks everyone for your feedback, it's been immensely helpful!!!

So, despite the rather ordinary weather here, I did indeed spend a fair chunk of today under the car. Since I was there and it was also due, I did an oil flush, filter and oil change. Figured I might as well.

Sean82, I was reading your thread with interest, since it sounded almost exactly like my issue! Mine was not quite as severe, but very similar.

Anyway, after removing the gods forsaken plastic shield, I drained the oil, removed the filter and all that nice stuff that I'm familiar with. Afterward, I looked for the parts described by BigBadBenny and sure enough there they were, with the blue plugs as described. I'd spotted the ones on the top for the intake but I hadn't really noticed the exhaust ones before. Very pleased to note they were a lot easier to access and remove than I had initially feared!


Removal was very straight forward, gaskets were in excellent shape so I didn't feel it necessary to replace them with new ones, though I'll keep an eye on them just in case I'm wrong. It took me quite a while to spot the filter, initially I though they'd already been removed! When I finally did see it, it took a bit of coaxing with a small screwdriver to convince them it would be best to leave. I do wonder if they're been replaced at some point since they were completely intact, not brittle at all. There was a little debris inside but not much, though the filter mesh is extremely fine.


The drivers side one was a little more difficult to get at, since the exhaust gets in the way, but I managed to get that one off too. It was in the same state, healthy looking gasket, filter in place, no debris at all this time though. Pulled both of them apart, gave them a thorough cleaning, removed both filters then put everything else back together. Reset the ECU too.

After filling the oil I took it for a test drive/log. Results?

To me anyway (and I'm very new to this so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) this looks much better! Timing for the VVT now stays within a degree or two for each side, so I'm thinking it's nailed.

BUT! Still getting the occasional erratic idle! Going to keep looking through the log file, clearly I still have a lot to learn about this stuff.

AVCS is fixed.

In EcuFlash:
Find the folder marked: Mass AIrflow / Engine Load
Open: Engine Load Compensation (MP)
Notice the big negative values in the top left? Zero them all out by highligting the numbers, press = key and press the numeral 0 key
Save file
Flash tune on and idle should be significantly better Each time the airflow on the MAP sensor changes at idle, the final fuel enrichment is readjusted and trims or adds fuel. Its the equivalent of trying to play darts after a keg of beer... your unlikely to hit the bullseye if the ground, your arm and your legs are all moving.

Will look at doing this tomorrow, been busy with work all week. No time to play with the car!

Mate glad the AVCS issue is fixed
I had an off idle even after cleaning out all solenoids too. Turns out the idle issue is gone with a new motor and top feed injectors.

I can't say with certainty but I have a few other buddies with similar 'misses' at idle and they're all side feed injectors. Since mine is fine now with top feeds, I'm going to blame 10yo side feed injectors

Hey thanks mate!

That's a possibility I hadn't considered! Might have to look into that.

I just went through this.

My issue was injectors, passenger side front to be exact