Finally CEL came on..woohoo

[Stifull]

My Gt has had a problem since I got it of randomly running on 3 cylinders almost stalling on idle etc. Then it would recover and be ok for a month.. never had CEL come on so hard to track down but today the dash lit up like a christmas tree.. CEL , slippery road light, sports mode indicator and cruise control lights all flashing... I drove it to Subievolution hoping it would make it up the big hill and Russell put his new you-beaute mut on and it identified that #4 was misfiring....finally , something to work on. The plan is to swap the coil pack from 4 to 2 and then see where the problem is next time it fails.. It's either CP or the plug or the connection on the CP..I haven't done anything yet but will have a look on the weekend. In the meantime the neg lead is off to reset the ecu codes etc..I don't think it will be a plug, they are only 50k old...

[bigBADbenny]

Once the #4 coil pack is out, check if it still has the barb to hold the plug in.

If not a zip tie/s works.

Gently twisting the pins 10–15 degrees with needle nose pliers can help promote continuity.

I had the issue at around 210k km.
The car needed new plugs at this point: the pointy tips were all burnt down

Because of needing new plugs, and having spare coil packs, I didn’t even get around to testing the coil packs by substitution.
Onward and upward!

[Stifull]

Ben I followed your instructions and it's all done however the CEL etc are ALL still on or flashing....I had the battery disconected all night, and I re disconnected it and used the foot brake to drain power but they are still all on..... How do I reset the ecu if removing ther battery doesn't do the trick ????

[Stifull]

Hhmmm doesn't matter.. The lights are on because it is running worse than ever... Barely got back from a 2 minute test drive...

[bigBADbenny]

You can hook up 2 connectors under the dash or behind the glove box to access self test mode, once in this mode the odometer button can be used to display CELs on the odometer display

[bigBADbenny]

You can hook up 2 connectors under the dash or behind the glove box to access self test mode, once in this mode the odometer button can be used to display CELs on the odometer display

[bigBADbenny]

Here’s the link, to a link on lgt that decribes the trick for displaying CELs on the odometer
Apologies, on-site today, limited phone access :/
viewtopic.php?t=1492&fbclid=IwAR3QV0fWU0dDxybhL3the5WX59iEkRPcAkqN1G2zQDhbYkFW8qDQNea6QnI

[Stifull]

Cheers Ben.. I will take it to Subievo Monday and they will scan it for me..I don't want to cause any serious issues when they can fix it for me.. I was hoping it would be straight forward, just swap things around to get a clear diag but it's fault is now constant so either the plug or the coil Pac has failed completely. Dropping it when taking it out may have been the last straw . I have anxiety issues so it's best sometimes if I just walk away. We have 8 other cars here and my Blue Rex is feeling very neglected so I will have some fun in it for a couple of days.. I just hope the GT gets to Subievo without any problems. My best friend for over 50 years, who loves our car collection, is coming up to Brisbane on Tuesday for a couple of days. I haven't seen him since our best mates funeral in May and I was looking forward to letting him have a go in the GT. I hope it is fixed for him by then...Thanks for your assistance. I will sus out the code reading feature... Our rexes have a primitive system that is similar but they do flashing light sequences...Cheers

[Stifull]

Update... I removed the OBDII from my blue rex and put it in the liberty. Ran diags and it said...P304 (i think that's what it was) Cylinder 4 misfire.... I used it to clear all the codes and it made all the flashing lights go away.. I then took it for a test drive and it seemed ok for about a klm then started to run rough and loose power... Lights came back on so went home and ran diags again and it said P304 Cylinder 4 misfire....again... so after swapping the coils from 4>2 and 2>4 yesterday that would seem to indicate that it is #4 plug or something wrong with cylinder 4 injector... It has been very random, sometimes a 3-4 weeks between episodes and they would normally only be rough idle at one set of lights or s bit sluggish up one hill and then perfect.. Have ran FI cleaner in it a couple of times and only 98..... I read some posts via search and one guy with similar fault code ended up being a cracked piston ... Thought welcome.. plugs only 55,000ks old by the way but don't know the type/quality.....At least I had a win getting the OBDII to work...Never got it working on the blue rex...gave up trying and forgot it was there till yesterday...It still gets brief good power but then looses it again.
Driving it is almost like driving along pumping the throttle....I am hesitant to try and drive it to Subievolution incase I do damage..Is that possible even if I kind of nurse it there. I put it in manual paddle mode so i could use revs to get up the hill to home..1st and 2nd in one section..

[bigBADbenny]

Pulling the spark plug might give some indication of the fault.

[Stifull]

Pulled the spark plug out and it looked fine but I put in a new one while I had it out.. So with new plug and different coil I cleared the code P0304 (misfire on cylinder 4) and then I took it for a test drive.... aaaahhhhh.... Lights came back on and started to run poorly again. Reread the codes and same...P0304... It's going in to have the injectors removed , tested and cleaned.. my son came for the test drive and he said his Ver6 sti felt exactly the same when one of it's injectors was intermittently blocking..feeling better even though it still has a problem because I am confident we have finally found the cause of this random problem of bad idle and surging..

[bigBADbenny]

Your workshop may suggest a compression test before removing the injectors, just to be sure.

I’ll google that cel to see if any other diagnoses are related, eg valve train, avcs etc.

[Stifull]

P0304 "Misfire of Cylinder 4" is a result of, and this seems to be the most common order that the culprit is mentioned on Google, Coil, Plug, Injector.... The car shows no sign of loss of power and has been going very well and strong for months since the timing issue was resolved but every 3-4 weeks for 5 - 30 seconds it will idle badly at one set of lights or miss at low revs going up a hill, 5-30 seconds later it's going like a cut snake so I doubt it a compression thing. The Injector shop said it is very common for a "misfiring injector" to occasionally produce a "misfire code P0304" ....The engine is only 50,000ks old and the injs are 170,000ks so it's probably time for a clean.. It makes sense that some small spec has gotten through the fuel filter and is trapped in the small gause screen inside the injector and occasionally it blocks the flow.. Even when they check injectors, they can pass the test BUT... as we found out with our sti, which all tested as "good", having them properly serviced and cleaned fixed the same random intermittent problem that the sti had of a rough idle once every month or two, and the occasional surging, which never returned after the injectors were serviced.. that was over 3 years ago..

[bigBADbenny]

Yes absolutely.
Its just that since you’ve possibly ruled out sparks/coilpack, your top candidates are injector, valvetrain and rings, the latter two can be addressed with compression and leak down tests which are fairly non invasive.

However, due to the method subaru uses to sense misfire events, its not quite that simple, and the cam, crank sensors and avcs systems are implicated:
https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showth ... ?t=1658068

[dr20t]

Unplug your 02 sensor and go for a gentle drive - the cel Will still be on but if drives better then 02 sensor
Is your culprit

It will be running in constant open loop so it won’t do any harm just don’t go caning the hell out of it

Mick