by Curley5959 » Sun Mar 29, 2015 12:43 am
First and foremost, I would like to thank Ed for his persistence with the tuning of my 2004 Liberty 3.0R Spec-B Manual. Unfortunately, there have been issues throughout the entire process, and 4 months later, there are still some tuning issues present, and it seems they cannot be resolved. I believe it would be a waste of my time, and Ed's to continue further, as I do not believe a solution can be found.
I first decided to have a tune completed by XRT Tuning, as 2 out of 3 H6's in my family saw successful tunes through XRT. There is a 2005 Subaru Outback 3.0R and a 2006 Subary Outback 3.0R, both of which have seen major improvements through tuning. Another bonus at the time was the promise of Lifetime Retunes - Unfortunately, this offer is no longer active.
Right off the bat, there were issues with my tune, ranging from a vacuum leak, to dodgy oxygen sensors. Every issue that was found was resolved as quickly as possible, but this still saw issues with lag and jerkiness within the tune.
After fixing the vacuum leak, and installing new oxygen sensors, I thought this must be it, but the new O2 sensors showed that the car was running extremely lean. After a fortnight of constantly changing over O2 sensors from the 2005 Outback to the Liberty, as well as many logs, it was established the aftermarket sensors were not as sensitive as should be, and were telling the ECU the car was running lean, resulting in the car running extremely rich. After purchasing a Genuine pair of Denso Sensors and installing them, this issue was fixed, and I was sure the tune would start to improve, but it was still plagued with lag and jerkiness.
After many attempts at finding a solution, including replacing Fuel Filter, cleaning OCV Solenoids, cleaning and reseating all Electrical Connectors, including DBW and Throttle, cleaning Throttle Body, testing a different MAF sensor, and even purchasing a new MAF sensor, nothing has worked, and the tune is still plagued with lag and jerkiness.
In total, there are 16 main revisions to the tune, but there are many smaller versions in between, so the total must be closer to 25.
In regards to the lag, it is present when changing from 1/2/3 (anywhere between 2000-4000 RPM), followed by not letting revs drop and putting foot down in next gear at anywhere between 20-50% throttle. When the lag occurs it will hang for around 2-3 seconds before surging power. When there is no lag present, it will be jerky at around 3000-3500 RPM. It can be driven around, either keeping revs below 3000 RPM at all times, or going above 4000-4500 RPM at all times. Its in between when there are issues. After seeking another opinion from my brother (owner of one of the H6 Outbacks) he says it resembles a turbo boost leak when it is jerky. Obviously, it doesn't have a turbo, but either way, these issues are not normal.
The lag issues have not been present in all versions of the tune, but if the lag disappears, the jerkiness appears, and vice versa. There seem to be no issues present in stock.
The power and responsive is definitely there, and I could not be happier with this, but when the car lags, it is not safe, and when it becomes jerky, it is difficult and frustrating to drive in traffic.
After going on for so long, I would love nothing more than to have this issue fixed, but unfortunately, I don't think it can be.
Once again, thanks to Ed for all of his efforts, but just remember before purchasing a tune, don't expect the tuning process to be cheap, easy, or trouble free, and in the end, you may not end with a perfect tune.
I thought I would take the time to write an honest opinion of my experience with the tune, and hope that it may help someone experiencing similar issues.
Below is a full list of everything that I can think of that has been completed to try and resolve the lag/jerkiness:
*New Oxygen Sensors (Genuine Denso)
*New MAF Sensor (Genuine Denso)
*Major Service 10k ago - Spark Plugs changed.
*New Fuel Filter.
*Solenoids cleaned
*Vacuum test completed and crack in airbox fixed.
*Electrical connectors cleaned and reseated.
*Throttle Body Cleaned.
If anyone has any advice that may help resolve these issues, I would love to hear it.