Upgrade to 3 port boost solenoid need tuning

[bigBADbenny]

It's basic engine health (or lack of it) stuff.
There will be a variety of cels active and the ECU is in limp mode.
You'll need to get onto someone with a Tactrix or find an understanding Subaru friendly workshop ASAP.
The bov needs reinstalling correctly, the cels need to be read and acted upon if required, the type of tune needs to be established eg whether locked or open, and then any remaining issues need to be addressed, and the car re-tuned either with a 3 port or the stock boost controller.

[Manaz]

Your a smart one Benny, yeah cruise control light is flashing aswell as the check engine. And its quiet black out the exhaust.

Black is good, that means it's running rich, rather than than lean - the last thing you want is for it to run lean...

[d-chang]

you could install the new solenoid and drive it....just don't drive it hard.....if you do? you may over boost...and your car will probably pop a cel e.g. P0244 ( or go into limp mode ) .....or worse case.....turbo goes boom....or engine goes boom...

Hey guys, sorry to hijack this thread with my following question, but couldn't help but read the above and it's triggered a question that has been burdening me of late.

When your car is in limp mode, is there a safe boost level that it consistently runs at to save the engine? There has been a few dramas in terms of my tuning abilities in my car... Matt has come over twice and he can vouch that my car is a bit of a problem child. For a start, it began life being Ecutek tuned, so the ecu was locked, when Matt plugged in initially, he couldn't read from my ecu. I waited 6 month for his revisit, and again he couldn't read from my ecu because he needed Administrator rights for Ecuflash/Scan or one of his programs, and also found out that my ecu also has gone into limp mode to save the engine.

Cut a long story short, Matt did manage to crack it into my tune eventually with Administrator rights for Ecuflash/Scan, so he is able to tune it, but he couldn't remove the lock from my ecu.

Over the last 2 weeks... i have since installed a boost gauge to my car... and when I drive on full boost, the gauge only reads to a steady 0.7bar max. As far as I know, Matt has tuned the car to run at 14psi or just shy of 1 bar. A couple of things I thought initially, boost leak, wrong tap in for T Piece, old/dying spark plugs or faulty gauge. I had my car serviced yesterday, under inspection, no boost leak was found, T piece is in the correct spot (Vacuum tube off blow off valve) and had the sparks replaced. All this and it still holds a steady 0.7bar boost. So this kind of lies to a faulty gauge (plausible because this gauge was a freebie from a friend that had a worked Soarer... and has been sitting in the car loose for 3.5 years untouched/undriven). However, it is just the previous encounter with my car being in Limp mode that brings up this concern for me again.. I really hope it is just a faulty gauge.. because for 0.7bar, my car pulls like a freight train..

Thanks guys for hearing me out... will be very interested to hear your suggestions and opinions.

Dan

[alexeiwoody]

Hey Daniel,

It could be just the gauge, but to be sure you'd need to either borrow another gauge off someone or run the car on a dyno, they'll measure the boost and the power for you.

When matt tuned it, I imagine he didn't leave it in limp mode?

[bigBADbenny]

whats the deal with these ecutek ecu's: can you connect a tactrix to log and LV them?

[Kekotic]

When matt tuned it, I imagine he didn't leave it in limp mode?

If limp mode is referring to a <1 IAM then any ecu flashing would reset it to 1 wouldn't it?

[d-chang]

Thanks all for your suggestions and opinions guys!

Answering all your questions one by one...

Alexei, as far as I know I don't think he would... so I really am hoping it is a faulty gauge... but following what Kekotic mentioned... my ecu was showing '0' meaning nothing could be done, until Matt found a bypass... Whether it is still on '0' or '1', I am not too sure.

BBB, when I plug a tactrix to my car, using the version of EcuScan from the Tactrix website (free download), it comes up with an error, hence why I think I need an Administrator's license to read. So I cannot currently log or flash in a tune... I can use Learning View software though to check for any knocks, but that is all.

[<GB>]

whats the deal with these ecutek ecu's: can you connect a tactrix to log and LV them?

I don't think you can do anything with them unless youre a dealer.. mine was ecutek but revzone had it removed

[d-chang]

whats the deal with these ecutek ecu's: can you connect a tactrix to log and LV them?

I don't think you can do anything with them unless youre a dealer.. mine was ecutek but revzone had it removed

Yeah GB, I tried getting mine removed, but the place that locked it started playing hardball and saying that I will blow up my engine and these people that load tunes outside of a workshop don't know what they're doing. They wanted to charge me $800 to 'unlock' it. I told them politely to shove it...

[<GB>]

rip off prices!!!

[shav]

I have never been a fan of the locking ecu's from ecutek. Pretty much says to me that once they touch it, you are obligated to use them for the life of the car. I understand why they do it, I dont like it, hence why I use Matt's tunes.

[bigBADbenny]

Goddamit! Rip out the ecu and send it to Revzone or Entra (canberra) or whoever can unlock it!

Or consider a S/H ecu and get your local dealer to re-marry it to the BIU etc.

[<GB>]

Goddamit! Rip out the ecu and send it to Revzone or Entra (canberra) or whoever can unlock it!

Or consider a S/H ecu and get your local dealer to re-marry it to the BIU etc.

not sure if revzone did it in house or not I know they had trouble with it, there was posts on romraider asking for the right software

[bigBADbenny]

Thats a something for the 2nd op to follow up then

[d-chang]

Hahahhaha ohhh.... here's the best bit!!

I initially thought, my car has an Ecutek tune, must be pretty impressive if they locked the ECU, so after some quick browsing on their website... got me all excited when I read their RaceRom tunes, and looking at some of the cars on YouTube.. I was like... ahh we'll see if it's worth keeping.

So when Matt was able to tap in... whoever tuned the car last... had put a stock Tuned By STi rom on it... that's it... not only that, in Matt's words.. "They totally f**ked it up"... it was dumping heaps of full in at half throttle, it was knocking like crazy... So not only have I been stuck with an 'Ecuwreck', whoever the sucker before me that owned this car and got charged to have his car tuned... also got ripped off.