surging through the rev range particularly cold

[05gtwagonman]

Ok. Y'all sittin down??????????????????


I just got home from a loooong day at chiptorque.

I said sitting. Esp you spec B- you ready for this?

In less than 1 hour, with the tuner having NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE THAT THE CAR HAD A PROBLEM, asks me was I aware that the car had an 'issue'. NOOOOOOOOOOO

Guess what it is.

Go on gues- it's not the ECU. nooooooo.

Its not the 02 sensor. Ba bauw. sorry specb.

Does Rich know when his baby isn't happy I know it-


IT ISN'T CONTROLLING THE EXHAUST VALVE TIMING MORE OFTEN THAN NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So the magic variable valve timing is not working on one side of the heads more often than not, thus lumpy and down on top end powahhhh.
(this would explain how a 2.5 un modified foz piped me in traffic light derby)
My baby still managed to post a respectable 131.1kw, btut he top end was naf and is was surging the whole way... The boost also tells this story...

Now starts the negotiations with subaru o still get them to fix this under wty. (it ran out in march) Pre existing problem and all.
The guys at chiptorque were great, and I can highly recomend them. Fancy someone other than Subaru knowing more than even the senior techs in Subi Aust. seem to know...
Well done chiptorque.
I feel vindicated. So should you spec B- you were right to tell me to do this.

[05gtwagonman]

Every now and then I think I'm crazy. Really f%^king stupid. Or certainly the guys at car yards do...
I Had to have a conversation today explaining that this 'issue' was very much reported whilst still under Wty. There seems to be an attitude from the service manager that there was some chance he could bluff his way around this by telling me it was now out of Wty. 'then I guess the confirmation code that you require from subaru australia to do this under Wty is the same kind of code you needed to get to replace the ECU two months ago, when the car was 3months out of Wty??????!!!'
'Just call Jim Mc Cabe and tell him what Chiptorque found and I'll leave the really histerical behavior untill we get a confirmed no then shall I?????'

I really can't see how this isn't a Wty issue yet they will try... Dev - serivce manager- still told me that part of the descision would still come down to how much the eventual fix was...

Car dealers!

Still... cross your fingers for me, the car goes in to service again on monday- Jim wants fresh data to look over...

Why is it that you pay cold hard to an aftermarket guy and he can tell you in 5 min, and yet there seems to need to be a requisite naffing around quota to be filled with Subaru... I suspect the Subi guys are out of their depth...

[kvn]

congratulations.. sounds like potential for an ending to your drawn out saga.. good luck with the warranty claim, hope it all goes through well man.. fingers crossed

[Spec B Wgn]

well done for perservering...i think though it could be something else..

AVCS is controlled by oil pressure... what oil you running ?

and this happens to you when your car is cold does it suffer the same problem when hot ?

I picked up an extra 20 kws on my STI having the AVCS sorted out .

[05gtwagonman]

It's currently running full sythetic. But it has previously been running whatever Subaru recomend/ install. It has had Subaru servicing the whole of it's life, but it has been lumpy the whole time I've owned it. The tuner at chiptorque - Rob - said that the cause of the exhaust timing being "all over the shop" could be a few things, but there was no question about the fact that he couldn't get control of it's timing no matter what he did. He could switch it off, and he could totally control the inlet, but only intermittantly would he get a response from the exhaust side, and usually he didn't get the exact response to the parameters he put in...

So even if this isn't the only problem, it certainly is a problem... And he too said he expects to get at least 10 to 15kw or more out of it just from rectifying this on it's own...


'I'd pay to see that'. Oh yeah... that's quite right, I will....

[Spec B Wgn]

It's currently running full sythetic. But it has previously been running whatever Subaru recomend/ install. It has had Subaru servicing the whole of it's life, but it has been lumpy the whole time I've owned it. The tuner at chiptorque - Rob - said that the cause of the exhaust timing being "all over the shop" could be a few things, but there was no question about the fact that he couldn't get control of it's timing no matter what he did. He could switch it off, and he could totally control the inlet, but only intermittantly would he get a response from the exhaust side, and usually he didn't get the exact response to the parameters he put in...

So even if this isn't the only problem, it certainly is a problem... And he too said he expects to get at least 10 to 15kw or more out of it just from rectifying this on it's own...


'I'd pay to see that'. Oh yeah... that's quite right, I will....

if its the same problem with the ACVS then its a mechanical fix not a tune problem..banjo filters i was told were the cause of the problem.

[05gtwagonman]

Hello again garoovers....

The lib's been in at Subaru since Monday now, and they are still working on things.
It would seem specb that youcould be right- mechanical issues, oil pressure, or also potentially electrical at the solenoid seems to be the thing... The ECU is sending the correct voltage, but the voltage is different at the solenoid, but they think that it might be an oil pressure issue behind it all.

I should be able to give you guys a final answer on all this soon.

I have re-booked the car into chiptorque for the 2nd in anticipation of the fix!!!!
It's only taken a year of complaining and insisting that there is a problem...

[Spec B Wgn]

ask him to remove the bango filters...

[SUM12C]

that's what happened to mine, the banjo filter broke down and caused the solenoid to be blocked (just had it fixed today)

[Q]

ask him to remove the bango filters...

Anyone tried to do this yet? I started last night but to get access you need to remove the turbo which was more than I was prepared to do at short notice. Sorry to hijack ur thread Rich

[SUM12C]

nope didn't try (didn't get to see them do it either).
Hijacking back.....another problem the engine light and cruse control light come on, works out to be the exhaust sensor....
list so far: fuel injectors (1 & 3), broken down banjo filter, exhaust sensor (hopefully the end)

[Spec B Wgn]

nope didn't try (didn't get to see them do it either).
Hijacking back.....another problem the engine light and cruse control light come on, works out to be the exhaust sensor....
list so far: fuel injectors (1 & 3), broken down banjo filter, exhaust sensor (hopefully the end)

you running and aftermarket exhaust ??

its a common error to throw a CEL after this modifictaion..

the ecu parametres need to be adjusted to suit the new exhaust otherwise it will keep throwing a CEL.

[SUM12C]

engine and exhaust is stock.

[SUM12C]

well after having the exhaust sensor replaced (sensor costs $423 if anyone wanted to know) the car is running nice (no rough idle/surging) and getting better fuel economy (ever since I got the car I complained about rough idle/surging and all subaru did was reset the computer, as no error ever showed up, and when the warranty period was up is when the error finally showed), guess Subaru are limited to what they can test for and I should have taken the car somewhere else.

[05gtwagonman]

I have to agree totally about the limits of Subaru.
This is fact as far as I know...
Subaru Techs are ahead of the game because they know the factory settings, but more importantly can ask the right questions of more senior sevice people if they need to. That said, they are no more in touch with what "falls outside the square". If you have a problem that does not throw a code, then they are often behind the aftermarket tuners and Mechs, who often have to delve much deeper in their own quest to find the problem. They are also much more reticent to alknowledge the posibility that there is a problem. I have been told time and time again that there is in fact nothing wrong with the car, only to be told by others that there is, and then they are prepared to look deeper...

There is nothing too much wrong with my car, but I know it isn't right, and Chiptorque found one of the problems is moments, Subaru have taken weeks to find other problems and no solutions so far.
I am in waiting until tuesday to work out with Chiptorque whether the latest "resolution" from Subaru is in fact anything close...

These guys are good at the besics, but then, so are the really good aftermarket guys.
Don't hestitate to take your car to the next best option you see out there regardless of the badge on the door. I bet Kurt's problems fall into the same boat.
I personally criticised Zupps for looking for fault codes and end result problems rather than looking at the fact that when the car went to be tuned you could not actually control the exhaust valve timing the way you should be able to. You don't need to varify this if you just upload a program and wait for fault codes that don't get thrown... And let's face it, you can't say that it shouldn't be able to do this...
You see it quickly if you ask it to set to 'x' figure and it can't when it should.

Short story- The factory Techs are really rather limited in knowledge and expertise, when your situation falls outside the normal faults or problems...

I hope to enlighten you all further after tuesday.

That said, my car has never gone better than it does right now, but I am waiting to see that chiptorque can varify that all is good...

One of the nice things is that with the work done chasing these small problems, there are some very expensive items that are far newer than they would be on my car. And hats off to Subaru, for keeping me interested in their product, when I'm quite sure that the response from most other manufacturers would not have...