Had the car in the dealer last week - replaced air mass flow meter and reset ECU but no difference to hesitation.

The head mech. had spoken to Subaru before I arrived - apparently now the Japs are over here testing and it looks as though they are working on a re-mapped ECU. They have seen improvements but the feedback is it's not perfect so some more testing is going on. Once the new map is finished the ECU will have to go into production and dealers will be notified. I was told once the testing has finished should be about 4-6wks before dealers get the new ECU.

NB I think that Subaru will only supply the new ECU to dealers who have registered a customer complaint about this - so don't wait for them to contact you - complain !!

Nick

 

Perhaps they should give us a Prodrive ECU. Would save all the F@rt ***!ng around.

 

This new ecu wont slow the car down will it?

It wont be a quick fix? and ***** the power delivery up

any views??
Denz

 

Er.....pass

It would be tempting for them to reduce power to get around the problem. Wouldn't this be against the Trade Description legislation though - sold as having set pwr figures ?

Does this only affect UK Turbos or do WRXs/STis suffer from it, especially if fed on NUL ?

Anyway - my power delivery is already ballsed up so anything would be an improvement !

Nick

 

Same hear my ones booked in to Lavender hill in enfield now so they reckon they may be able to fix it(god Knows how).

will keep you lot posted!!

 

Update

Apparently a period of testing has been completed in the UK and they "think" they have solved it. A small number of ECUs are being manufactured in Japan which will be shipped over and fitted to service managers cars. If they prove to be OK a service bulletin will be issued to dealers.

I've been asked to check back with my dealer in 3-4 weeks. They are being pretty good and hassling Subaru quite a lot !

Apparently the Forester suffered a similar problem but to a worse extent (bet they were fun to drive!) and Subaru did the same - remapped ECU. My dealer had already tried the old washer underneath the knock sensor trick as described earlier in this post - it made the problem worse on that occassion. I'm not saying that it doesn't work, but there must be variations in country models/specs (esp. with Turbo cars) which could affect the results ?

Nick

 

nickw,

Thanks for the update, please keep us posted since I will be registering the problem with my dealer, Andrew Burt, at the next service.

jon

 

have two full prodrive spec my00 cars....with exactly the problems whilst warming up !!

maybe, prodrive ecu's are not the answer !

steve

 

Yeah, I get a mild hesitation at low revs.
MY00 UK turbo, 7200 miles.

In for 7500 service next Thusrday, so I'll mention the problem to the dealer, along with other prob. (see Tickety-boo thread)

Keep the posts coming - esp. if an official cure is found.


Rich

 

My car does this also(99my)....Bloody annoying.... has done it from new, 15K later its getting slightly better!!

Looked at the knock sensor trick a while back, but you can't even SEE the bladdy thing, let alone get a socket & washer anywhere near it, all the intercooler & throttle body has to come off to see it....therefore I left well alone.

Getting desperate now though as it really, really, really winds me up some days....calm thoughts, calm thoughts........mmmm dolphins.....

 

It's not only a UK spec problem.
I experience some hesitation on light throttle cruising around 2500-3500 especially when cold/warming up my MY00 GT. But it does not feel like a BIG problem.
Anyway, I was planning to chip-tune the car and assumed that would end these problems, but when reading this thread maybe I should rather wait for Subaru to come up with a new ECU before I take it to the tuner?
Any one got rid of the problems by installing a differently mapped chip?

[This message has been edited by SSE (edited 12 October 2000).]

 

SSE/
The Possumlink gets rid of it. see my previous posts..

 

I think my UK spec we meant "European 4 door Impreza Turbo 2000" spec.

We use the term UK spec since so many people on the BBS have Japanese spec, WRX, STi etc etc.

I assume the GT is just the brand name for our Turbo 2000 AWD. I think Subaru also call the Turbo, GT in Holland.

jon

 

Nick,

Any news on the ecu testing?

 

I wonder if the dealers have now had a fix it kit for those that spot/complain about it....I recently had my MY99 serviced...22,000 on car that's done 17,500,and mentioned to dealer that it suffered....I asked about it when collecting the car and all that was said was that ECU memories had been reset,although no fault codes were present....This was done on the previous service,but had no noticable effect,this time the car,at the momment,appears to be cured.....
Time will tell....

 

Having a similar problem with mine (MY99). Seems to happen most when flooring the right foot and changing up. It recently doesn't seem to be as bad. Thought at first it was my bad gear changes - probably still is!

Found that keeping a little extra throttle on whilst changing made for very smooth change and partly cured the issue.

Due in for a 7.5k service in November will mention it to the service manager and see what they say

Glad it's not just me

Hogster

 

I have owned 4 Dutch GTT's (MY96/MY96/MY98/MY2000)and all had the surging while warming-up.
On two cars the boostsolenoid was changed and that made a difference (but didn't cure the problem completely)
On my MY2000 I had this same problem and after putting on a PPP with PPP ECU, the more agressive mappings of the PPP ECU made the surging even worse, so the conclusion is that either the problem doesn't lay in the ECU or the PPP ECU has the same mapping error.
Changing the boost solenoid again made things better but again hasn't fully cured the problem.

René

 

Subaru UK are working hard on this problem, but seem to be keeping quiet due to the speed news travels via the Internet.
There are a few ECU Mods on the go for different models and different problems so it is sometimes hard for your dealer and Subaru to decide what the problem is.
There seems to be 1 distinct problem with MY99 and MY00 cars described as surging manifesting itself between 2500 and 3100 revs specifically at 2500,2700,2900 and 3100 revs on my car where the car surges or seems to hiccup.My area Subaru Engineer who is working directly with me and my dealer to resolve this problem is due to fit a modified ECU currently en route from Japan on 6th November, he has high hopes that this will finally resolve the problem for me. If this is successfull it will be made available to all users who have registered a complaint with their dealer, if not I guess ity has to be a new age Imprezza!

 

I get exactly the symptoms you describe, been back to the dealer several times and they say that they've never heard of this problem. I thought it was just me!!

One thing that did help was replacing the throttle cable, mine was very jerky in operation, if it was depressed using your hand you could feel the notchiness. The dealer gave me a new one under warranty and I fitted it myself, it did improve matters but hte hesitation when cold is still there. I think I'll write to Subaru to see what they intend doing.

 

Puting a different slant on this problem, rather than looking at ignition advance/retard causing power loss, have a look here:

 

Richard.Heald,

Did you ring IM for the quote or was the quote through your dealer for the extended warranty?

jon

 

Jon,
The quote was from the dealer. I did tell him that I thought IM had refused to extend the warranty on European cars but they assure me it's OK now. It's only a very recent change but they have already extended the warranty for another Dutch car with no problems - any time within the first year is OK.

My dealer is Carstins in Balsall Common near Coventry if this helps.

Richard.

 

I reported the engine surging to my dealer when I had the 6500 mile service on my MY00; they found the lambada sensor was giving readings slightly out of range. It's getting fixed under warranty soon, I'll see if that fixes the problem.

While I was there I also found out it is possible to exyend the one year warranty on Dutch cars through Subaru UK now - they quoted me £383 to extend it to three years.

 

Richard.Heald

i've just spoken to john sherwood at IM warrenty dept.
he says there is no 2nd 3rd year warrenty available for uk spec imports, what he thinks carstins have done, is misunderstood the new 2 year extra warrenty which applies to years 4 and 5 i.e. after the original 3 year im warrenty expires.

you better check again with the dealer.


ray t

 

Thanks for that;- I've not done anything about extending my warranty yet, I'll clear it up when I get the lambada sensor fixed.

Richard

 

Does it Bob?, i still have it very slightly on my car which is why i beleive it isnt necessarily a fault of ECU/MAF origin.

 

NickW,

Any news from your dealer about this yet?

 

Latest according to my dealer is that due to the cost of manufacturing ECU's, they are developing a software CDROM which will be stuck into a laptop and used to update the existing ECU through the plug. Funny thing though, it seems to be perpetually under development.

I just don't understand why it is taking so long. I hear the Kia Pride accelerates quite smoothly. Maybe Subaru should ask them for help ?

Nick

 

Erm, sounds dodgy. If they have the hardware in place then surely someone else would have their hands on it and third parties would be remapping the exisiting JECS ECU as opposed to replacing it/piggybacking it.

Also, IIRC, the JECS ECU can only be written to once and once only and not changed, to do so would require a new eprom (is that what its called?)

Sunil

 

Nickw,

When is the planned ECU upgrade for your car?
Have you got a date for them to deploy the new MAP?

jon