Hey all who can help

I bought a MY94 jap 260 bhp wrx that runs like a dream and is in mint condition. It just seems to have serious issues when i boot it in first cog. It picks up like a 1 litre until about 4000 revs and then takes off like a rocket throwing all passengers around like rag dolls. It has had a full service and I been tuned so I dont know what can be wrong unless this is the same on all of them.

ANY HELP

 

Normal.

Try giving it 5000 RPM and dumping the clutch for better effect

Disclaimer on your gearbox or clutch from doing above too much

 

are you sure, I have seen scoobs take off from the lights like rockets, this thing throws you forward first and then fires you back into your seat, its very weird

 

As John states, thats normal.
You will be out of your turbo lower down your rev range so you wont get the power your after, the earlier cars were a bit more brutal in their delivery, it sort of all came on from 3500rpm in one go which gave you a big push into the seat.
I also take it the car has been modified to produce the 260bhp? (does it have an my95/96 ecu fitted?) as the normal cars (4 door versions) have 240ps out of the box (237bhp) 5 doors have 220ps (218bhp).

Tony

 

Oh right, delivery is abit rough

No its standard, Its a jap import, In 94 they produced a certain spec with 260bhp (well i had this tested and it got to 253)

 

They produced the original STi in 94, that has 250ps but this was the biggest output at the time, your car could be an MY95 (the Model year starts in september of the previous year) which your car could be or its been fitted with a later ecu to correct the minor problems the earlier ecu's had (that would show you around the 250ish mark your seeing now )

Tony

 

You could also check your chassis number here

www.sidc.co.uk

this may point you in the direction for other enquiries

Tony

 

yeah just tested it on that club site, and it is a late 94 260ps model so its about right

cheers

 

A small capacity low compression engine with restrictive breathing and a generous sized turbo run at low speed in a low gear will always be flat. It feels even flatter because of the contrast with on boost performance.

There is simply not the gas flow for the time required to spool up the turbo early in this situation.

 

so how do i combat this, unrestrict the gas flow with airfilters and exhausts etc

 

anti lag

 

Smaller turbo, larger engine, higher compression ratio, free up the breathing.

 

If you do not intend tuning past 260bhp then you may consider sourcing a smaller turbo such as a TD04 which was fitted to the wagon of that year IIRC. This will actually make the car faster as the useable powerband is wider.
TD04's are available from £100, you may find someone wanting to swap for your TD05 and you could gain £50-£100 from the deal

Andy

 

are you sure your not doing something daft like not giving it enough revs when pulling away. I often make that mistake in my Type R (which actually has shorter gearing).

Best to give it some revs and away you go like a missile - just practice with revs and how hard to come of the clutch etc..

IMHO of course

 

I have a type r, what revs is it best to shoot off from without causing seriuos damage to the drivetrain

 

ill swap your 05 for my 04?!
Gareth

 

TyPe~~R

I have an AP organic clutch so I can give it 1500-2000 rpm and bolt away, important thing is to not get the turbo spooled up to far whilst yopu are still slipping the clutch as it will just slip and smell nasty.

P.s. I have done 5000rpm take offs on the road and santapod - very brutal but nothing has snapped yet.. 4 wheels spinning on dry road is pretty impressive

 

I would say there is something wrong. It shouldn't 'throw you forward' under normal condiitons. Are you saying there is a flat spot?

The motor will generally feel flat, so you do need to give it some revs to get away, and with the 4wd it takes some practice to not bog down or slip the clutch too much. however it sounds like there is a misfire or something.

What does it do in the other gears from low speed, ie 2000rpm in 2nd or 3rd? (hold at 1500-2000rpm rolling along then open throttle completely).

Does it have a boost gauge?

Paul

 

No, It has no boost gauge.

It is fine in second and third, it is just first gear, i had it checked and there is no misfire, but there is a slight clutch judder on lift off. Thinking perhaps it could be the clutch on its way out?!

 

do yourself a favour and get a boost gauge, buy, beg, borrow or steal (ok don't steal).

It could be overboost, but would usually happen in the higher gears more easily. However, if you don't let the RPM drop then you might not see it. It's possible that it could be the way your driving it, but to be honest it sounds like there is something not right.

Paul

 

My UK MY96 used to be like the above, foot to the floor in first at 1200rpm, almost nothing. Hit 3200-3500 we have lift off. The trick was to let the clutch out at 2200rpm with smooth acceleration useage, little slip and great take off.

Full SS, HKS SPF and Gems sorted this out, it's soooo much quicker now and has far more torque low down, boost is building at just over 2200rpm. TD05 flies to the red line.

 

But what is being described here is it picks up then hits some sort of flatspot. Lag will always be worst in 1st gear because it's over so quickly but the turbo still needs time (aswell as RPM) to spool up.

Paul

 

True, I would have the plugs and Coil Packs checked, I had a crack in one of mine, that would pick up and falter then go.

Also had a miss during the summer after fitting the HKS SPF. That was nasty, had lots of pops bangs etc, bounce my forehead of the windscreen. In the winter it turned to over boost. Still bounced my head of the windscreen.

Also had PFR 8's fitted to the car gapped to .5 for when the Gems went in.

 

What happened to page 2?

 

I get abit of a flat spot if I set of slow in 1st then into 2nd and from there put my foot down, it happens around 1500-2000rpm at about 40mph it doesn't happen all the time and seems to be if I open the throttle right out all at once? If I open gradually its fine. Think Ill be changing the plugs in the next couple of weeks. but I do also get a big lag in 1st if I boot it but it doesn't last long and then it just goes bizerk...

 

red wrex

heheh i remember the feeling quite acutely
i was driving me 1.6 stock impreza, then getting in a mate's STi4. he asked me 2 floor it, which i did....then same story as urs. hehehe <remember fondly> i only got it 2 4th gear b4 running out of free road, but my knees were TREMBLING!!! Honestly man, i nearly sh@t meself, evrything was jus blurry, twas damn fast!! hence the mbition 2 save money 2 get nother BETTER scooby!! rgrds

 

could deffo be a lambda problem too.

unplug lambda breifly to check, don't drive for long with it unplugged as it will clog up with carbon over time.

Paul

 

Also, what your describing is not really turbo lag. Lag is the time it takes for the turbo to spin up due to the inertia of the spinning bits.

Ie, if you are at 5000 rpm when the turbo can deliver full boost and you close the throttle, the turbo spins down. When you open the throttle again, even if the engine is still spinning at the sort of rpm where full boost is available, their is a small delay until the turbo can spin back up to speed, this is turbo lag.

 

In first gear it is lag, as you hit high rpm very quickly, so the rpm your boost comes in is a function of boost threshold (steady state RPM required to spool turbo) and lag (time taked for turbo spool up when sufficient RPM available).

but seeing as the thread starter has evapourated we can only speculate

Paul

 

The second gear sluggishness could be the drive-by emissions mode in the ECU. In order to pass drive-by noise legislation the ECU limits boost in certain conditions, ie. mashing the pedal in 2nd gear at around 30mph.

Andrew...