I have an STI 7 prodrive with OBX headers and a induction kit, while driving today I floored it in 3rd gear to overtake everything was fine upto about 6000rpm when the power suddenly dropped, it was still pulling but not have as much, there wasn't any noise, bang or pop or anything like that and the Knocklink and lambda link where normal. I backed of and went home taking it easy when I stopped and the car was idling it sounded very lumpy irratic, since fitting the headers I lost the burble but on ticking over it sounded like a burble again.

I tried to take it out again and it was struggling to pull away in 1st gear, I had to rev it up to stop if from stalling.

I think I have lost a cylinder but if that has happened I would have expected a bang or something and would I still be able to drive it? I hope not that would really top off a crap christmas, Ho Ho Ho

Any comments would be appreciated.

Cheers

Scott

 

Any kind of CEL when it happened?

Any major smoke out the exhaust i.e black, blue or white?

What nick is the MAF and the idle control valve in?

When my car sh*t itself it ran on two cylinders for about 2 miles!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The car might have overboosted due to the headers and went into safe mode. Try and hook it up to diagnostic machine to see if anything unusual shows up.

MAF failure would give a lumpy idle and it would struggle to rev, the MAF might be operational enough not to through a CEL but could still be dirty. Idle control could be blocked as when you were on high boost the amount of air drawn through the manifold is immense and could have dislodged something. I have seen this before with a foam mushroom filter trying to get sucked into the induction under load.

Grant

 

Cheers Grant,

I haven't checked the MAF, I'll have a look tomorrow, where is the idle control valve and what does it look like, the CEL is on I'll try and get it to the dealers tomorrow to get it checked out for warnings

Scott

 

Idle valve is on the opposite side of the throttle body from the accelarator cable. 3 wire connector on the top with 2 screws on either side.

Grant

 

Sounds like the ECU has gone into limp home mode (limited boost etc...)

MB

 

I checked out the MAF today, it looked OK, gave it a clean but it made no difference, so its booked into the dealers tomorrow to check it out, fingers crossed its nothing to serious.

Scott

 

Doubt it will be the MAF on that MY.

Still think it will be something simple though - and deffo sounds like its in limp mode.

Keep us posted.

MB

 

Panic over,

It was just a broken connection on one of the coil packs causing a misfire, the casing of the coilpack is cracked and the dealer said that it would need the full wiring loom replaced @ about £1,000, whats that all about, told him to forget it then the mechanic suggested just gluing the coilpack in place as a temp measure to get going again, so its running ok now, but surely you can replace a coilpack without have to replace the full loom?

Still I'm relieved it wasn't a blown engine.

Scott

 

I got a full set of coil packs (x4) for £250 from Alyn at AS Performance. I didn't need to replace the loom....just unplugged each coil pack from the loom and plugged in the replacement. It took less than an hour.

Just ring or email Alyn and I'm sure he'll sort you out.

 

Hmm, have you had your plugs done lately? They can break but normally from taking them on / off.

MB

 

The car was serviced about a month ago, at my local dealer, funny you should mention that when he told me the coil pack was broken he felt the need to enphasise that it would not be covered under the warranty as it had been damaged and was not a fault. Being located where they are on the car it is unlikely that they would be damaged by anything other than with the plugs being changed.

I think I'll be having a word with them tomorrow.

Scott

 

Yes, I would be having a word....

MB

 

I finally got a hold of my local dealer today after the holidays and they didn't want to know, they said if it had happened during the service then it would have shown before now and not a month down the line so they wouldn't accept any responsability for it, in other words thanks for giving us £300 for changing your oil and giving your car a wash but you can f**k off now.

This was the same garage and the same service where they changed the coollant but forgot to top it up so I managed to get a couple of miles down the road before noticing the temp gauge nearly in the red, stop the car and phoned them up and they told me "just to bring it back in" I tried to explain it was over heating and I didn't want to go any further but they weren't interested.

They also changed the oil and 2 days later the oil warning light was coming on so back in for that as well, which apperently just a rouge fault code, ah ok then you mean you forgot to put enough oil in just the same as the water.

Neadless to say I'll not be going back for anything else, but in the meantime I think I'll write to Subaru direct and complain.

So much for after service care.

Scott

 

Oh dear. I would be asking why a 3 year old car would suffer damaged coil packs? Is is still under warranty??

MB

 

its still in warranty but they said it wasn't covered by the warranty as it was physically damaged rather than a faulty part.

 

****ers. And who's carried out the servicing (proven by the stamps?) and therefore the only ones who would have fiddled with the plugs / CP's???

Bandits.

MB

 

The only way to damage one of those coil packs is to overtighten the retaining bolt or drop it/knock it during a plug change.

No question about how it happened imho !!

bob

 

Exactly, I would persue it further.

Doing mine myself before the Tek3 end of this month Bob Might not be a good thing....

MB

 

I'll pop in to the garage tomorrow and speak to the manager if I don't get any joy there then I'll be writting to Subaru.

 

Went in too see them today, they were a lot more accommodating face to face than they were on the phone, they still aren't accepting liability but say that worse case is a new solenoid best case is it just missing the locating screw and a plastic cover clip.

So we have went for £1,000 for a new wiring loom to £10 for a screw and a bit of plastic, but I still have to book it in with them and leave it for the day for them to tell me for sure.

Oh and not forgetting I had to pay them £64 last week for them to tell me that they had broken it in the first place.

They still don't instil me with any confidence

Scott