Had this happen to me several times over the past 18 months or so - and it did it yesterday driving back from Scooby Shootout @ Elvington.

Usually happens when I have been driving the car hard for say...10 miles or more, although only does it on the odd occasion (certainly not all the time - probably 5 or 6 times in total now). When the light flashes, the car doesn't seem to run badly - although I have eased off each time.

According to the handbook this indicates misfire(s) on one or more cylinders. If I then drive the car carefully for a mile or so the light stops flashing and goes off completely. The car seems to loose no performance during or after and I can't feel / hear a misfire? I have a copy of Ecutek Delta Dash for my laptop and can find no Fault Codes stored after each occasion - really annoying.

Anyone any ideas at all what could be causing this?

In between each of these occurrences I have had 2 permanent CEL's (on different occasions). The first indicated a faulty Camshaft Sensor (P0304 I think it was) which I replaced and cured the CEL. The second indicated misfires on several cylinders - P0301, P0302, P0303 & P0304. Car was taken to a specialist who advised Plugs were incorrectly gapped and torqued (following a recent service by a Subaru Main Dealer) - these were re-gapped and torqued, again curing the problem.

The trouble is, I'm losing confidence in taking the car on a long trip for fear of breaking down / doing some damage. Advice would be really appreciated on possible causes?

 

Palmo,

It's a 'bugeye' thing.

If you do a search on Neutral Position Switch you will see that the topic has been covered before.

Cheers

Martin

 

I've had exactly the same problems on my my01 bugeye, (see http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthread.php?t=511438).

It started doing it at the end of last year following a remap but each time I had the CEL log checked, no errors stored. Therefore I bought a data monitor and captured a couple of codes before they cleared.

After the last occurrance at the end of April, I reset the ecu and it's been fine since. No adverse problems in terms of performance but it does put the ***** up me each time it happens, (it's happened about 6 times for me aswell).

 

My MY01 has during the last 72k miles done this about 4 times.

There was a lot writen on www.nasioc.com webite about this problem.

I have decided that it's 'just one of those things'.

Martin

 

Could be Neutral position switch. Can you log the state of your NPS (On/OFF) using deltadash?
I noticed when logging the state of my NPS that it would incorrectly register ON (Neutral selected) intermittently during an in gear full throttle run (usually 3rd & 4th) - It never threw a CEL reporting a faulty NPS but it clearly was faulty!

Had the switch replaced this morning and now NPS behaves normally during WOT runs.

 

Thanks guys for all the advice - I will check the switch out (resistence) and replace if necessary.

Markyboy uk - how much is a replacement NPS?

 

This is the 2nd time it has been replaced (FOC this time). It was originally replaced nearly 18 months ago, cost then including fitting at dealers was around £75

I think the part is around £30 - others on here have fitted it themselves and say it's fairly easy.

 

Seems that these are a common failure then on the Bugeye's. Wonder what causes them to fail - is it simply a poorly designed part or susceptible to dirt and moisture - being under the car?

I will probably order one tomorrow to try it - will fit myself though.

I take it this is the most common cause of the CEL Flashing on Bugeye's. I read an historic post about this issue by searching and saw comments that the 02 sensor can cause similar problems - think this post was by Pete Crooney. Thoughts?

 

Well the NPS switch is cheaper than an O2 sensor from a dealer so I'd definately be going that route.
It must be a poor design - seeing as I'm now on my 3rd!