Markadaniel

I have a 2004 STI JDM. RIght side AVCS is full advance at idle making idle rough and stays full advanced during driving. I have equal lenght headers with the avcs advanced constantly the car now has a unequal sound under load.

Trouble shooting:
1. Checked timing twice. Retimed it twice
2. No screens in Banjo.
3. Swapped solenoids and problem stuck to the problematic side.
4. Changed cam position sensor on right side, did not make a difference.
5. Cleaned AVCS solenoids, no luck.
6. Reset ECU numerous times.
7. unplugged left head AVCS and it also advances 66-70 degrees just like the right side as expected.
8. No immediate notice of power loss, i do have a big turbo so its hard to tell, during cruising, maybe just a little loss of power.
9. No immediate notice of any wiring issues.
10. Not sure where exactly and what and how to check for voltages as we used a multi meter and checked the ecu pins and plugs etc for both working and non working avcs sides and they both showed 0 voltage.

Car was running fine all the time, pulls super hard still but i know something is up with it and I really can't figure it out.

Don Clark

Sounds as if the cam AVCS actuator could be jammed.

Markadaniel

The cam gear was changed also, problem persisted.

johnfelstead

Based on what you have changed and the tests you have done, it suggests a wiring fault between the ECU and the solonoid or a blown output driver in the ECU.
If you can borrow an ECU to try or buy one cheap, that's worth trying, but do check the wiring first.

Markadaniel

Thanks for the response! We have checked the wiring and nothing is grounding out anywhere, there are no breaks nothing at all. We checked from the sensor, all the way to the ECU and back. So I am thinking ECU, unfortunately I don't have or can get an ECU locally to test. I unplugged my AVCS solenoids and running the car without AVCS, lost a bit of spool up, but my power band is really high on my 3076R so AVCS is not doing much for me here. I am thinking to go the route of a LINK ECU to see. I am located in the Caribbean and getting an ECU out of Japan Is very costly. My most feasible option is out of the USA and I know the V7 and V8 ECU's wiring is slightly different. I think it may be an output driver in the ECU.

johnfelstead

Why dont you contact a breaker like MattyB on here and buy a second hand stock ECU, it should be pretty cheap compared to everything else as a test/replacement. Just make sure you have the model code of the car and the ECU number the same as they vary between JDM STi and JDM Spec C depending on year. I expect you have a remap based on engine spec, so obviously that will need flashing before you drive on load, but it will allow you to test first.