Palmo

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?

Ninnybobs

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

Trap2Terrorist

iTrader: (3)

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).

Ninnybobs

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

Markyboy uk

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.

Palmo

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?

Markyboy uk

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.

Palmo

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?

Markyboy uk

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!