sgcooby

Just got MYo3 ecutek'ed last week and car was running sweet. Only other mods were backbox, straight through centre section and removed the first cat pipe. Yesterday and again today the car now seems to bog down. It will start to accelerate fine then you can feel it choke up like the boost has dropped or something. If i leave it a while and drive steady it will be fine again but then randomly it occurs again later. Trying to get in contact with garage that carried out the work for me but cant get a hold of them yet but any advice before i speak to them would be much appreciated.

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

is this happening in lower gears or higher gears or all of the time?
If it is lower gears, I am sure there is something in the ecu software that limits//restricts boost if it is being held for a few seconds

marklemac

mine does this in 3rd gear if your holding a rev and then boot it. if you lift off before booting it, you get full boost.

On the ecutek forums there is a thread about this. apparently its a noise/emmissions thing - dangerous in my opinion...

sgcooby

Yesterday it happened in 2nd and 3rd but at about 3500rpm today it happened in 4th at about the same revs. I could feel it start to pull strongly then it just suddenly bogs down and feels like its got half the power. I forgot to mention that following remap i changed the back box but i wouldnt have though that would matter. I had a scoobysport backbox on for remap then fitted a ninja afterwards.

sgcooby

Ecutek forums ????

sgcooby

Could it be the fuel pump? Should i have upgraded it???

sgcooby

Finally got a hold of the guy who mapped the car. He sounds confident he can sort it. Asked me to pop round today and he will run a diagnostic on it. Fingers crossed.

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

IIRC this boost cut feature should only happen in 2nd after having held the car at a constant light throttle and then applied WOT. It's a fudge to get past drive by noise regs.

Ns04

IanK Spec C

surely, this drive by' feature is one of the things competent mappers remove as part of the remap? Just like the cat efficiency check etc.

Best regards,

Ian

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

No, it cannot be removed by the mapper unfortunately.

Ns04

rmtypeR

My car is hasn't been re-mapped (std STi V4 ECU), but twice in 9 months what you describe in the first post has happened to me - both times in 4th gear at about 3-4k rpm, having been at those revs for a couple of seconds before flooring it.

Feels like it's hit a speed limiter or something. Don't think it's fuel cut as I've read that that's quite violent when it happens, and it happend before the full boost has come in. Backing off then immediately accelerating again but squeezing the pedal a bit gentler and it pulls fine.

I'd be interested to know what your mapper does to fix it?

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

It does seem like people are talking about different things here: to the best of my knowledge, boost cut only happens in 2nd gear under certain conditions to satisfy drive by noise regs. AFAIK It can't be mapped out with Ecutek!

Others with problems in 3rd and fourth appear to be describing something that it attributable to some other aspect of the car- maybe a dodgy sensor/component or a prior mapping issue that requires attention.

Ns04

marklemac

ecutek forum yes they have one !

here is thread

http://forum.ecutek.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=200

still waiting to hear from th e ecutek guys to see if this feature can be removed.

Bob Rawle

The boost limit can happen in other gears as well as 2nd, 2nd is the most common as it allows the correct number of engine drive cycles to occur, I've seen it happen in third and fourth while out mapping. there is nothing we tuners can currently do to alter this. It relates directly to the emmissions drive by std and boost is limited to actuator only. To avoid don't hold steady throttle around those revs.

bob

sgcooby

Car has been fine since it happened this morning but took it back to garage and the guy who recently mapped it was very helpful. Ran a diagnostic but nothing came up. Excuse my total novice ignorance but he did say the multiplier was up at 16x so the engine hadnt noticed or detected a fault. He reset ecu but said if fault occues again then come back as he will have no problems about rectifying it at no cost to myself. Since this the car has been fine. Fine in the sense that since my ecutek remap it pulls like a train. Love it. Beginning to feel like im paranoid but you know what like.

sgcooby

Happened again the other day and took the car back to the garage straight away. He was busy but came out anyway to see what problem was. Typical though as soon as he gets is its fine again. He reckoned it could be the airflow meter that has developed an itermitent fault and therefore cutting boost so ive ordered one up. Does this sound plausable to you guys as if it doesnt sort it what to i try next. Saying that the last few days it has been running fine again. Weird.

Andy.F

Sounds like it may be detecting knock at a certain rpm and temporarily storing ignition retard in the fine adjustment memory. There is a 64 point table with 8 load and 8 rpm thresholds. If the retard magnitude increases beyond a set level then the ECU will reset the course learning value and zero the individual fine values. If you have one table area running with the wrong timing it can cause a cycling up and down the course learning scale.
This would cause the issue you are having with the 'fault' coming and going.
It could also be a boost control issue, temporarily fitting a boost gauge may help you/your mapper track down the issue.

Andy

sgcooby

Thanks for the response. Ill have to print it out and hand it to the mapper ( Wallace performance by the way ) and see if he understands it as its too technical for me. Very much appreciated though.

On top of this im trying to source a second hand airflow meter on here as i just discovered the new age ones cost about £285. No way im paying for that especially when its not gauranteed to sort the problem. Does anyone know if a bugeye MAF will do on my blobeye???

Bob Rawle

New age cost what? I have the cartridge in stock as a stand alone at the same price as the GC8 MY99-00 ones !!

Andy that could happen and it would be very easy for Wallace to spot if it is as the AM would have to be well down for it to drop boost.

General for interest.

Fine learning more than 50% of the compensation map causes the drop.
The 64 zone map is a reporting map only and not adjustable by a tuner.

hope its sorted soon

bob

sgcooby

You have a new age airflow meter at about £90?? As that is the price ive seen for them from Subaru for the classic shape but subaru want £285 for a new age one.

marklemac

I bought a new MAF for my MY02 STI from Bob not so long ago, and he's right, it was about £90

& yes, dealers want £250+

jasonius

iTrader: (1)

Let us know how this goes..

Bob Rawle

For interest, checked and adjusted a Sti5 with uprated 2.5 today, had changed his Pipercross for a RCM K & N based kit, this car would generate drive by mode in 5th (!!!) if held at 3k for a long period, no det full AM with no issues. Did it four times during the session.

I may have mitigated it somewhat with a fuel map adjustment but only time will tell.

cheers

bob

DIPSY

You should of got Andy Forrest to map your car in the first place .I bought a tek2 exchange ecu for a my00 uk turbo i had from a company called Falkland performance had nothing but bother with it .I ended up getting Andy f to remap my car threw Awd and guess who's licence was on it but Wallace performance .After Andy did a tek3 remap the my00 uk turbo i had was running perfect with more power of a lot better .So need a good ecu mapper to do the job

sgcooby

Just back from holiday on the continent and the incident happened again. This time after cruising at about 80-90mph in 5th. The car was running fine for hours then at one toll booth stop i tried to pull away reasonably fast but felt the boost problem again and car pulled very sluggishly and did this in all gears for the next 5 minutes. I was looking for a place to stop as normally when i stop and re-start the engine the fault dissapears but then suddenly it sorted itself and you could actually feel the boost kick in again and car then ran as normal for rest of holiday. When the problem arose i tried changing down to different gears and then accelerate but it was allways the same, low boost but as said after 5 mins i dropped down into 4th gear, again to see if it had cleared, i started to accelerate with low boost then it just cleared itself and pulled strongly. Weird. Does this sound like the drive by noise problem others speak about?? I think im going to purchase a new airflow meter from yourself Bob if as you say they are only £90, and have sent an email accordingly, to see if that will sort the problem. To date this has happened about 4 times and it doesnt seem to matter what gear im in when it happens but as far as i can remember i was cruising at a steady speed before each incident occured although the last one i was cruising then came to a complete stop before it occured. Any one else had any more experiences with this or hopefully a solution? Fingers crossed that the new airflow meter sorts it when i get it though.

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

This doesn't sound like boost cut. If you get the boost cut, IME a simple lift off and re-application of the throttle seems to restore full boost (or maybe its just me?). Could there be a problem with your boost solenoid? I also seem to vaguely seem to recall talk on here about waste gate arms (??) sticking and causing boost probs, I may be mis-remembering the technical details though.

Why not get the car to a specialist and have them run a diagnostic on it?

Ns04

sgcooby

I took it back to the mapper but they couldnt detect any faults. Unfortunately, as allways, the fault wasnt present when they ran a diagnostic but from what you have said it sound like it could be a mechanical problem is if is a sticky waste gate arm. Boost solenoid was mentioned to me before by the mapper but he felt it was more likely the airflow meter but the only way to tell is trial and error. Hope solenoids are cheap. It seems too much of a coincidence that this just started happening since the ecutek map so i doubt it would be a sticky waste gate arm but then i dont know **** all about these things so we will see. Still going to proceed down the airflow meter replacement direction first then will try boost solenoid if that fails. If they dont work then ill go to work on my hair and pull all the bloddy stuff out. Thanks for the help though. Much appreciated.

marklemac

Hi,

does it sound anything like this ?

https://www.scoobynet.com/sti7-ppp-t...y-t208706.html

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

Mafs usually manifest themselves with a dodgy idle and threatening to stall at junctions etc... It doesn't have to be that drastic though and they can go over time. Problem is, the car is generally running leaner, you put your foot down and pop! Drive off boost till you get the health of the MAF checked out. What level of Mods do you have again? Maybe replace the two port or use the opportunity to upgrade to a 3 port boost solenoid (you'll need it installed immediately before the car is mapped for it though) theses are about £30 from grade A subaru.

Best of luck. Do drive the car gently until the MAF is ruled out though- a failing one of these is one of the biggest Subaru engine killers!

Ns04

sgcooby

Just read the thread. Very interesting. I am now tending to feel it could be the waste gate arm sticking so am going to spray some WD40 in there today. If i can find it.