my 95 wrx has been feeling a bit sluggish on boosting and top end so i have fitted a boost guage to see whats happening and gave the boost solenoid and piping a good clean as i may have over filled with oil (now at proper level).The guage sits at -20 on vacum at idle and low revs then climbs to 10psi and thats my lot. When the car was at subaru for a timing belt i got them to check the boost and they said it was 15psi. anyone got any suggestions on what could be going on?
thanks
jamie

 

if its a standard wrx then it wont be at 15psi mate, thats 1bar (14.7) 10 would be about right

 

A 95 WRX should see over 12 psi and can peak higher if its been decatted

 

WRX (1995/96) ECU Z4 - 12.71psi, dropping to 11.78psi @ 6600rpm. Fuel-cut 15.65psi.

If you're getting 10 psi (0.68bar), it's possible that you have a leak somewhere (usual spots to check are splits in the boots or the connection underneath the intercooler). I'm assuming that you know that your gauge is accurate and fitted correctly. The other thing that you can quickly do is to reset the ECU and see if it returns to just under 0.9bar.

If you're not running any mods, I don't see how Subaru would report 15psi.....

 

the ecu has supposedly been chipped so dont know what it is running, ive still to try reseting the ecu so hopefully that will do the trick as last week i thought i had hit the speed restrictor because the car died but maybe it has gone into safety mode. Subaru told me 15psi was norm for the car. right enough they didnt even know that all the oil filters for 93-03 subarus are the same now

 

10psi is low for Z4, have you checked CEL codes?

 

its a ra with z5 ecu if that makes a difference. checked for codes and nothing came up. boost reaches 10psi fairly quickly then needle just stays there from 3,000 right up to limit,till i stop accelerating or change gear.

 

-20 at idle seems very low, mine pulls down to around 0.7bar at idle and -0.8 decell, sure your gauge is ok? do you see zero when engine off?

Check restrictor in lower pipe on solenoid, if blocked boost will be lower.