Ok

My car: wrx ppp 2003 (no other mods)

So the past month or so my car has felt sluggish and flat, with what appears to be limited boost (on some days very limited). It starts ok, never stutters or hesitates, just feels like there is no pressure pushing you along and feels strained on boost (because of this I have been keeping off boost 99% of the time).

I had my 30k service today and was hoping that perhaps new plugs and filters might spring a bit of life back...although a bit more responsive, it still feels pretty flat through the whole range especially above 3k rpm. At one point it was taking so long to get past 5k rpm in 4th gear that I just gave up, particulary as it felt like the steering wheel was starting to shake :S

Clearly something's not right, the peak power of my car arrives at around 6k rpm yet I can't even get to it.

I didnt get the dealer to do a diagnostic as the cost of the service was enough; I'd soonr pay my hard earned money with a specialist for any such investigation to be done, as they seem more adept at this.

In the meantime, any ideas?

 

If its had a servive at dealer they normally do a check for logged errors so cant be electrical, have you got a boost gauge to see if your not achieving full pressure? If not can you temporerily fit a cheapo just find out.

 

Hi mate
The boost guage idea is a possible next step..at least that would categorically show if something's amiss
Thanks for the reply, will give it a go

 

The ecu can drop boost for several reasons, one being water temp sensor. ecu limits boost when car is cold. Newage ecu is a clever little beastie and has all sorts of failsafe features to limit performance if it thinks all is not well. Dealer or a mapper with software will be able to tell you.

 

Brilliant thanks Spider
I am not too far from Mocom so will likely go there.

 

possible air intake blockage ? fueling..probably lots of reasons. but i reckon a specialist and not a dealer.

 

Could just be simple like a shat tank of fuel. I have been there in my 03 WRX, and it was the week before remap time too FFS.
It went to them to be mapped with some shat fuel still in it.
Basically, if u aint already, run the fuel off and get the good stuff in, then take it from there, but remember, your ECU will remember your driving style and alter stuff accordingly, so you gonna have to drive it to get it to sort itself out over time. Or like TSL did to mine at the time, they just reset the ECU for me to wipe the short term memory of the fuelling.

 

Rabs: possibly...it's hard to tell

Mad: I have been using (100%) Tesco 99 ron since November and the car has felt lacklustre since around just after Christmas until now...so I think a dodgy batch would have gone through the system by now (?) ....I would assume the ECU would have been reset at my service today if they take out the battery to get to the spark plugs?

 

*also can a specialists software pick up air / exhaust leaks?