VAL113R

I am have a problem with my car and I wondered if anyone could give advice please?

The car has been running fine and I was using it daily. The girlfriend was off work for a few months unwell and I was using her car. The battery on mine went flat after about 2 weeks and I bought a new one, but didn't fit it until about 3 weeks later so the car was sitting about for about 5 weeks in my drive.

I drove the car for about a week afterwards, but one night driving home it was hesitating a little. I wasn't driving hard or anything like that. The only way to describe it was as if I was empty of fuel.

I managed to get the car to my unit and had a mechanic look at it for me. It he checked over everything and noticed the arm on the turbo was stuck open. He managed to move it and gave the car a run and it was fine. I drove it home and it seemed fine.

I didn't drive the car until Monday night this week. I brought it back down to the unit as the guy said my oil was a little low and he'd do an oil change. He said he'd do the plugs at the same time as they've been in nearly a year. This is when the problems started.

After the oil change I took the car for a run and it was fine. It was needing petrol so drove it to the station. After I restarted it when leaving the station it was coughing and spluttering quite badly. The check engine light was flashing sometimes and black smoke was coming out of the exhaust. I got it back to the unit but it is obvious it is overfueling quite a lot. If I drive it hard(ish) it seems "ok" as I assume more fuel is being burnt, but normal driving and it splutters and can idle really funny (hunt) although if left for a few mins sometimes sorts itself.

I bought another set of plugs for it in case these were faulty. The first time driving the car with these it is fine. If I switch the engine off and leave for a few mins and switch back on again the problem comes back.

Do you have any idea what could be wrong? The car is overfueling quite badly but we don't know what is causing it. Because it is modified and mapped for the current spec we can't just change bits. I am also running a nissan MAF so it is not like I can try another of these easily.

I don't know if it is coincidental that the problem started after the oil change. They did disconnect the induction pipes to get into the plugs. The guy is very careful, but if the MAF was on its way out then this may have pushed it over the edge?

Mods to the car is

PowerFC
AVCR
18g turbo
nismo 550cc injectors (these were brand new)
harvey's headers
nissan maf
blitz induction
FMIC

There is a few others, but don't think any of these are causing the problem.

cheers

djquest

iTrader: (8)

hi,

have you checked for any leaks in the FMIC? If you have Dump valve have you checked that its not leaking whilst on idle.

As the problem you describe happend to me, where i had a leaking FMIC which caused over fueling and black smoke. Once i fixed this, i still had irractic idleing and still bad fuel consumption but not as bad as i did when i had the fmic leak. i removed my dump valve and drop my car without it. my car fault fine. no more spluttering or bad idle or high use of fuel consumption.

i hope that helps

Regards

djquest

VAL113R

hi mate

thanks for your reply. I've checked the intercooler pipes and they seem to be ok. I don't know about the dumpvalve though.

The thing is if I rev the car hard it drives not too bad. If there was a prob with the intercooler wouldn't it be worse then? Or not even make boost?

cheers

djquest

iTrader: (8)

hi, When i had a faulty dump valve, i could rev the car hard and it would drive and pull strong, but it still had bad fueling and at times my car would just stall when i came to a stand still after being on full boost. For a test if i would just blank of the dump valve and take the car for a test drive. dont floor it hard. just drive normally and at times on boost. if the car feel stronger and when you are standing still your car idles normal. it would prove that your dump valve is at fault. Keep in mind if you come on boost with no dump valve and you change gears etc etc, you may find that if you have any weak joins in you have in your intercooler may be seen, as the pipe work may come off at weak joins. for me it was the pipe going directling in to the throttle body.

Your car would still make boost when you floor it as the dump valve will not open unless you let go of the throttle i.e the whoosh sound. But when you come to stand still the dump valve spring may be so weak that the vacuum keeps the dump valve slightly open, thus causing you to run rich and your car to splutter when idling.

This is what i can suggest, im not a subaru expert, but only know from what i learnt from expereience and the help i got from everyone on SN.

hope that helps

regards

kaif

debbiesonic

iTrader: (7)

I would first check to find out what is causing the cel to flash, that will lead you in the right direction.