WRXXX

hi fellow enthusiasts

i ve baught a 97 uk turbo wagon which was not running right, i was told by previous owner that it needs a new maf and he cant afford this, purple maf costs upwards of 400 quid from dealers.

this is the problem,

car misses quite often and very hesitant to build boost

have to press the accelerator very gradually to build boost, even then it mises and sometimes can hear a pop from engine.

engine bay gets very hot cant touch anything on the block longer than second, some rubber pipes near the block get so hot that you can smell them burning and see smoke from them,

as soon as you go uphill the car comes to a crawl , about 1 mile and hour if that.

it revs up fine when standing in neutral.

this is what i have done so far by reading forums.

made sure that spark plugs are gapped .65mm , before they were about .9mm

fitted new maf.

tried to ensure that the vac hoses are piped correctly but cant find any diagrams to work from.

checked and cleared error codes, now there are no error codes, when black connector are connected i get a constant flashing of the cel.

connected green test connectors and sprayed carb cleaner into selenoid and linked pipework also cleaned off the car and put back on.
drained some oil out as it was just over the full mark, its now between low and full mark.

also checked and found that there was no restrictor pill on the vac hose out of the turbo, baught a mig welding tip and put that in 1mm diameter.

the only difference my tinkering has made is this, the cel has cleared, it now starts first time where before it would take quite a few turns.

ive been at it for about a week now going throught the information on the forums etc but am clueless now. any help will be appreciated

cheers

WRXXX

heres a few pics of the vac lines , are they plumbed correctly?

WRXXX

,,,,

WRXXX

WRXXX

duds64

iTrader: (2)

have you got the maf plug and the other grey plug near the map sensor mixed up

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Take her to a speciallist to get it looked at?

Tony

WRXXX

i ve just checked those connectors and they are in the right place, the shapes are slightly different to ensure they cant be plugged into the wrong slot. i am gonna tek it to a doctor but want to eliminate the simplest of things first or if anyone has any first hand tips

paulscoobycallum

hi mine was poping and not boosting correct i cleaned boost selenoid and pipes. did not work because my oil was a tad over the maximum. so i drained a bit out then cleaned again then was running fine. have you cleaned them again since droping the oil. worked for me hope this helps bud.. also does it have a standard recirc dump valve coz they dont like blow off valves

Splitpin

WRXXX, a couple of comments in addition to what the others have said.

First of all your emergency MIG tip air restrictor replacement is the wrong bore by a wide margin. 1.2mm is correct for your car. By fitting a 1mm MIG tip you will almost certainly be causing sufficient overboost to lead to fuel cut.

This alone could potentially explain the "car misses quite often and very hesitant to build boost... have to press the accelerator very gradually to build boost, even then it mises and sometimes can hear a pop from engine."

If I were you I'd get a proper 1.2mm pill from Subaru and see what that does to your symptoms. (This is preferable to a drilled out MIG tip, as the MIG tips are longer than the proper parts)

Also if you want us to check whether the plumbing is correct, we need to actually be able to see the pipework in the photos. Sounds from the description of your symptoms that it's correct though. Can you post a picture of what you've done with it at the turbo end?

Secondly you have an induction kit on. Assuming you still have the standard ECU (check this), the cone filter is not doing the performance (or airflow measurement accuracy) any favours, is a potential cause of the previous sensor's death, and also a potential damage/early expiry vector for the new one. Best thing you can do with that cone is to take it off and fit a standard intake-resonator-airbox and panel filter.

Also your comments re the block getting "very hot". It's supposed to get very hot - working range is the 83 to 96 celsius, so it stands to reason that you shouldn't be able to hold your fingers on it - it's the same with any engine. If you think it's abnormally hot, do you have any evidence to support this? Have you checked that the cooling system is filled and functioning properly? Does the cooling fan on the radiator run constantly?

WRXXX

right

i found the orginal restrictor pill under the air filter and have now put this on, no difference,

i reduced the oil and cleaned the selenoid and pipes together without starting the car in between.

ive connected the green connectors and the fans come on and off, but when car is running they dont come on, it gets to hot that you can smell rubber burning and smoke comes from the block where the rubber pipes touch it,

thing is i baught the car as a faulty runner, guy told me its the maf, abviously ive been had, i have booked it in with Andy from Richard Henry Motorsport, but have also been reading some other users problems and quite often its been a simple fix, so i am hoping for the same.

here is the turbo




i have a 2 port selenoid , question is where does the pipe coming from bottom of it go and where does the pipe coming from the left side , near the top go?

WRXXX

oh and i am due to change filter once i have the problem fixed,

one other thing - the car has had the side vent undertrays removed , lots of water going straight into the battery and associated wiring on one side and the filter on the other side, ive put bags there till i can find some undertrays

Splitpin

From here we have no way of knowing whether what you're experiencing is typical or not. However if the standard rubber pipes are smoking, that suggests your engine is overheating by a significant margin. Have you checked that the coolant system is properly filled and functioning? Is the header tank (the one with the pressure cap bolted to the inlet manifold in your pictures) brim full when the engine is cold? Does the radiator warm up when the engine does?

Until you have answered questions like that to your own satisfaction, you should probably not even be starting the engine. If there is a problem with the cooling system, continuing to run it is just going to make things worse.

If you were told it was a faulty/non-runner you can't really complain about being "had" if the problem turns out to be something other than the seller's suspicion.

The port at the "end" of the solenoid body (the one that points toward the engine when installed in the car) should go to the return on the inlet tract. The port at right-angles to the solenoid body (the one that points towards the wheel when in car) goes to the t-piece on the turbo - at least if memory serves. Also for sake of ruling out the obvious, the restrictor pill should be in the pipe between the turbo compressor outlet and the t.

It looks from your pictures that the control pipe running from the t to the solenoid is stretched, and also has an aftermarket brass joiner in it, so either that's a sign that you've got something the wrong way round, or it's a sign that it's been played with in the past.

WRXXX

firstly thanks for the help Splitpin, i am not running it at moment, just start it once ive changed some thing to see if its made any difference, i will check rads and get back to you, i am also on the lookout for a standard bov as currently it has a blue dump valve, do you know if i can use any standard bov off a same year wrx / import etc or does it have to be off a uk turbo?

i will get new vac hoses and connect them the way you described and get rid of the brass thing, the pill is in the correct place as its always shown to be there on other posts.

the coolant is full but looks like water, rusty water, i will flush it and put the blue stuff in.

WRXXX

right
ive been tinkering this pm , thaught id try and resolve atleast one issue before mechanic sees it,

the radiator gets boiling hot on the drivers side top pipe but the passenger side bottom pipe remains quite cool, the block also gets very hot, i am thinking of disconnecting the rad and putting a pipe on the top side to see if water flows through, do they normally get blocked? and how could i unblock it? or could it be an air pocket? how do i bleed the system to ensure no air in there?

any help would be appreciated. i want sort the cooling problem out before i move onto the missing.

WRXXX

ive been looking at this agian today and now hit a dead end,

took radiator off, when i disconnected the bottom hose - rusty water came out of the radiator end and clean water came from the engine end

so clean water was coming out of this hose




checked the radiator for blockages and there were none, water just flowed through



what could stop the water from flowing? could it be a stuck thermostat ? does anyone know what it could be?

any help would be appreciatd

widdows

could be a stuck stat, more likely an airlock. A very rare occurance it could be a faulty waterpump with that amount of corrosion in there it could even be blocked pipes.

the pipes that run over the top of the engine(steel thin walled ones)are prone to blocking if the system has masses of flakey corroded metal floating about.

if your fans are not coming on then check the temp sender in the crossover pipe underneath the inlet manifold.

WRXXX

right ill take off the thermostat in the am, how can i tell if its faulty, will also check the temp sender, again how can i tell if this is faulty?

will strip off the pipes and check them too

battlebus

i might be wide of the mark here but your intake pipe looks to have come away from the turbo? Where it bolts to the front of the inlet manifold it looks like there is a large gap, as if it is too far forward? Maybe worth a look as this was the problem with mine a while back, and no amount of forum trawling was any use, i just had to eliminate stuff!