2001 Subaru Impreza WRX acceleration issues!
 

Hi Guys, I've read a number of useful threads on here and am hoping you might be able to help with a couple of problems I’m having with my 2001 Impreza WRX (124K).

I have just bought the car this week and the person I bought it from had left the car with the battery unattached for a couple of months. When he then reattached it the right side indicators remain on permanently. I negotiated the price down in respect of this issue as the rest of the car was very tidy and well looked after. I have pulled the fuse for the alarm (which is also the fuse for the ABS so I’d like to put it back in asap!) and this allowed me to drive the car home.

As I then drove the car home everything felt great apart from as you give it full throttle the car judders from around 3000 to 5500rpm and the performance is dramatically reduced. If I accelerate at ¼ throttle it is much smoother and the car can be driven relatively slowly so that it doesn’t judder at all. I have read a couple of posts and suspect the issue could be related to either the HT leads or a split air feed hose.

Any help with either of these would be massively appreciated!:)

Oh looks like I might be wrong but when I started reading I was going to suggest having a look at injectors and spark plugs. The reason for this is that its happened to 2 of my mates that had a similar issue and it was down to spark plugs.

Also just realised you said at full throttle it might be worth looking at the fuel pump as well.

Could even be a vacume leak if its turbo sheck all the boost lines as one may have cracked whilst standing, check all boost pipes :thumb:

I would suspect if its this car has been not driven couple of months and battery has been disconnected,ECU is now at learning process.
This thread will help

http://www.wrxtuners.com/forums/f70/learning-ecu-11014/

Jura

Thanks for the advice guys, I will check the hoses and reset the ecu tonight and let you know if it helps :)

While driving the car home this evening I think I could hear a whooshing while accelerating, although its difficult to tell with a dump valve! I'm suspecting a split pipe somewhere and will get some quotes tomorrow for a fix, although I may give it a go myself this weekend

I took the intercooler off and checked all of the hoses and while taking it for a trial drive the headgasket blew! I guess I found the source of the problem! How much is it likely to cost to get this sorted? Is it worth trying to do this myself?

Sorry to hear there,usually price for HG is around £800-£1500,but at this time i would go along with forged internals(if its budget),this can increase price up to £2800 and more depends on specs

Not sure if you can do this,but you will need get your block skimmed/machined etc and this you can hardly do on your own...

I would contact few traders here and ask for best price,in your area you have few choices like Rich@FB Tuning,Stew@TFS Racing,Dan@Surrey Subaru Specialist and Neil@Slowboy racing,but will be ask above mentioned and decide from this

Good luck matey:thumb:

Jura

Problems Solved!
 

OK not as bad as I had first thought, it turns out a coolant hose at the front of the engine had been bodged by a previous owner using a length of scaffolding pipe :wonder:, now replaced with genuine subaru hose and no more coolant leaks :thumb: It turns out the poor running is due to the air flow meter being clogged in crap as a previous owner had put on a pipercross air filter with too coarse mesh. Cleaned the air flow meter and now runs sweet as a nut! Now I just need to replace the pipercross filter with an original airbox and panel filter (HKS, Do-luck or K&N?) and problems solved!

I will probably get shouted at for saying this but have you had a look at the K&N cold air induction kit built into the wing.

http://www.scoobyworld.co.uk/catalog...oducts_id=1299

Give the car a good service as well mate.

These are rather specialised cars and someone with good general knowledge on other makes will not know the common issues or quirks on these cars. Give Richard @ FB Tuning a ring and ask him to drive the car and then look it over with a view to recommending whatever may need attention.
You describe an issue above, running 3000-5000 rpm. Such a fault could have dire consequences if not properly rectified quickly and getting a specialist to look the car over will give you good information and at least, peace of mind.

Glad you sorted it, thats a relief!

Dont go with the Do-Luck filter. I have just changed mine for K&N. Much better product! Put air box & panel filter back on unless your aiming over 400bhp. :thumb: