Bugeye engine check light flashing
 

Hi

Only very recently brought this 2000 bugeye few mods and remapped.

This morning leaving home I experienced a slight misfire so I took it steading it seemed ok.

On the way home it's happened again when accelerating and the engine check light flashed. This happened 3 times all when trying to accelerate slightly harder.

I have driven the car quite hard over the past week being new wanted to see what she was like as you do.

Is this problem due to spark plugs.

Any help would be appreciated.

Could be lots of things... bad map, bad plugs, dirty MAF, failing O2 sensor , bad fuel, failing coil pack - you've not given much to go off.

Is the CEL still on? What are the mods? Who mapped it? What's the mileage? etc, etc. Would make it much easier for people to try and help you out.

This has been posted many times before, and i am a seasoned vet at experiencing this fault.
It could be a number of things. A missfire on any one of the 4 cylinders, spark plug gaps not correct, neutral position switch, faulty lamdor sensor or, and this is a rare one... Bad fuel, as trivial as it sounds my temperamental bug (and there are plenty of them) does not bowed well to dirty or bad fuel.

Hope this helps, i know other bug boys will be along shortly to add to what i have said.

Shaun

Where abouts you from chap?



Steve

I live in woking surrey, the remap was done by xtreme scoobies in 2008,

Light is not on.

Cheers

I'm in Sunbury. Could pop over and plug OBDI scanner in?

Otherwise you have James of GRD down the road on Chobham / Dan of Surrey Subaru Specialist (Does my car) / TFS Racing in Aldershot / JS Race Engineering in Chobham/Addlestone.




Steve

What are the mods? A decat can often lead to a flashing CEL - particularly when accelerating hard at low RPMs in 4th or 5th

Even some sports cats.

Code PO420 if i am mistaken?


Steve

Sorry Gigsy it has a decat pipe, manual boost, piper cross induction, that's all I know of I've not touched the boost gauge yet.

Steve that's a very kind offer I could try one of the locals first save you travels, I was unaware so many near me.

Thanks

My bug sti is very reliable i must say with ecu lights and in general,few weeks back had ecu light flash a few times and went off.never stored a code so thought nothing of it, then it came back on and stayed on, reset it and back on straight away.turns out it was lambda sensor code 0031,my point is it may be a sensor thats acting up or on its way out but have heard the bug throws up false ecu lights,altho ive had my 02 sti over three years with only two codes ever coming on.

Bugeye Random CEL generator LOL

My guess would be false or real misfire CELS........the ECU thinks there is something wrong but not serious enough to light the cEL all the time.

First step would be to get the historic codes read off the ECU

Stevesbluewrx offer is very generous :D

Shaun (bugeye WRX owner)

Cam sensor CEL - used to get a lot of those!

Camshaft position sensor error lights a solid / continuous CEL that goes out after about 5 starts....

Shaun

Update from yesterday the car hasn't misfired and the engine check light has not flashed any ideas maybe bad fuel ????

Maybe mate? You could always remove the battery for a little bit and out it back on then start her up and see if if comes on again?

What makes you think fuel? What fuel were you using before then during this issue?


Steve

Could be. Re the manual boost controller mention, if it's been mapped then the MBC kind of defeats the purpose so I'd be tempted to bin it as it can lead to problems

What I'm thinking is the other day I almost ran out of fuel light was on for a bit till I got to a petrol station maybe it's pick up something from the bottom of the tank. I don't know I've been using 97. I've got a longer journey tomorrow see how it goes.

Removing the battery won't do much as the DENSO ECU stores stuff on EPROM..all you will do is remove any learned parameters and IAM which will be back again after 15 mins of driving.

The Fuel pump has a filter and there is also another fuel filter so the fuel pickup isn't a problem ..

You need to see if the ECU has stored any historic codes :)

Shaun

Little update.

I popped over to meet Stuart last week (nice to meet you chap).

On start up there was also a noticeable blow coming from the exhaust.
Car ticked over fine too.

Plugged in and came up with Fault code PO301 .

I turned off the light EML for the time being and reccomended Stuart to fix the leak before taking it any further.

I didn't have any tools on me at the time otherwise would have been worth checking all avenues for him on that fault code but would be interesting if the blow has something to do with it. Was wondering if the blow was from the O2 sensor area itself.


Any update Stu?


Steve

Hey Steve,

I've had the leak fixed it was the centre pipe gasket had worn. After that I thought I was out the woods the car was absolutly fine. I drove to work Sunday in the snow was all good then on the way home I had a misfire and a ECL flash. Car was cold and it happened when accelerating (not hard).

Monday drove to work and no lights car was smooth there and back. I'm going to check the sparks and coil next.

Cheers

Just reading through this thread, my 2001 bugeye has similar symptoms, my engine light is on constantly,some times flashes,some times stays off for a day, when plugged in it comes back with misfire detected on cyl 1,2,3,4. are after market lamba sensors any good? and also where is neutral pos switch,cheers
matt

Had a very similar thing happen to my 2001 bugeye and it was a coil-pack

Car would start to flash the CEL and it was only under hard'er acceleration - it would feel like the car was hesitating / misfiring and I too feared the worst.

Quick visit to the garage and a new coilpack - job's a good 'un! :)

Hey

Little update from the above

I've now replaced an aftermarket dump valve with a stock one and had all the sparks changed. When changing the plugs checked the coils they were all fine but I discovered a small gap between the MAF sensor and the air intake pipe which could have be letting air in.

This has been sealed and so far No lights on , the car feels much better lets hope it stays that way.