2002 wrx no power?
 

I have a 2002 wrx sedan with 122000 miles, i just bought about a month ago, only mods are different aftermarket air filter, and the exhaust has been kinda chopped or atleast it doesnt have a muffler. The car it self seems to run fine, idles right at 700 rpm when warm, doesnt make any bad noises, drives smooth no check engine light. I did a fresh oil change 500 miles ago, replaced all the brakes pads and rotors, have got new tires the regular when you buy a new car, everything seems great, but i just had a feeling that she was kinda slow.

The other day I on the highway, and decided to try to see how fast she could go. The acceleration seems fine in the lower gears, and i can get up to about 65 pretty fast, but I might be wrong seeing as i never have been in another wrx. But she topped out at 98 mph... haha

so i kinda figured something is messed up.

I would like to know what could be the problem. My boost gauge reads around 7-8 psi,on the stock turbo when full thottle. Im not sure if that the right amount or what. but at 98 in 5th gear it just sits are 4000 rpm and when i push the gas to the floor nothing happens. I tried reseting the ecu and didnt find any change.

Maybe something on my car is causeing resistance? or im not getting a high enough fuel flow?

Thanks,

sorry for being a newbie.



After original post, I took the car out at night got it warm then ran it hard. Starting from a dead stop, and WOT hitting around 6k in each gear, the car runs really smooth but again no speed. even full throttle After about a mile i only was going about 85 mph. From researching I see people saying a stock wrx can do a quarter mile in 14.5 secs roughly, and finish at a speed of 90-95 ish mph.

Mine wont even hit the 90s after a whole mile. Checked everything after driving, The turbo seemed hotter than the rest of the engine ( just by putting my hand near), I was pushing hard though so i assumed that was fine, maybe im wrong.

Pretty positive I'm getting bad gas mileage on the highway too. like 18-19 at 70mph.

Yeah there is definitely something wrong mate, should be able to get up to easy 140mph... However unfortunately I too am a bit of a newbie so wouldnt like to guess what was wrong. best of luck with finding the problem :)

Could be anything, sounds like your not getting boost pressure to me.. your going to have a shock i think once its fixed! .... i know when my flex pipe went at the front i lost boost (you mentioned your exhaust)... there might be no restrictor pills in the lines that run near the turbo ... if i was you, depending to your location, take it down to one of the subaru garages and they will check the lines have restrictor pills in etc

they wouldnt charge more than £40 i wouldnt think to replace the pills etc.. but im only going off my own experience from when i got my car

Should get about 1bar boost pressure on a stock wrx I think this is about 13-14 psi. Does the check engine light illuminate when you put the key in the on position, only asking as it has been known for people to remove the bulb!!

Sounds like it could be a limp home mode with only actuator boost pressure and low rev limit?

As above, does CEL come on with ignition and go off once started? Bulb might have been removed to hide a fault. If not, is it still worth getting the fault codes read anyway as there are codes which might not cause the light to come on which might help pinpoint the problem area.

Yeah i agree its probably a turbo thing, but yes the check engine light does come on when the key is turned, but not while running.

The only problem is on Saturday i was driving down the freeway and what I believe to be what happened, is my ac compressor pulley seized up, and caught fire. I proceeded to pull off the road and put the fire out. Last few days ive been dealing with insurance people, and today I got a 8400 dollar settlement and i get to keep the car... WINNING. The car still runs and drives i just need some cables, belts and a battery. hopefully. My AC is out of commission and i dont feel like fixing it.

Ive come to think that maybe the ac compressor has been putting drag on the engine the whole time. once i get her running again ill see what happens, then if its still slow, ill look into the turbo.

I think it does have the restrictor pill, atleast i thought i felt it before. I thought i heard someone say the wastegate solenoid could be not functioning properly.

Thanks for the ideas so far!

Best advice - stop guessing and take it to a specialist! Could be one of many possible problems but the car is clearly in limp mode, as you should see at least 12-14psi on a standard car. Even if the pulley was causing drag, you would still get full boost on full throttle.

Then the question is, why is it in limp mode?

+1.SJ.

So I got her running again after the fire. Luckly i got all this money for no reason, cause all i needed was a alternator belt, battery, and throttle cable. I have no AC any more but im not that worried about it.

She still is slow so the belt was not an issue at all. Im looking for a subaru impreza specialist around me to take a look at it, but not very many shops like that on the interweb.

I might try to remove the turbo lines tonight or this week and just check for leaks, or even take the turbo out and look for any obvious problems.

Btw idk if it is the limp mode your talking about cause i can still accelerate to redline in the first 3 gears, so there isnt any rev limiter, but at 6500 rpm the boost gauge is a steady 7-8

So I got her running again after the fire. Luckly i got all this money for no reason, cause all i needed was a alternator belt, battery, and throttle cable. I have no AC any more but im not that worried about it.

She still is slow so the belt was not an issue at all. Im looking for a subaru impreza specialist around me to take a look at it, but not very many shops like that on the interweb.

I might try to remove the turbo lines tonight or this week and just check for leaks, or even take the turbo out and look for any obvious problems.

Btw idk if it is the limp mode your talking about cause i can still accelerate to redline in the first 3 gears, so there isnt any rev limiter, but at 6500 rpm the boost gauge is a steady 7-8

Be careful not so spin a big end bearing at those rpm's! Defo a boost problem. I had several vacuum hoses that were cracked with age and heat. Replaced them with silicone hoses, all good now :)

why not do some logging of key sensors and see if we can help,
could it be the NPS ?

So I don't know much lingo about this so what exactly do you mean by loggin sensors? Like using code reader? Sorry

If I was you bud rather than just going round and round, plan a road trip to one of the recommended places from here... Where abouts are you located

I live in Michigan and time is kinda an issue is why I can't take it somewhere. I Got to move to Colorado in 5 days.

But anyways. So far I've eliminated the BCS from the list and the wastegate actuator both seem to be working fine. I'm try to see if there is a boost leak but I ended up breaking some brittle hoses so I just bought a new silicone hose set which I hope will get here before I leave. Hopefully that is my problem.

I was curious about how the BCS worked earlier so I tried bypassing it and just runnin a line from the intake to the actuator and went for a drive. Nothing seemed to be different and still only got up to 7-8 psi. Then I totally disconnected the actuator from the intake and the same thing happened, other than I feel like my boost builded up faster. This lead me to believe that maybe something else isn't working right cause from what I heard if you bypas the BCS you should be able to build mass amounts of boost. But mine remains the same... I'm confused. It would be nice if these new lines just fix my problem.

Update!

So in the last two weeks i moved to Colorado and drive the wrx all the way. No problem working mechanicly good.
Before I left I took it to a local shop. They found a ton of leaks everywhere. I had them install a perrin turbo inlet and fix all the leaks they could find. After that I had been able to get about 10 psi of boost. After leaving michigan an arriving in a high altitude climate I found I can barely push 6-7 pounds of boost. And I can never accelerate going up hills unles in 3rd gear.
So now know that there is no leaks I got curious and decided to try to test the boost control system. I heard that if you unhook the wastegate actuator you should be able to build the full amount of boost. But when I unhook it, nothing changes.

I would like to know what anyone opinions are on this. There isn't really any speciality shops around here so I'm on my own for now. Unless I have to drive all the way to Denver to take it to a tuning specialist.

No Subaru dealers in the vicinity at all?

http://iphone.flowermotorsubaru.com/...#index_p_2Ehtm

I live in Avon, working at vail resorts. Flowers is 3.5 hours away :(

I've travelled that sort of distance within the UK for the right service. 3.5hr drive is better than clutching at straws. The internet can't solve all mechanical issues sadly.

Fixed it! New downpipe and uppipe with new gaskets. I think the cats were messed up and clogging the flow. Pushing 16 psi now