I bought my WRX '96 five years ago. She was a great fun to drive,
as she had no speed limiter, so you could go full throttle to the top.
But since last couple of weeks ago, you can't go beyond 180 kmph.

Before that started happening I send her to another (not my usual)
garage to see if they can fix problem with engine choking at random
within 4k-6k RPM during heavy acceleration. When I received car
back, I found that problem still persist, but garage owner said sth
to that tune: "car is fine, and that what is happening is just ECU
activates speed limiter". It did not make much sense to me, as
the problem happened way below 180kmph, at totally random
speed/RPM combinations. After that she went to my usual garage.
Mechanic found the cause of random choking (burned pin at
harness connector), fixed it, but... Now car can't go faster than
180 kmph no matter what you do.

What do you make out of it ?

Could anyone knowledgeable shed some light how can I go about
to solve this issue ?

 

So your speedometer is in km/hour? was it ever reading in miles/hour?

It sounds like the speedo adapter to make the speedo read in miles/hour has been removed and so the speed limiter is cutting in at 180km/h -112mph as per jap regs.

I would assume your speedo is cable driven so you need a mechanical converter.

 

Just out of interest, where do you use it above 112mph? Lol

 

same as us all, on our own race track and private roads.

 

Hi Beastie, thank you for your reply.

Good question. Speedo is a standard 260 kmph unit, and reading are
consistent with the GPS (unless change to smaller tires). I have no
knowlege about her history from the previous owners, but I guess,
it was just an assembly from Jap imports, as it is a typical way here.

One interesting thing is that when using smaller tires speed-cut
activates exactly at 180 kmph on the clock, while GPS shows
~172 kmph. Could it be an indication that speed limiter is built-in
into the speedo ?

I take that adapter must have been located in the instrument cluster.
Right ?

My mechanic said that cable driven were only non-turbo versions.
But apparently he does not have much experience with dealing with
speed limiters.

I have removed instrument cluster couple of years ago (to change
to LED lights), and from what I can recall there was some (two?)
multi-pin connectors there, no mechanical linkage, but maybe I am
missing something.

So, the question list boils down to:

- Where that speed cut mechanism is located, and how it looks like ?

- How can I remove / bypass this thing ?

 

 

Have a read here http://www.scoobyireland.com/forum/t...lp-please.html

It is probable that the limiter input to your ECU was reconnected during the recent repair.

So if you get a converter to change your clocks to read in mph your limiter will be raised from 180km/h to 288km/hr so you won't see it again.

Also have a look here http://www.svaspeedos.co.uk/e0022.html

If you have a mechanical speedo then the converter is normally a small gearbox fitted at either cluster or gearbox to reduce the cable rpm so the speedo reads in miles.

 

A quick follow up on the story.

I could not manage to buy the converter box, so I built one.
Works great. Life is good again =)

Thank you for your all input.