Hi everyone! Introduction and back story
19 May 2013, 06:39 PM
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Hi everyone! Introduction and back story
Well, as the titles says, hello to all the members on here! I've been reading through the different sections on this site for a fair few months now, so i figured I'd join up. I currently own an 05 blobeye wrx with a few extra toys bolted on and I love every second of it, although there's always room for improvement (I'll make a separate topic for my plans later on).
I've also got a pretty interesting background story about my car although it's a long read, so if you don't have the time or patience here are the main points:
a) The guys at ScoobySpares are top notch!
b) Andrew Carr is an excellent mapper
c) Take the time to research what you're buying
I work at sea, and around this time last year I just came back from a year away sailing round the pacific ocean to go back to college and take my final exams. I had got rid of my previous car a while back so I decided to look through pistonheads and autotrader to find something that was affordable and fun, and stumbled upon a 55 plate blobeye wrx with low mileage and a full service history. So of course, without researching imprezas, available models and so on I bought it, and one week later I was the happy owner of what I thought was a bog standard WRX with a modified exhaust and dump valve.
After a week of owning the car I noticed that the CEL would intermittently flash and then stop whenever I was on boost for a while. At the time I had no idea what it could be, so I took it back to the garage that sold me the car and asked what the cause could be, to which I was told it was due to the modified exhaust making the o2 sensor give dodgy readings. This seemed like a reasonable excuse, so I ignored it and carried on driving it as normal.
This problem continued for a couple of months, so after being sick of wondering, and now being back at college in fleetwood, I took it over to scoobyspares for a full service, and also to remove the bailey dump valve which by then was occasionally sticking fully open (Bailey valves arent worth the metal theyre made from). All of this was done within an afternoon (at a great price as well) so I was more than happy. Right up until the CEL started flashing again after a quick blast down the country lanes.
So fast forward around 4 months, by this stage I had some cash spare, so I decided to get a remap done, as I figured this would fix the mysterious CEL issues. I'm back at home by this stage, so I take the car to a local mapper for an open source map, only to be told the ECU was locked and that they couldnt access it. This struck me as odd, as I'd done my research and not read anything about subaru locking out their ECU's. So I took it to another mapper, someone who was ecutek licensed, and hey presto! They got complete access to the ecu. This was where alarm bells started ringing for me, clearly I hadn't bought a standard WRX like the garage had told me.
The mapper put on what he said was a safe base map for an 05 WRX, and immediately the car didn't run properly. hesitant all through the rev band and misfiring heavily under full throttle. So after some of his diagnostics he came to the conclusion that the sensors on the car were worn out, and left the car with a standard map on it, advising me to get the sensors fixed as soon as possible.
I rang round a few local garages, and after being quoted some ridiculous prices I decided to make the 300 mile drive back to fleetwood and see the guys at scoobyspares again. I rang them for a quote, and while I wont say the exact price lets just say it was around 70% cheaper than what the other garages had quoted me!
So I arrive at the scoobyspares garage just after new year this year, and sure enough as soon as I drive in to the garage the work starts. All the sensors are swapped out and the car road tested, only for it to still give the same issues. At this stage I was getting pretty nervous, and definitely starting to fear the worst! I was just about to ring home and say I'll be getting the train home, when Neil notices the turbo on my car. It wasn't a TD04 like it should be, instead being a TD05-16G. After this the injectors and fuel pump were checked, showing that the car had pink sti 552cc injectors and a walbro fuel pump!
This obviously relieved the nerves, and explained why the car didnt enjoy running on a standard wrx map, however it did put me in the situation of trying to find a decent mapper to fix the issue. Scoobyspares to the rescue again! They found a hotel I could check in to, and booked Andrew Carr to come and remap my car first thing the next morning!
The rest explains itself really, Andrew worked his magic and as a result the CEL hasn't flashed up again since! My car also now produces roughly 320bhp, so I couldn't be happier with how it's all turned out.
As a side note I highly recommend using scoobyspares and Andrew Carr for all your subaru needs, their service and knowledge is top notch, and I'll definitely be making the long drive back up there again soon!
I've also got a pretty interesting background story about my car although it's a long read, so if you don't have the time or patience here are the main points:
a) The guys at ScoobySpares are top notch!
b) Andrew Carr is an excellent mapper
c) Take the time to research what you're buying
I work at sea, and around this time last year I just came back from a year away sailing round the pacific ocean to go back to college and take my final exams. I had got rid of my previous car a while back so I decided to look through pistonheads and autotrader to find something that was affordable and fun, and stumbled upon a 55 plate blobeye wrx with low mileage and a full service history. So of course, without researching imprezas, available models and so on I bought it, and one week later I was the happy owner of what I thought was a bog standard WRX with a modified exhaust and dump valve.
After a week of owning the car I noticed that the CEL would intermittently flash and then stop whenever I was on boost for a while. At the time I had no idea what it could be, so I took it back to the garage that sold me the car and asked what the cause could be, to which I was told it was due to the modified exhaust making the o2 sensor give dodgy readings. This seemed like a reasonable excuse, so I ignored it and carried on driving it as normal.
This problem continued for a couple of months, so after being sick of wondering, and now being back at college in fleetwood, I took it over to scoobyspares for a full service, and also to remove the bailey dump valve which by then was occasionally sticking fully open (Bailey valves arent worth the metal theyre made from). All of this was done within an afternoon (at a great price as well) so I was more than happy. Right up until the CEL started flashing again after a quick blast down the country lanes.
So fast forward around 4 months, by this stage I had some cash spare, so I decided to get a remap done, as I figured this would fix the mysterious CEL issues. I'm back at home by this stage, so I take the car to a local mapper for an open source map, only to be told the ECU was locked and that they couldnt access it. This struck me as odd, as I'd done my research and not read anything about subaru locking out their ECU's. So I took it to another mapper, someone who was ecutek licensed, and hey presto! They got complete access to the ecu. This was where alarm bells started ringing for me, clearly I hadn't bought a standard WRX like the garage had told me.
The mapper put on what he said was a safe base map for an 05 WRX, and immediately the car didn't run properly. hesitant all through the rev band and misfiring heavily under full throttle. So after some of his diagnostics he came to the conclusion that the sensors on the car were worn out, and left the car with a standard map on it, advising me to get the sensors fixed as soon as possible.
I rang round a few local garages, and after being quoted some ridiculous prices I decided to make the 300 mile drive back to fleetwood and see the guys at scoobyspares again. I rang them for a quote, and while I wont say the exact price lets just say it was around 70% cheaper than what the other garages had quoted me!
So I arrive at the scoobyspares garage just after new year this year, and sure enough as soon as I drive in to the garage the work starts. All the sensors are swapped out and the car road tested, only for it to still give the same issues. At this stage I was getting pretty nervous, and definitely starting to fear the worst! I was just about to ring home and say I'll be getting the train home, when Neil notices the turbo on my car. It wasn't a TD04 like it should be, instead being a TD05-16G. After this the injectors and fuel pump were checked, showing that the car had pink sti 552cc injectors and a walbro fuel pump!
This obviously relieved the nerves, and explained why the car didnt enjoy running on a standard wrx map, however it did put me in the situation of trying to find a decent mapper to fix the issue. Scoobyspares to the rescue again! They found a hotel I could check in to, and booked Andrew Carr to come and remap my car first thing the next morning!
The rest explains itself really, Andrew worked his magic and as a result the CEL hasn't flashed up again since! My car also now produces roughly 320bhp, so I couldn't be happier with how it's all turned out.
As a side note I highly recommend using scoobyspares and Andrew Carr for all your subaru needs, their service and knowledge is top notch, and I'll definitely be making the long drive back up there again soon!
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