[VanishingPoint]

SIGH of relief.

Thats got to feel better.

Thanks for the update......... for the next person (politically correct) with the same problem.

Tony

[Conekiller13]

Originally Posted by VanishingPoint

SIGH of relief.

That's got to feel better.

Thanks for the update......... for the next person (politically correct) with the same problem.

Tony

If it can help someone else it may have all been worth it....................

[Conekiller13]

Well..............not a happy weekend for Me. After a week of normal driving My lovely CEL has returned. Scaned first thing this morning and smae codes: PO101, 102, 103 and 104. All freeze frame data again the same. AAARRGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[VanishingPoint]

Originally Posted by Conekiller13

Well..............not a happy weekend for Me. After a week of normal driving My lovely CEL has returned. Scaned first thing this morning and smae codes: PO101, 102, 103 and 104. All freeze frame data again the same. AAARRGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Time to sell

[Conekiller13]

Originally Posted by VanishingPoint

Time to sell

Not really what I had in mind.................I was considering trading up for an 08 but after everything I've read recently it sounds like there is a few things to iron out on those..........

[serdet]

can you feel it misfire?

[Conekiller13]

OK. So my problems after replacement of the turbo intake tube appear to be slightly user error. After further inspection and clearing codes and driving and so forth the codes were a bit ambiguous. What actually kept coming back were PO171 and PO304. What I found was the ground harness on the passenger side of the intake was not fully secure. This of course a left over from replacing the intake tube. Secured the harness and no more lean condition code. Oh, I also had found that I neglected to get the MAF sensor fully seated causing the initial misfire codes........DOH. Anyway, after fixing the grounding issue I then had a remaining misfire in on #4. You could feel it at idle but not under load. You could see it at idle on the scan tool as well. On the scope we could tell it was fuel related and stipulated that possibly some debris had gotten on or into the injector during the intake R&R and may be partially blocked. I didn't have time to clean the injector before My regional Autocross event last weekend so I installed a new O.E. injector and the misfire is gone.

All appears well at this time.

[VanishingPoint]

Please refer to post #16.

Grounds cause all kinds of horrible problems.

Tony

[Conekiller13]

So.............for every one that thought this problem had gone away I regret to inform that was not the case. A week after fixing the grounds and such where I thought things were good, the same old symptoms came back. I wanted to wait until things were figured out and fixed before posting again but I think the results you'll find were worth the wait.


So after the problem returned I once again took the car back to the same dealer I had been working with figuring they know whats going on so far. This time they had the car for a little over two weeks. They called and said it's definitely not a power train related issue and needed Me to authorize up to $500.00 worth of diagnostic time to run the tests they wanted. By this time being quite frustrated and just wanting answers I said "what the hell, figure it out". So after two and half weeks they threw just about every part they could at it (A/F sensor, coils, spark plugs, map senor, maf sensor, re flashed the ECM twice) and called Me to say "We can't figure it out or fix it. We have done every thing Subaru tech support has said and feel because the was modified (K&N Typhoon the only mod) it needs to go to a tuner shop to have the ECM reprogrammed. So they ended up charging Me $300 on top of the $200 I had already spent on the previous visits to tell Me they can't figure it out. Needles to say I was neither pleased nor impressed. At that point I called Subaru America for assistance. The associate listened to My side and felt My frustration was justified. He then talked to the dealer and after they told him they did everything as Subaru tech assistance directed there was nothing Subaru America could do. He then said if I took it to another dealer they may be to assist in further diagnostics.

So I took from one dealer to another ( now one of the largest by volume in the North West). The codes had of course been cleared by the first dealer when they were done so the check engine light wasn't on and the trip was too short to turn it on (less than 10 miles and a single drive cycle) so when they got it they had no info to work with. They called me that first day and said they could feel the mild intermittent grind going into first but had not been able to reproduce the check engine light symptom as of yet. They said the shop Foreman would drive the car home to get sufficient drive cycles on it.

The next day I receive a call and they tell Me the shop Foreman was able to duplicate the surge and get the light to come on. Sure enough same codes. He said He was quite positive what he felt was a drive train type bind. He felt either transmission or diff. I was planning on drive to Cali the next week for My vacation so I asked about returning after for them to tear that area apart. They said no way. Based off what He felt He though there could be a seizure coming very soon. So they proceeded to remove he trans axle and disassemble. What they found was a part in the center diff that had broken and was causing an intermittent bind. That bind was being transferred to the crank and was picked up as a misfire. So the problem was drivetrain related all along. Now it all makes sense why the normal routes were all ending up in the wrong place. It took some outside the box extra effort to figure it out. While they were there they also updated a ton of parts in the gear box. So they had the car for two and half weeks waiting for parts. Total parts bill (under warranty) $4000.00. I ended up having to rent a car for My vacation, $198.00. I've had the car back for three and half weeks and I believe the problem is truly fixed. The bummer deal though is that when the second dealer pulled the trans axle they found the clutch and flywheel were fried. That clutch (an Exedy stage one and Act street light flywheel purchased at TH Motorsports) was installed by the first dealer less than eight months and 10,000 miles prior when they replace syncros in the trans (didn't use the updated parts).

So the clutch story goes.........back in Oct. 07 the car went in for grinding issues going into first, third and fifth. The dealer replaced syncros under warranty and told me the original clutch had 30% life left. They told Me if I wanted to replace it they wouldn't charge any labor since they were already there. I said great. I made some phone calls looking for a heavy duty clutch that would last even longer than the stock clutch so I wouldn't have to go back in their anytime soon. After talking with a representative at TH Motorsports I purchased an Exedy Stage one organic clutch kit. The salesman there said "if you got 50+ thousand miles out of the stock clutch than the Stage one should go 100k". I said "perfect". SO $750 later it was installed. So now ten thousand miles later its fried. Did I mention the car is STOCK? When I called TH Motosports they said there was nothing they could do. So I called Exedy who said "We make no claims on wear". How is that for standing behind your product? The stock clutch had three seasons of autocross and a dozen track days as well as all the street miles and had 30% left at 50k miles. The Exedy stage one had one autocross and 10k street miles and was on the rivets. What a piece of junk. Exedy didn't care and TH Motorsports didnt care. I am very unimpressed with with both and will be taking My money and recommendations elsewhere. I put a stock clutch back in (which apparently is also made by Exedy). I'm assuming that thier O.E. line and "performance" line are to separate companies and R&D departments as the stock one works great. With Exedy's "performance" division the R&D stands for Ripoff and Deny.

So now that the car is fixed I got back on the phone with Subaru America over My spending almost $500.00 on diagnostics for a warranty problem and having to spend $200 on a rental car during a warranty repair. At the time the repairing dealer said because the car was now out of warranty (approximately 2500 miles passed while dealer #1 had their head in thier rectums....58,500-60,800) and Subaru was "good willing" the repair a rental car would not be provided.

So after going back and forth with SOA, having dealer #2 fax and re-fax paper work and Me fax and re-fax paper work SOA said they would pay for the rental car and the $297 dealer diag minus the cost of the spark plug that I told them to leave in (they said they were due at 60k anyway). They would not however repay the $95 diag that said the turbo inlet pipe had a leak because they said they actually found a problem. I'll go along with that but My gut tells Me they may just as well have caused that problem by poking and prodding. Repayment on the initial $95 visit is pending locating the copy of that invoice which I have misplaced and dealer #1 refuses to send.

So after this frustration I can say I am almost as happy with Subaru as I was before this started. The process has been very frustrating but has ended acceptably, except for My dealings with TH Motorsports and Exedy.

So the moral of the story is a misfire may not be a misfire.