mightyajax

Hi everybody i have an issue with a slight but noticable vibration when my car is fully stopped in drive. If i put it in neutral it goes away and if i put it back in drive it comes back. If i turn the ac on it gets stronger -- this is why i think the issue might be with the crank pulley or other pulleys. Now the other  thing i noticed: every day on my way to work i have make a u turn from a slight incline and while i wait for oncoming traffic to pass -- fully stopped on an incline with steereing wheel about 50% turned to the left and there's absolutely zero vibration, you cant even tell if the engine is on, runs butter smooth -- this is why i think the issue might be with cv axles. Engine is 251 and trans is TZ1A. Replaced engine mounts and trans mount, replaced spark plugs and wires, sent fuel injectors through cleaning machine. ofcourse all filters are good and its not a missfire

Thanks

The EJ22D at full song early in the morning last year in September.

 

 

sound really nice man good job. what kind of exhaust to you have?

It is exactly as you suspect. This engine does not belong in this car. I'll explain in detail.

 

The intake manifold was welded at the bottom of the runners because Phase 2 DOHC's have a different bolt pattern than the Phase 1's (your car) DOHC heads do. This was done to adapt the engine to the car.

 

However, this engine is able to run because it has Phase 1 timing triggers from the factory. While I won't go too deep into it (Reseach EJ205/EJ206/EJ208), I strongly suspect that your engine is a member of that family.

 

Early JDM Phase 2 DOHC turbo engines came with Phase 1 timing triggers. Phase 2 is the next generation of cars/technology from Subaru (1999+). The engine you're running is indeed a turbo 2.0 (likely what the owner said it is).

 

Being between two different worlds, many mods will work for you to spice that engine's performance up. I've got a good list for that engine to help you get the best of what you can out of it without boost. My ig is ej22d.

 

I hope this helps!

 

Thanks for your post. Now I've looked up 2nd gen MAFs and they don't look anyting like mine:

My wiring has a rectangle 4-pin connector though.

 

And also about compression test. My numbers are kinda? low: 1st cyl is 90psi and others are 130 psi. Should I even bother with working on this engine really? It's easier and cheaper to get an engine from a salvage yard than rebuild existing one (where I live at least)

The engine build date is located under the oil fill cap and, the block is stamped with the basic engine info under the power-steering pump.

 

yeah well basic info just says "EJ20" I already knew that. Need to know exact spec though

I have the twin turbo EJ20H and just checked. It has the purple AA280 sticker on the MAF.

 

Thanks! What type of fuel injectors does yours have?

My engine isn't original in the car and I don't know what is it and I don't have previous owner's contact anymore. How to tell which engine is it? It's a EJ20 DOHC for sure and previous owner said it was a twin turbo without the turbos. Also intake manifold is two parts welded together (I presume top part is from N/A engine as it is thinner compared to bottom part). Fuel rail has red injectors labeled A46-00.

 

 

The problem is rough idle and the whole car is jerking while on idle. If I give it a little bit of gas it stops jerking. And also exhaust reeks like petrol really bad. I believe I have incorrect MAF sensor in it. It has green sticker MAF now (AA160 code) and I believe twin turbos should have either blue sticker (AA200 code) or purple sticker (AA280 code). I think it's running to rich since turbo MAFs are designed to provide more air and I have N/A MAF installed.

 

I believe US market didn't get the 2nd gen GT models?

Don't know if 2nd gen has OBD1 scan tool connector at all but they have this feature called "self"-diagnostics. You'll have to remove the plastic housing under the steering wheel and look for two black connectors just dangling around. While ignition is off, connect these two pins and turn ignition on and count how many times check engine light is blinking. Long blink = tens and short blink = ones. e.g. 3 long blinks and 2 short blinks equals code 32 ("Oxygen sensor or circuit"). Starting the engine with these two connectors engaged will remove any errors from ECU.

So.

I really hoped it wasn't a compression problem.

A few days back I went to a local subie repairs shop and they diagnosed bad fuel injectors and I've told them about coil pack and IACV and MAF stuff. So we ran a compression test and voi la - cyl#1 has 6 bar and others have 9 bar out of 11 normal. They proposed a theory that car was running too rich all the time because of bad fuel injectors and it caused piston rings to wash out and degrade. So I used this product for piston rings:

 

and changed oil after that and also used this

oil additive.

Don't know how good it's gonna be but I hope it gets me through winter and I'll probably sell this car then. Thank for your help @doublechaz

So I changed coolant temp sensor hoping it would fix cold starts cause a few people messaged me they had same problem. This morning temperature was just below freezing, about -2 C and very humid, and car didn't start easily. Now it used to throw an error for coolant temp sensor (code 21) and when changing I didn't disconnect the battery so maybe error was still in the memory? On my lunch break I went and disconnected battery for a minute and then scanned for errors and it didn't have any codes whatsoever. In the eveninng when I went home car started fine, temp was about -6 then. Also one thing I noticed: turns out my off-brand MAF was causing all this poor idling and jerking. I took an old original MAF from a guy i know and put it in my car and all of a sudden it idled a LOT better. Still a bit rough but probably that old MAF was faulty cause it was just lying around in his garage in a box of random junk. Also checked for head gasket leak symptoms and coolant was clear no signs of emulsion, oil dip stick had normal oil in it. Something I also saw online is you could open coolant reservoir cap (not radiator cap) and look for bubbles and I didn't have any. So I guess head gasket is fine?

 

Now all this got me thinking, could my bad MAF cause these poor starts? Cause ignition is fine, fuel systems seems fine, head gasket seems fine, car has decent power now after I replcaed coil pack. One thing that is known bad is MAF. Also didn't have a chance to run a compression test cause I personally don't have the tool and the guy I planned to lending it from was out of town.

Bad compression can come from a few things, all of them quite expensive. It's not usually bad rings as they would have to be so bad that other symptoms would have been present long before. Same with cylinder walls. Head gasket is probably most common and least bad. Valve damage can do it as well, but that usually would result in zero fire on that cylinder. But let's get spark and injectors fully tested before we worry too much about compression.

 

Yeah I really hope it's fuel or temp sensor thing. Cheers

didn't mean to send this twice sorry

Also. I've messaged my local subie group chats and three people said it looks like temp sensor issue. One guy said he had same problem

So I've been saving worst for last. Cam sensor was good, I've disconnected it while car was running and it stalled so it definetely works. One more thing I noticed is despite I've replaced spark plug wires one of them was still shorting (if I touched it I would feel a strong discharge). I thought bad coil pack so I found a know good but used one and got it replaced. Don't know about fuel economy yet but power has noticably imporved. Car now goes 60kph in 3rd gear @ about 2500-3000 rpm so that's nice. This morning however tempreture was just about freezing and cold start wasn't easy. Also replaced starter motor cause I busted original one. Still, while idling, car is jerking and I think missfiring probably? Tomorrow I'll go and check fuel injectors and I hope it's the problem and also I'll check compression.

Now about bad compression. I really hope it's alright BUT if it's not... That means piston rings right? Really expensive job

So I bought correct spark plugs this weekend (1 plug cost more than 4 old plugs lol. Old set was $10.26 and new set was $46.64). It did start in the morning but it was still difficult. Also I started it at night to see if plug wires were shorting but didn't see any sparks on them. Also put 95 octane petrol in it. This morning I read error codes and it said 13 - camshaft position sensor. Could this be my problem? Also somebody recommended me to use 5W30 oil. Should I bother changing it now? My 10W40 did less than 1000km since last change.

1. Computer controlled fuel injected cars do not need you to continuously stomp on the gas pedal while starting. In the old days of carburetors a shot of startup fuel was delivered by the accelerator pump when you stomped on the pedal. No such device has existed for about 30 years. You may, however, be confusing the computer by flapping the throttle vane back and forth. Just let the computer do the starting.

 

2. The starter motor is not designed for continuous cranking for minutes at a time. If the car hasn't started in 15 seconds you are not going to get it to start by holding it longer. In non-freezing weather you might actually burn down your car doing that.

 

3. If your battery can support that huge amount of cranking it is not the problem, unless that huge amount of cranking done repeatedly has worn out the battery since the video.

 

4. Spark plugs couldn't cause what you show in the video unless they are 100,000 miles past needing changed, or they are installed wrong. Wrong plugs may cause detonation once warmed up or other such problems, but they won't prevent you from starting.

 

4. As to the actual problem, it sounds like you have uneven compression which is never good for starting.

 

4. It sounds like you got a couple sputters from it so perhaps severely abused fuel injectors through running cheap gas. This presents more in cold weather. If it didn't fire at all, then injectors probably are not bad. Also a fuel delivery problem could be a bad fuel pump or completely clogged fuel filter. When was the last fuel filter change? Have you done anything to verify fuel pressure.

 

5. It sounds like the bad compression changed from the first few rotations so perhaps you have valves hanging open. Are you running the correct oil for cold weather?

 

This car desperately needs to see a real car doctor. Rather than swapping parts at random they can do tests to see what is wrong and let you know what needs to be done and how much it will cost. A first critical test is to read what codes are making CEL stay on. Perhaps you only have a bad ground that is preventing spark. Or perhaps your injectors are full of gunk and getting it running with a fuel system cleaner will fix it. Certainly you want to use the correct parts. If you have stuck valves it may not be worth fixing if it is caused by lack of oil changes. If it is caused by wrong oil only, then it would be trivial to fix.

 

Anyway, if we are going to help you, we will need solid actionable info. If a service garage is your path then they should be able to figure it out quick and easy.

 

Thanks. So installing better CCA battery won’t help me right?

Fuel pump and fuel filter change was about a month ago

Oil is 10w40

Hi again lads. It was freezing these few days (-15 C at night) and yesterday my car couldn't start in the morning. I called for emergency start service and they managed to start it. What they said is I had bad spark plugs. They were new but I bought cheapes ones, Denso brand but I accidentally bought plugs for SOHC engine (I have DOHC engine). Right plugs cost 2.5x the ones I bought and also are platinum plugs. Yesterday I took my battery home so it wouldn't discharge overnight but today morning it didn't start either. Are these plug really bad or is my battery bad? I don't know how old is it and it's cheap ass noname brand and it says 60AH and 500 CCA. When starting voltage drops to 8.41 volts. I'm planning to call emergency start tommorrow again and get a good battery (95AH VARTA brand and it has 830CCA). Would this fix my issue or do I have to get the right spark plugs also?

 

Here's how I was trying to start it after -15 C night https://youtu.be/WgAjJze9Ns4

When things come and go it is often that there is a bad electrical ground that gets better and worse as it jiggles and as temperatures change and such. This can cause various engine sensors to read incorrect values and then the computer makes all kinds of weird decisions based on the bad data. Like weird idle speed behavior, stalling, sputtering, you get the idea. If the car has ever been driven on a road with salt, I would say that bad grounds is way behind schedule.

 

well now CEL stays on all the time and usually when I start the car in the morning it has "cold idle" a bit higher rpm but now it just idles at normal rpm from the beginning as if engine wasn't cold. and also this morning it had a bit of trouble starting

Hi again. Something weird started happening a few days back.

When I start the car in the morning it worked fine for a minute and then rpm really dropped down and car almost stalled and CEL lit up. This lasted for a few seconds and then rpm became normal and CEL went away. Now today something different happend: it started stalling and CEL lit up again but then the car actually stalled. I started it again but CEL didn't go away now. I thought I'd deal with it later and drove off. I went to the gym for about 2hrs and when I came back CEL was still on but the car runs fine.

What happened there?

 

update. when I left work tonight it idled really weird. it got quite a bit colder now where I live and usually when I start the car it has this cold idle higher rpms for a few minutes but tonight it just started with "normal" idle as if engine wasn't cold. maybe a thermostate issue or temp sensor? dashboard temp gauge works fine

Hi again. Something weird started happening a few days back.

When I start the car in the morning it worked fine for a minute and then rpm really dropped down and car almost stalled and CEL lit up. This lasted for a few seconds and then rpm became normal and CEL went away. Now today something different happend: it started stalling and CEL lit up again but then the car actually stalled. I started it again but CEL didn't go away now. I thought I'd deal with it later and drove off. I went to the gym for about 2hrs and when I came back CEL was still on but the car runs fine.

What happened there?

Hello lads.

I drive a 96 Legacy wagon 2-liter N/A MT. And MPG had been not really great for me. Latest measure was 145km per 23l petrol (about 14.7 US MPG?). Also it idles kinda rough, sometimes you can feel whole car shaking a little. Previous owner said it was busted engine mounts so I had them replaced but it still has this (to smaller degree though).

 

What I did:

• Replace MAF
  
• New spark plugs
  
• Replace spark plug wires (one wire was shorting so replaced all)
  
• Replace throttle body (I busted throttle position sensor by accident so my fault)
  
• Replace fuel filter
  
• Replace fuel pump (old one had low pressure - 2 bar instead 4.5 bar for new)
  
• Replace engine oil and gearbox oil (not really related but had to do it anyway)
  

 

Now I've read the MPG FAQ and one thing remains is cleaning the IACV, I haven't done it yet but I've read online that bad knock sensor can cause bad MPG because it retards ignition timing. Is this true or I should'n waste time on it? I never noticed a CEL light up. Also I'll try to use fuel system cleaner product next time I fill up.

One more thing, my car has DOHC engine and the manual says it uses 95 octane fuel, is this true? I've been using 92 octance.

Thanks in advance