North-East OHIO 2.5GTs ? Sighting, GTGs, etc.

It would be a bit of long drive just for a reflash, but if you're down in the Cincinnati area you can use my Tactrix cable.

Your stock ROM is probably on romraider.com and flashing it to the car is a breeze.

 

Thanks, yah i wouldnt be able to make it down to Cinci. I was planning on getting another Cobb Accessport at some time but I need to see if it will marry to a car if the car still has a tune or is still married to some other tuner, which I really have no idea.

 

Subaru said they might be able to tell if its been tuned somehow from, I think he said, starting cycles?? But Idk. Tuesday Im just paying Subaru $70 to just do basic diagnostic check and inspection so hopefully I will be able to find out more after that. But we will see..

 

I know the car is leaking oil also, I fixed one bad leak already, but I believe this one is from the Camshaft seals, but idk if that would be enough to set off the P0011 and p0021 codes.. Ive been trying to find any and all the reasons these codes would be set off but that I cant find. Everything I have found so far is just "the timing is off" or its the oil control valves.. But there has to be more to it than just that.

 

Basically the cams dont seem to be adjusting to the turbo boost levels, or at all. Like the AVCS is not working. But trying to find out why this isnt working is almost like ancient voodoo.

Edited December 1, 2017 by what?

I remember someone talking about replacing the intake cams fixed the issue but that's a pricey shot in the dark. I'm still tempted to open mine to try and clean them while the engine is still out before I replace them.

So a few weeks later and more work done.. the problem isn't completely solved but maybe half?? I get an intermittent check engine light now, sometimes it runs great and other times kinda not bad but just not as good.. So idk. But one of the intake cam sprocket gears was not on right, it was turned about a 1/4 of an inch so it wasnt timed right nor was it seated on the camshaft correctly..

 

Also found a vacuum hose that was disconnected. So I still have a number of small oil leaks, only when its cold though for some reason. So this is how its going to be until it blows up, I rebuild the engine, or just buy a rebuilt engine, we will see how long it lasts.

 

So next up is trying to get a Cobb Accessport. If anyone around has a v2 or v3 they are selling let me know, I am trying to get one. I can get a new v3 for $550, if I can find my old Accessport, but I really don't want to spend that much money right now.

 

Still don't know what tune is on the car, if any. I need to get something to check boost. I have my old Accessport (somewhere) but I am not sure if it will connect to this car and just give me a boost reading, I might have to try it if I can find it.

I found my good ol version 1 Accessport. Black box green screen. 2005 awesomeness. It's not good for much but it will read live boost. Cobb recommended I need to buy a new one cuz they said this can brick my ECU if I tried programming with it. Doesn't matter cuz it's still in love (married) to my old gold digger.

So a few weeks later and more work done.. the problem isn't completely solved but maybe half?? I get an intermittent check engine light now, sometimes it runs great and other times kinda not bad but just not as good.. So idk. But one of the intake cam sprocket gears was not on right, it was turned about a 1/4 of an inch so it wasnt timed right nor was it seated on the camshaft correctly..

 

Also found a vacuum hose that was disconnected. So I still have a number of small oil leaks, only when its cold though for some reason. So this is how its going to be until it blows up, I rebuild the engine, or just buy a rebuilt engine, we will see how long it lasts.

 

So next up is trying to get a Cobb Accessport. If anyone around has a v2 or v3 they are selling let me know, I am trying to get one. I can get a new v3 for $550, if I can find my old Accessport, but I really don't want to spend that much money right now.

 

Still don't know what tune is on the car, if any. I need to get something to check boost. I have my old Accessport (somewhere) but I am not sure if it will connect to this car and just give me a boost reading, I might have to try it if I can find it.

 

Like the little pin/dowel was in the gear all the way?

 

I found my good ol version 1 Accessport. Black box green screen. 2005 awesomeness. It's not good for much but it will read live boost. Cobb recommended I need to buy a new one cuz they said this can brick my ECU if I tried programming with it. Doesn't matter cuz it's still in love (married) to my old gold digger.

 

I can confirm this 2 times still married to the same car. Hicksta'd all the way don't be tempted to do it.

Edited December 21, 2017 by Merc6

That's a phrase I haven't heard in a while... Hicksta'd

The little tab/pin thing that stick out the end of the cam that's supposed to go into a hole on the cam.sprocket wasn't. It basically half made it's own hole in the cam sprocket and I'm just guessing probably was never seated onto the cam all the way. So that whole cam was probably off 3 or 4 degrees, if not more, all the time. Whoever tried to work on this car in the past I don't think did anything correctly.

 

Edit.. oh wait, they did 1 thing correct, they took out all the banjo bolt filters.

 

Oh and my accessport is reading a max of about 12 psi boost.. so ah not bad I guess. This kind of confirms a stock tune.

Edited December 21, 2017 by what?

Anyone in the area comfortable/experienced with performing etunes? I have to replace my rotted dp and the options are oem or aftermarket and a tune of sorts... Considering the latter but an AP is not the best, depending who you ask, and honestly my car it's not ready for a dyno tune..

I've had the generic Cobb stage 2 tune on my car for 65k miles without an issue. There's nothing wrong with them other than they run a hair rich which is safer than lean on these cars.

 

An Accessport is the easiest way to get an e-tune onto these cars unless you're good with the alternative (romraider?) and have a laptop with appropriate OBD2 cable.

I've had the generic Cobb stage 2 tune on my car for 65k miles without an issue. There's nothing wrong with them other than they run a hair rich which is safer than lean on these cars.

 

An Accessport is the easiest way to get an e-tune onto these cars unless you're good with the alternative (romraider?) and have a laptop with appropriate OBD2 cable.

 

 

Well that's good to know. I would like having the AP even just for the data logging. Maybe I can find one on the cheap. How does the timing work with the AP? Still need to do runs like with the dyno?

 

I needto nail this oil leak I have, just haven't made the time. Maybe when it warms up

The Accessport can log whatever you want... it loses resolution if you try to log more than 10 things at once but that's an OBD2 limitation I think. The live gauges are nice (AP2 only does one at a time, OP3 can do six) for watching real time data.

Sorry I meant tuning. Do you plug it in and you're good to go? Or do you have to go do pulls like with the dyno?

 

The logging and live feed is why I wanted an AP even if I didn't use it for the tune. I hate not having a boost gauge like my speed3 did haha

No pulls needed.

 

1. Connect the two green connectors in the front passenger footwell. Look up under the glove box by the firewall.
   
2. Car off, key in the ignition, plug in the Accessport.
   
3. Turn car on but don't start it, navigate AP menus
   
4. Marry the AP to the car. It'll download the stock tune to the AP and then you can flash a new tune to the car.
   
5. Flash the new tune. DO NOT START THE CAR, TURN THE CAR OFF, DISCONNECT AP, MOVE, OR BREATHE WHILE IT'S DOING THIS. You'll brick the ECU.
   
6. Once its done, turn the car off, key out of the ignition.
   
7. Disconnect the green connectors, stash them up and away.
   
8. Key in the ignition, turn car on but don't start it. Let it sit for 30 seconds or so.
   
9. Start the car. It'll stumble a lot at first but let it idle for a couple minutes.
   
10. Drive the car. If it's a manual, it'll feel like it wants to stall in between shifts until you drive it for a little bit and it re-learns the fueling parameters. Automatic should drive just normal.
    

 

Done.

If you only want logging and real-time data then BtSsm + an android is the way to go.

Yeah I was just saying I liked the logging features of the AP. I got a good price on a catless invidia dp so the AP is unlikely at this point. I'm leaning more toward getting a tune at TPG.. just need to sort out an oil leak, among other items, to get it ready for the dyno. If I can't, I might get a catted dp instead and go with the AP.

 

Anyone in the area running a catless dp?

What does catted or catless have anything to do with the AP? Catless should be cheaper anyway if budget's the limiting factor although it's recommended to use a catted one to control overboost and it doesn't offer any power gains to go catless.

It's exactly what you said.. Cobb doesn't recommend using catless dp used with AP because of the risk of over boosting with the stage 2 maps. I hadn't been planning on going catless. I was planning on replacing my rotted dp with a used oem, but I got the invidia for $100 so if I plan to go catted instead, it'll be easy to recoup my money. I don't have any experience with tuning so I'd rather err on the side of caution and listen to the people who at least seem like they know what they're doing. I did talk to a couple guys on here who didn't have issues with the AP/catless so maybe the possibility of over boosting is slim?

 

Straight from the horses mouth:

"A catted downpipe would be best. We always recommend using a downpipe with a high flow catalytic converter, not only to help meet emissions standards, but also for performance and safety of the car. In some vehicles we support, using a race or non-catted downpipe can cause boost creep, or uncontrollable boost. This is typically something that tuning can not fix as it is a mechanical issue that can only be resolved with a catted downpipe, porting the wastegate, or by using an EWG with a custom tune. You should keep a close eye on your boost levels to make sure the car hits the proper boost target and tapers towards redline.

 

Kyle@COBB"

Just don't go WOT in 5th gear at 40mph and you won't get overboost or wastegate duty cycle CEL codes. I see it all the time on the NEOSOC FB page because a bunch of kids on there don't know how turbo cars work and don't care to, they just know they're "fast."

That makes sense. I was wondering what the threshold would be for making it over boost, but I imagined you'd have to be pushing it hard for the wastegate to be unable to keep up. Thanks for the input. And yeah, that neosoc page drives me nuts. I mostly use it to try to find local shops

Just don't go WOT in 5th gear at 40mph and you won't get overboost or wastegate duty cycle CEL codes. I see it all the time on the NEOSOC FB page because a bunch of kids on there don't know how turbo cars work and don't care to, they just know they're "fast."

 

LOL, but I want to wot in the top gear designed for fuel mileage. I been meaning to get an AP but not high on the list as the engine still is in pieces. I currently have just 1 cat in my car. How are folks passing e checks w/o? I remember flow master used to make dummy cats but they are non existent now.

Apparently they still exist. The guys here were smart enough to know the STi UP wasn't a cat so... Va tags this entire time.

 

https://www.amazon.com/fake-catalytic-converter/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Afake%20catalytic%20converter

They have self serve kiosks now so no visual inspection, just plug in obdII. Passed without mufflers

My car is low enough that visual inspection isn't possible. They still walk around it with the mirror but there's no way they're going to see that the only cat is vertical, in front of the firewall. I doubt even if I had the stock downpipe on there that they could see the rear cat.

 

I pass e-check because it's the OBD2 scan and the AP sets all the readiness codes. Technically illegal, but meh.

When it runs right, I might look into it. As of the past dealings the last cop didn't care as it has my Ohio address on the registration, LOL. Garaged out of VA so no car tax and front plate and tint and emissions didn't matter. When it ran I passed emissions as I was still going back and forth to VA. I wonder if I have to go to VA for the fuel line recall since Ohio wasn't listed as one of the states when I looked last.

Fuel line recall?