CEL P0018 Cams

[Djratrap]

Originally Posted by BRZnut

I would have hoped , and thought, these issue would have shown up before 33K as they did with many others that have posted about Cam issues.


So I guess we are not "safe" at any miles from these issues. Sucks...

Yeah the issue is completely sporadic, 1st gen woes. At least they got me in this sweet bright orange crosstrek. Lol

[JOSEC]

Any other update on this. I just got it yesterday. I suppose I should bring it to the dealer and let them have a go at it. Problem is I'm not stock. So this should be interesting.

[nelsmar]

This thread makes me cringe. As I built my motor using heads off of an early 2013. I had previously helped with a car getting this code that was a 2013 with forged internals. The owner of the car was always having issues and the owner was tired of dealing with it. Everything except the sprocket was replaced. When it came down to the sprocket the owner decided to have the code shut off and cross his fingers. As the code is tripped by an error margin of vvt learning thresholds. If your car uses a higher duty cycle to obtain the requested vvt for so many seconds you get one code. If it takes a different threshold of seconds you get a different code. I have the documentation on this from Subaru somewhere. The ecu update as far as I am aware was Subaru just changing the threshold as the allowed duty cycle was too aggressive before.

Last I heard of this car it was shipped off to the owner and he has driven it for months. His car was estimated to be right on the edge of the threshold. We did drive the car for a week or two to make sure it was running okay after disabling the code as the cel would come on fairly consistently. I was against turning it off but the owner requested it.

My personal car takes longer than most cars I ever touch for vvt to initialize after flashing the ecu and my duty cycle was close to the car I had previously worked with. Fingers crossed on mine...

[JOSEC]

Originally Posted by nelsmar

This thread makes me cringe. As I built my motor using heads off of an early 2013. I had previously helped with a car getting this code that was a 2013 with forged internals. The owner of the car was always having issues and the owner was tired of dealing with it. Everything except the sprocket was replaced. When it came down to the sprocket the owner decided to have the code shut off and cross his fingers. As the code is tripped by an error margin of vvt learning thresholds. If your car uses a higher duty cycle to obtain the requested vvt for so many seconds you get one code. If it takes a different threshold of seconds you get a different code. I have the documentation on this from Subaru somewhere. The ecu update as far as I am aware was Subaru just changing the threshold as the allowed duty cycle was too aggressive before.

Last I heard of this car it was shipped off to the owner and he has driven it for months. His car was estimated to be right on the edge of the threshold. We did drive the car for a week or two to make sure it was running okay after disabling the code as the cel would come on fairly consistently. I was against turning it off but the owner requested it.

My personal car takes longer than most cars I ever touch for vvt to initialize after flashing the ecu and my duty cycle was close to the car I had previously worked with. Fingers crossed on mine...

Yeah, I hope you won't get this. My car is a MY2014 with just over 16000 miles on it. I have a tune, intake and exhaust. And this is my only car which worries me. I'll see what Subaru does for me and post updates here.

[nelsmar]

Originally Posted by JOSEC

Yeah, I hope you won't get this. My car is a MY2014 with just over 16000 miles on it. I have a tune, intake and exhaust. And this is my only car which worries me. I'll see what Subaru does for me and post updates here.

Considering your nearly stock and your mods are not related to the issue I wouldn't be too worried. I on the other hand am afraid of my duty cycle getting worse and then endlessly replacing parts. lol so far it seems to be holding consistent over the last 3-4 thousand miles though.

I'm not one for falsing anything with the dealer by removing your more but in your case I would swap the intake back to stick and flash back to stock before going in. If your intake works like stock such as a TRD I would probably just leave it on. But if it was an intake like an injen that is know to cause cel then I would swap it out so the dealer doesn't end up thinking its related when they see a cel not relating to the actual issue and wasting their time. I'm all for just making it easier on them.

[steve99]

Originally Posted by nelsmar

This thread makes me cringe. As I built my motor using heads off of an early 2013. I had previously helped with a car getting this code that was a 2013 with forged internals. The owner of the car was always having issues and the owner was tired of dealing with it. Everything except the sprocket was replaced. When it came down to the sprocket the owner decided to have the code shut off and cross his fingers. As the code is tripped by an error margin of vvt learning thresholds. If your car uses a higher duty cycle to obtain the requested vvt for so many seconds you get one code. If it takes a different threshold of seconds you get a different code. I have the documentation on this from Subaru somewhere. The ecu update as far as I am aware was Subaru just changing the threshold as the allowed duty cycle was too aggressive before.

Last I heard of this car it was shipped off to the owner and he has driven it for months. His car was estimated to be right on the edge of the threshold. We did drive the car for a week or two to make sure it was running okay after disabling the code as the cel would come on fairly consistently. I was against turning it off but the owner requested it.

My personal car takes longer than most cars I ever touch for vvt to initialize after flashing the ecu and my duty cycle was close to the car I had previously worked with. Fingers crossed on mine...

Their appears to be two issues with cam actuators.

One as you describe which is a manufacturing tollerance issue and can be "fixed" with ECU software update widening thresholds for alarms.

and then number 2
as below
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...76#post1789776

which is a definite physical problem that bleeds off oil pressure and appears it can lead to catastrophic failure of engine

a good one should be like this
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showp...postcount=2973

.

[scca-racerx]

I got this code in December of 2014. Took it to the dealer and got everything fixed under warranty. Blew up the engine April 30, 2015. Broke a connecting rod. Engine replaced under warranty.

BRZ for sale - 18k miles - white - NEW ENGINE - $21k.

[BRZnut]

Originally Posted by scca-racerx

I got this code in December of 2014. Took it to the dealer and got everything fixed under warranty. Blew up the engine April 30, 2015. Broke a connecting rod. Engine replaced under warranty.

BRZ for sale - 18k miles - white - NEW ENGINE - $21k.

How did it "blow"?? Modified?? NA or turbo??

[nelsmar]

And I have now officially joined the P0018 club. I'm going to try and get an oil pressure sensor in there this week/next week and see how things are going. Fires off every drive cycle regardless of temperature of my oil *sigh*. Luckily I have some high resolution logs of my car previously that I can compare to see what has actually changed with the VVT system.

I hate this stupid DTC... -.-

[JOSEC]

Small Update on mine. So I joined this club probably 2 weeks back. Took it to the dealer all mods on the car. I won't get into detail about dealing with the dealer, but in the end they did honor my warranty. They replaced the Cam Sensor, Bank 2, Intake. And seemed to have brought the car back to normal. I guess I got lucky that it's nothing too complicated. I hope everyone else get's this fixed as easily as I did.

[BAMF86]

Originally Posted by JOSEC

Small Update on mine. So I joined this club probably 2 weeks back. Took it to the dealer all mods on the car. I won't get into detail about dealing with the dealer, but in the end they did honor my warranty. They replaced the Cam Sensor, Bank 2, Intake. And seemed to have brought the car back to normal. I guess I got lucky that it's nothing too complicated. I hope everyone else get's this fixed as easily as I did.

That's good to hear, did you bring it in with the tune still on the ECU and do you have an aftermarket header by chance? I'm deciding what parts to take off before I get my cam CEL fixed

[nelsmar]

Originally Posted by JOSEC

Small Update on mine. So I joined this club probably 2 weeks back. Took it to the dealer all mods on the car. I won't get into detail about dealing with the dealer, but in the end they did honor my warranty. They replaced the Cam Sensor, Bank 2, Intake. And seemed to have brought the car back to normal. I guess I got lucky that it's nothing too complicated. I hope everyone else get's this fixed as easily as I did.

I am hoping to get lucky and by replacing my sensors it solves this... As I have an entire spare engine laying around. *fingers crossed*.

[JOSEC]

Originally Posted by BAMF86

That's good to hear, did you bring it in with the tune still on the ECU and do you have an aftermarket header by chance? I'm deciding what parts to take off before I get my cam CEL fixed

Yes I did come in with the header and a tune. Let me explain. They asked me what parts I have on the car. I just said Intake and exhaust. They they proceeded to ask me if I had a tune on the car. And politely said "no." At this point they said they'll see if my warranty is void. They come back and said "Sorry we can't honor the warranty." At this point I didn't really care. I just wanted the car fixed. They come back to me 20 minutes later, and the receptionist lady said she talked to the manager and said he'll honor the warrant despite the aftermarket parts I have. So I guess you can say I was very for fortunate.

[Astroboy]

Originally Posted by nelsmar

I am hoping to get lucky and by replacing my sensors it solves this... As I have an entire spare engine laying around. *fingers crossed*.

Was it the sensors?

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