Broken Brz :( help
 

Hey guys im new to the forum, i recently purchased a used 2014 brz from someone and the car has stalled on me with check engine light and left me stranded twice in the 3 weeks of owning it. (the previous owner bought the car from a guy in new jersey and it had the supercharger kit installed and a flashtune tablet, the car did not run really good when he had it, he blew the engine on the road trip back and swapped the engine, ecu and map sensor at a local high performance shop)
When i first got the car i practiced driving in it for around 30 miles and it was running perfectly fine and soon after that the check engine light came on and the car stopped working. I was left stranded after, pushed the car w my buddy to the parking lot and left it over night. However i managed to start the car the next day by pressing the throttle when starting the car with the clutch pushed in. The engine cranked about 5 seconds and it started, every since that it will take me at least 5 seconds to cold start the car. The ob2 codes that i have from the first check engine light are "P0068","P0123","P0223". With the codes i had from my ob2 scanner i took the car to the high performance shop where the previous owner took it to and the mechanics tested the TPS sensor according to the codes i provided and this is what they gave me : "Scanned and road tested the vehicle. Felt drivability issues. Monitored TPS sensor percentage while on the road test. TPS sensor responds as it should. Reading 100% at WOT. Scan and found codes u0155 Lost communication with instrument panel cluster control module. P1604 start ability malfunction." After the TPS sensor test the shop told me that they couldnt find any problem and it will take them another month for a second check because the number of cars in the shop, so i drove the car home and it was running no problem, no CEL, nothing at all.
The second CEL happened today, which is when i drove the car to a car wash. I put the car in neutral and ebrake on, the car just stalled for no reason without a check engine light either, so i restarted the car, it was a slow start, didn't sound good at all, the car idled very rough around 800 rpm and soon stalled with a check engine light on. The codes i got today were P0087,P0171. I erased the codes just to see if anything would came back on and i managed to drive the car back home which is around 7 miles, it didn't stall at any red light and after i parked the car i let it idle itself for about 3mins it stalled again. After letting it cool down i restarted the car with rough slow crank and it idled about 5 more mins before it stalled.
Another thing i have noticed is that the mile count on the car isnt correct, i drove today about total of 30 miles and it was adding 47 miles reading on the odometer, i don't know if that has anything to do with the fuel rail failure codes but that's just something i noticed since i got the car.
At this point i don't know what to do with the car i do not want to throw in couple more grand into fixing the car like the previous owner just to have it break on me again, any one with a supercharged brz with similar experience that had a fix for this please help me, any help or suggestions is greatly appreciated!!
The major mods i know so far are : edelbrock eforce supercharger, tomei headers, not sure the brand but it has coilovers and lowering springs, perrin exhaust, pretty sure it's a new FA20 engine with 2000 ish miles on it according to the previous owner who bought the new engine. the tune is done at a professional tuner shop and it was ecutek, i think it made around 300 whp on the dyno.
really any help is appreciated, i have no idea what is going on with the car :(

I'd return it to stock and get it running well. There could be a multitude of issues that the supercharger is introducing. What are you using for tuning?? I'd have gotten receipts for all the work the previous owner had done with mileage and dates.

What are you using to verify your odometer tracking? I'd go on the interstate, find an even mile marker, then drive 50 miles. Set your tripometer to 0 first, and after 50 miles of travel (via mile markers) see what your tripometer reads. I hope you got this car for a steal..

yah i wouldn't say i got it for a steal the previous owner got it for 18k a year ago and put a bunch of fix to it which cost him about couple grand and he send it to me for 19k... the car was running fine when i first got it and the previous shop that swapped the ecu and everything said it was running fine too thats why i would even get this car in the first place, i dont know why it's like this right now :(

What do you mean practiced driving? Is this your first manual? I ask because the codes you gave are all throttle position sensor codes. Any chance you broke something while "practicing"?

What do you mean, swapped? Did they change the tune after you bought it?

i don't think i did, ya it was my first manual lol. they said it had a aftermarket tune tablet like one of those they sell on the ft86 speed factory, and they took that out and put a new ecu in and changed the map sensor, and put a tune on it i didn't have this car when this happened and im pretty sure the new tune is ecutek

the only thing i was concerned first was i was engine braking on downshifts and i might have broke the throttle sensor ? so the first thing i had the shop check when i took it in was the throttle sensor and it was completely fine and the check engine light didn't come on so i just drove home, i drove this car for about at least 50 miles after with no problem until yesterday, i was so confused

Those codes are all throttle position sensor related. Could be as simple as a loose wire. Would also explain the issues after going through the carwash if an exposed clip got damp.
I would start checking the wires and connections before looking for other issues.


Edit: Too slow. So they checked the sensor itself did they check the wires leading to it? If it ran fine after they checked it then went again it could be a loose wire.

the next thing they said they were gonna do is to check wires but it would take them at least another month to do it so i just drove it home hoping nothing could happen... i guess i should be more patient with the car then. I tried to check the sensor connection before, i disconnected the TPS sensor because when i just have the car on without engine on i can hear this whining sound coming from the TPS sensor area and i try disconnecting it and reconnecting it didn't do anything. What should i check for wiring tho, i can go check right now but as far as the wire i can see in the engine bay nothing looks busted i can go out and snap a picture for you i dont even know where i should start checking

That is the fun with wires. They can look perfect on the outside but be broken inside.
It could also be a vacuum leak someplace. Also fun to track down.

should i have the shop check for vacuum leak and loose wire then? right now i can't even tell the shop what's wrong with my car lol, do you think i should upgrade the fuel pump too? the codes about the fuel running too lean is kinda worrying me

The Supercharger adds an element of fun to the vacuum leak possibility.

Yep it sure does. That is why I said to start with the basics. Could also be a tune issue but not to that point yet.
I hated chasing vacuum leaks and broken wires.

but how can the vacuum leak and loose wires explain the slow crank start tho? i understand it's winter right now but it was starting perfectly fine like any normal car before the first break down, now it does this 5 seconds slow crank start everytime i start the car, i read the other posts about that people only deal with it occasionally, i deal it with it every start. i also took the free battery test at the dealership, the reading is crank health rated: 640 CCA, measured: 644CCA, voltage: 12.67V. Even tho it does seem to start quicker with faster crank with a jumper cable to my friends car but the dealership says the battery has more than enough power to start the car

what tune are you guys running on your cars? i'm definitely gonna look into retune the car because the dealership guys said it looks like a bad tune, but tuning comes after i fix the car completely

You don't have to diagnose your car before you take it to the shop. That's what a shop is for. What's wrong with you car is that the CEL is on and it stalls and runs like crap.

Take it to a shop. We've all probably been in over our head a bit, sounds like you made a hefty investment in an older modded car. It's only going to cost more money.

In my experience, people don't flip good solid cars. There's a reason he was moving it down the road so quickly.

That was where I was headed next.

yah i definitely learned my lesson on this one, he told me the reason he sold it is because his wife hates how much money he puts on to fix the car and it's too small too low... and he needs some money back from this car to start his jeep project

i called two shops today, one of the shops works with edelbrock superchargers but only on mustangs and the other shop has no experience with any brz but has worked on turbo builds before, these are the two shops that i can possibly drive myself to just for a check? another option would be the tuning shop i had my car in two weeks ago, but its about 45 miles away and i don't really feel like driving an hour with the check engine light on, what should i do tho?

or i can take it to the shop down the street, i called them a while ago when i didn't have a ob2 scanner and they said they will charge me 160 bucks to pull a code lol

Wild guess... 4 door JK with a ton of bolt on parts and angry eyes? Welcome to my damn neighborhood, the place is over run with hardcore rigs that will never see any dirt.

Find a shop that will work with you. You don't need everything fixed at once. You need it to run reliably, then tackle the other stuff.

ya it was a super old jeep with bolt on parts, he was planning on building it as his next daily and retiring the truck, definitely wasn't gonna take his jeep off roading

I wouldn't worry about the tune as much as I'd worry about the health of your supporting components. Each one of us has done different things to our cars, so comparing tune's wouldn't do you a bit of good. Do what Tcoat, Maslin, and DarkPirate have said and take it to a shop.

If you're in PA you should try motoeast they have a fairly good reputation

@brzcui



The shops your using dont seem to be doing good diagnostics
Diagnostics is npre than just reading cel codes and randomly replacing bits baeed on cel codes.


They need to log ecu fueling timing, port and direct injection times afr closed open loop fueling knock etc to work out whats going on.


Also trying to diagbose anything without acces to the ecu tune is going to be difficult as different tuners do things in different ways and if its ecutek it add functionality to the ecu via custom maps or speed density tuning.


Often port injectors are changed and MAP sensors changed when tuned for forced induction these changes need to be mapped into tune or car will run like crap.


Other common issues are intake and exhaust leaks, thes can often be deteced by logging ecu parameters like fuel trims or manifold pressures.


Also check the Direct injection computer is securly bolted up to side of engine will all three mount bolts that its only ground\earth.


Your going to need to take it to a shop that is familiar with brz\86 forced induction its unlikely any other shop will be able to help the shop will need diagnistic and logging tools for brz\86 and the tune system possibly ecutek that the car is tuned with

Hello brzcui and welcome to …. The Forum - :clap:

After reading all of your posts and the responses, I would strongly suggest that you sell that machine "as is". Just tell the prospective buyer that it's not running good and you have no idea what's wrong with it.

Let the buyer be a hero and figure it out.

Then, don't do that no more - :slap:

;)


humfrz

That may be a tad extreme. It could still be something very simple. The fact that it is so interment would sort of indicate that.

Imo if there are no unhealthy mechanical noises there's hope. Don't panic. Just get it to a qualified mechanic.

it really depends on what the problem is, i wouldn't sell the car for a wiring issue or vaccum leak issue like i can fix at the shop for couple hundred bucks , i love the car when it's working and running even if i do sell this car i would just save and get a new brz... im just hoping it's as simple as a loose wire :(

i ran out to check if the car would start after dinner today and it still does that long crank but it started and it didn't stall or drop rpm in the 20mins of me being in the car so im hoping it's nothing major :(

Motoeast....go there. They have experience with the platform and superchargers

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ya i just looked it up, its about 80 miles away from me, im near downtown philly and the only good shop i heard is R/T tuning, and that is where i went for the tps sensor check, however their shop is packed with cars all the time, it will take them forever to look at my car and i'm using it as a daily

i mean if the car is running fine without stalling for now should i just drive there? im thinking driving 50 miles to r/t or driving 80 miles to motoeast

Do this.... Go pay for AAA premium membership, wait two days and have the car towed there. For daily....you're in Philly, uber.

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what could happen tho, if i just erase the code and wait to see if anything happenes, and just drive to the shop? like could i be damaging my engine? because nothing happened at all before the car wash, i was wondering if the water that got in the wire just dried out..? and i could just try driving it to r/t ?

That's a matter of opinion. With a previous trouble code indicating fuel issues, I wouldn't. But others may feel more comfortable, they also probably would be more sure of what's going on. Seeing how AAA premium membership for a year is 30 bucks and they'll tow it for free....seems kinda crazy to risk driving it for $30 bucks.....that's worth it alone to not drive on Philly's crappy roads

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could u possibly link the website that gets the 30 dollar tow pls, i looked up AAA membership and the basic is 50 bucks and up to 5 miles of towing, if i tow it to motoeast and back it will be over 150 miles which is only covered if i pay 137 a year

Wow, they changed prices. Thought it used to be $30. Yeah might be stuck with that, unless your insurance has towing. 137 is still cheaper than $200 (one way, because we're assuming you'll be able to drive back).

Its all good, i came in the car today thinking i need to tow it to a shop and THE CEL LIGHT IS GONEEE!! I was like whatever i will just drive, i end up driving it to this family owned shop that had all 5 star reviews on google, they were really nice and promised me they will look at it later today if not all day on Saturday because i told him i would like to get the car fixed by sunday cuz im picking my dad up from the airport

Something got wet and dried out.