My car was wobbling at start up
 

NOTE, MY CAR IS FI WITH A TURBO KIT

On a long hot almost 2hr drive home yesterday, my car was vibrating and wobbling really harsh on the passenger side one hour within the trip. I pulled over drove 15mph and the thing was wobbling like crazy still. Then I turned it off and cranked it back up and the car was shaking, almost like a roller coaster, on the passenger side when starting. I repeated this twice untill the third stop... On the third stop I turned it completely off and waited almost an hour, then I turned it on and it was almost driving normal until a couple minutes later, it started again. So I just drove it home slowly and left it alone for a whole day, today when turned on the engine, it sounded kind of harsh, no engine knock but harsh..

Car only has 25k miles, and 2k miles with the turbo... No cel or nothing....
Has anybody had this issue?
I think my engine might detonate pretty soon. :(


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That sounds like a misfire. Subaru has a pretty long history with misfire issues.

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Thanks for the response, how do you recommend I fix it and check it?


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That's the hard part there is a ton of things that can cause it. The most common in a fried spark plug bad distributor loose negative terminal on the battery or low compression


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My car was wobbling at start up
 

Could the 92 degree heat be an issue?

My best advice is to take it to a place with free diagnosis and let them tell you exactly what's wrong and then you can decide if you want to fix it or if you want to pay to have it fixed.

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Another good piece of advice, always run with a ECU code scanner in your car once you do major mods like turbo'ing an NA motor

I have an obdii scanner, but I never got any codes... Nor cel


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your probably going to need something a bit better, like techstream you can buy dongles and software on internet for $30 and you will be able to monitor misfire counts per cylinder ect to help you track it down or just take it back to guys that did turbo tune.

Could a 10% ethanol mixture in 93 octane be a problem?


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Have you contacted your tuner? Which turbo kit? How many miles boosted?

Doubtful. I use 93 octane with 10% ethanol and have never had the problem you're experiencing. However, my car is stock.

I feel you should contact your tuner.

interesting, might want to invest in a way to take some logs of the ECU. Not sure specifically what that would entail, but I'm sure @jamesm would be of great assistance on that front.

Avo, only 2k miles boosted..
Could the vibration be limp mode maybe?


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limp home mode usually involves running engine in a safe or base mode, limits power output most likely disables/limits intake/exhaust VVT, slow throttle response low power, unlikely it would introduce severe vibration, and it would generally be the result of the ecu detecting failed sensors or systems and throwing up a cel code as a result.

Sounds more like misfire, fouled plugs, crook coil pack, bad vaccuum/boost leak although you would expect it to throw up a CEL code.

Best get someone to look at it before any serious damage done, and it turns into a loud mechanical clatter.

See a mechanic.

Check the vacum line under the intake manifold.

I experienced something like this on Thursday too, while it was raining. The situation was on the way to school, exactly 3 minutes before I parked, except that time it felt like a loose wheel of some sort.

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But on that Thursday it wasn't as wobbly

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The spectrum of your description is wide. Do you think it is an engine vibration or a chassis issue? I mean, do you feel it only when the vehicle is moving or maybe get some erratic feedback from the steering wheel?

Engine wobble on the passenger side is hard to conceptualize.

With the AVO base map I would get misfire events that do not trigger a CEL. It flashed the check engine lihght while occurring and save it to the ecu. With the scan tool you can see a history if that's what it was. This would happen to me after hard driving and my opinion is the basemap is overly rich mixture for safety and that cause it... even if not related, get a proper tune if you haven't already and a mechanic.

I just read your post again and when you say "starting" I keep thinking you mean moving.... so that plus roller coaster and I'm thinking your front tire looks something like this... (tire bubble)

http://www.fatluckys.com/wp-content/..._1-640x426.jpg

God I wish that was the case

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So I turned on my car and there was no wobbling today.... which is weird. Should I still be concerned?

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Yes intermittent misfires almost always return. If it is intermittent it is most likely electrical historically with a subaru it is corrosion or a bad connection in with the plug that goes into the distributor or the distributor it's self.

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so it's not that start of direct injection failure and instead just a little spark plug failure...? I can send you a vid through my cell phone if you don't mind.

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unless the tire moves at start up, this might be an issue

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Yeah you can post a video preferably under the hood at idle. That will give me the best idea if it is a misfire.

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I was testing it that Saturday night, and when I steered it all the way to the right, on a downhill slope not moving, it would shake...

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You need to post a video of whatever "it" is wobbling because now I need to know.

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Can you pm me an email?.



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Guys I'm almost for certain it's a di failure now because when I start her up with the steering wheel completely to the right, it pops once... On the right side... This is very strange, but when my steering wheel is straight, it doesn't pop at start up..... I noticed the car revs a little bit higher when steering completely to the right or left while in neutral. So I was assuming it was feeling heavy load during start up causing it to pop.. Idk anymore :(


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Can you pm me an email or phone number?


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Pretty hard to diagnose or understand completely such a problem over the net. Why haven't you just taken to a trustworthy mechanic by now? That would yield accurate and immediate answers no??

This problem will not go away on its own, it needs to be diagnosed FAR more accurately than simple descriptions. We can help only so much, but you need to post a video to youtube or some other video service and link it here if we're going to help further. I'm not an engine/tuning guru, but some of the guys here are and they will need to see a video of the problem before anything constructive will develop.

Or, take it to your shop that did the work, or any shop capable of competently working on your engine. You may need to have it towed, but I wouldn't advise continuing to start/run/drive the engine if something is clearly not working correctly.

Help us help you!

EXACTLY! +1 I would be getting it looked at ASAP, why risk when there are so many variables?

maybe because the car is so brand new and not that many people know about this car

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Where is the distributor on a BRZ? :popcorn:

It seems some folks have had issues with motor mounts being melted, all the exhaust heat is on the passenger side and so are the passenger side motor mounts.

Is the whole car shaking, or is the steering wheel bouncing back and forth.

What they are getting at is that if there is an engine issue and it decides to throw a rod your engine is not under warranty because you are boosted. Granted in relation to a lot of other motors all of the boxer engines are pretty cheap but you are still looking at around $6,000 for a short block with install. Getting it looked at to see if it is something simple or something major should be the first step. If the engine is shaking like crazy while at idle you are most likely mis-firing. Because it's intermittent I would guess it's electrical or an issue with the tune on the car.

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You can get a long block for 3K or less, then pay a reputable shop around $1K to swap bad motor with said long block.

Since your're local you can try taking it to AWDTuning in Flower Mound or give them a call. I know some of the Dallas peeps on here don't like them for certain reasons. But they are Subaru pros and they have been working on a lot of boosted twins lately.

Powerhouse Racing might be able to look at it as well.