Unofficial - CEL/SL/Idle Issue List for FR-S/BRZ Owners

[jesperswe]

Originally Posted by dsgerbc

There is some Subaru TSB 11-121-12 out today, called "Reprogramming for Engine RPM Drop During High Electrical System Current Demand". Any chance this is for a BRZ?
My idle has started acting up lately, no CELs yet (knock-on-wood).

Considering the name it does sounds like it. Not sure though. Anyone who can access it? I'm to cheap to pay for a access since i dont have a brz

Although the name does sound more like if you have alot of electrical stuff on at the same time and the RPM dips beacuse of that. I.E wipers, stereo, ac, heated seats etc

[pituala]

So there were not able to reproduce the problem at the dealer. They recommended me to keep driving the car, and if it starts happening bring the car back and have them listen/drive in the car while it's happening. Awsome.

Should I be lemoning this car???

Aside from this stupidness, I LOVE the car

[brianlo622]

Update: I brought my car to the shop (Fremont Toyota, California) on 10/2/2012. I did not hear back from the service advisor so I called him today. He told me the ECU wont be here until "the first week of November".

[ftc~brz]

Originally Posted by Plxdjake89

This is what I was told when I talked about my car being in the shop for this issue....FML
Attachment 17230

Trade YA....lol

Originally Posted by dsgerbc

There is some Subaru TSB 11-121-12 out today, called "Reprogramming for Engine RPM Drop During High Electrical System Current Demand". Any chance this is for a BRZ?
My idle has started acting up lately, no CELs yet (knock-on-wood).

well thats a relief....I was afraid they might replace all 4 cams again....lol
j/k

update:
greeted by service manager, tech, and service rep. Was informed that field rep discussed my car with srv mng in detail. Wants list of every little wonky tidbit that is acting up and they are going to make this all better asap.
Again, I was very pleasant as were they and I know that they will do what they have to do to fix this. I have full confidence in my tech and my dealer. I will wait patiently to hear what is next to be done at this point and update when I get word. I wish us all the best. Since my car seems to have every issue ever discussed by owners on the 2 forums I belong to, I can only hope that they gather as much knowledge as possible from my vehicle so that the other/future brz owners have a speedy recovery time should any of these problems arise for them. It was nice to drive my car this week. I missed her dearly.

[Boost_Junkie]

UPS shows my ECU will be here tomorrow morning, can't wait.

[Those Meddling Kids]

Update: No word from my advisor today so I called her this afternoon. The Field Service Engineer came out today and reflashed my car. They also did a bunch of logging and they are going to take the data and bring it to more engineers. They did say that the light did not come back but they are not yet ready to release the car. My car never set a solid CEL while I had it. The CEL was flashing and it had pending codes of p0017, p0019, and p0300. They also said they are not ruling out replacing the cam gears, and OCV's. They will let me know when they have more info. As of today this is 10 business days.

[RossGA]

Originally Posted by jesperswe

Yeah something is not right here. I just have a really hard time beliveing that the first 100miles set somekind of "frozen" condition into the ECU. Could they please elaborate this?

I think there is some serious misunderstanding going on about "freezing permanent data in the ECU".......for many reasons..

First off, no one would want to freeze the first 100 miles for permanent parameters; because that is the break in period, and the test drive period.

Second, I would be very suspect that even if there were 'permanent calibrations' goings on in the ECU during the first 100 miles, a re-flash should wipe all the flash (data and memory) when performed. Subaru has zero incentive of not allowing the ECU to wake up fresh from a flash.

Here is what I think.....

Every OBDII car "tunes" itself as it drives, and as driving conditions change and drivers change, the ECU will typically react within 100 miles. Period, The end. If I let my idiot friend drive my car for 100 miles, the ECU will have adapted for best tuning during that time to match his driving style. After being in my possession for a few days, it will have adapted back to how I drive. If I get a flash/tune, it wakes up fresh. Just about every ECU in the world follows this behavior, and I doubt the ECU in the FRS has some special "permanent" learned behaviors it takes *only* during the first 100 miles of driving. That makes zero engineering sense. Even sounds stupid. Why wouldn't you want the ECU to continually adapt? Again, makes no sense.

I think this whole thing about "permanent behavior adaption in the first 100 miles" is a line that we are being fed, or a misunderstanding of what what originally said by Toyota/Subaru. What has been suggested here about the importance of the first 100 miles simply does not add up.

[Those Meddling Kids]

As far as any learning goes- assuming it's similar to other Subaru ecus- When the ecu is reset the "learning" starts over. The car learns how much it needs to trim the air/fuel ratios to reach targets based on o2 sensor inputs. It also learns to advance the timing and to remove timing based on any knock conditions present. It also learns how much duty cycle it needs to apply to the throttle for idle and things like that. Full throttle operation is mostly open loop and there is very little long term learning in those conditions.

[Rob_g]

The best info I have been able to get has been sketchy at best. When I left my car at the dealership, the service guy there could not tell me what the codes were which I thought was a bit odd. When I have talked to Scion, the lady referred to 'parts' being ordered for my car, but she seemed real hesitant to give much detail after that. I did pry out of her that it's an ecu replacement of course, but that's as much as she would say. I have absolutely no ETA when the car will be fixed. I'm hoping this week, but then again if I had it my way it would be traded back and I'd be driving something else. That's another battle...

Rob

[Those Meddling Kids]

I honestly think the root cause of this issue will end up being low oil pressure. The reflash is most likely expanding the tolerances at which the error codes will be thrown. That's why most of the cars being reflashed are still having poor idle quality but no new CEL. If the car does not have enough oil pressure going to the OCV's and the cam gears the system will not operate properly. The hypothesis of oil passages being blocked or inadequate seems like a very logical explanation for the problem. This is why I'm hoping that my car gets lemon lawed or a very long warranty applied. I don't want to have to pay for Subaru's screwups down the road.

[ftc~brz]

Originally Posted by Rob_g

The best info I have been able to get has been sketchy at best. When I left my car at the dealership, the service guy there could not tell me what the codes were which I thought was a bit odd. When I have talked to Scion, the lady referred to 'parts' being ordered for my car, but she seemed real hesitant to give much detail after that. I did pry out of her that it's an ecu replacement of course, but that's as much as she would say. I have absolutely no ETA when the car will be fixed. I'm hoping this week, but then again if I had it my way it would be traded back and I'd be driving something else. That's another battle...

Rob

they didnt give me my codes right away the first time, but i was so fustraited then i may not have asked for them directly.Only when I tried to tell them about the ecu swap (from this forum) did they give them to me. The second time I had a performance shop give them to me and I gave those codes to the dealer. I would recommend asking for the info via email so you have a paper trail and if all else fails try to find another dealership that is a little more compassionate towards you and your car. Warranty work is still revanue and someone will be nice to you if they see it that way.

[Sargy]

So instead of an ECU arrival of today, its now next Thursday, the 18th.

[speedy racer]

My FRS has been disabled since 8/31/12 which qualifies as a lemon now. I feel a little better about this CEL issue, now I got the upper hand. After replacing VVTI parts, I have been promised ECU twice and still waiting. I have lost confidence with SOA in finding solid fix and my patience has about reach the limt. If compensation is not to my liking or car is not 100% right, I will excersize lemon law.

[@Art_Mighty]

Originally Posted by Rob_g

The best info I have been able to get has been sketchy at best. When I left my car at the dealership, the service guy there could not tell me what the codes were which I thought was a bit odd.

Odd indeed. With my OBDII reader I was able to pull off my P0016 code from the ECU and when I took the car to the dealer I actually watched the mechnic connect an Panasonic ToughBook with Toyota's diagnostic software on it pull off the same P0016 code.

That would send a red flag in my mind. I wouldn't want to do business with someone who isn't willing to tell me what's wrong with my personal property I'm giving them to repair.