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

[brianlo622]

Update: After 3 weeks of being at the dealership, my service advisor called and told me the car is now fixed and ready for pickup. His initial ETA was the first week of November, so I guess these ECU's are being expedited to the dealerships. I am out of town at the moment, driving my plug-in hybrid prius, so I won't pick up my car until Monday of next week. I will report how it runs after I get her back.

P.S. Time to give Lisa, rep at scion of america, a call to discuss my compensation (I am looking for one month of car payment and a set of OEM foglights installed). Will let you guys know how that goes as well.

Brian

[einzlr]

Originally Posted by ftc~brz

lol you weren't creepy....I said something then got an email from a corporation and retraced a statement...lol timing is amazing

I'm gonna look up my paypal now. I've never used it to make money, just to spend it...lol

I will seriously get a dyno, there is a place up the street from work and I am very curious to see as well if there is any difference. May also help me to make a personal decision about my car donations are welcome of corse!

haha too funny about the timing thing

Well done getting the paypal link in your sig! lol I haven't used my paypal in a while; I'll find it when I get home from work. I'll contribute for sure, and hopefully some others will too! :happy0180:

Haha it can be a belated birthday present

[Sargy]

I WAS going to suprise everyone with a dyno with new ecu sometime this week......


oops

[ftc~brz]

Originally Posted by Sargy

I WAS going to suprise everyone with a dyno with new ecu sometime this week......


oops

Ahhh but you have virgin cams my friend...as mine have been soiled.
I didn't get a chance to talk to ya much sun,sorry. You had a new ecu so you would be one of 4 dynos for comparison

[Lonewolf]

Originally Posted by dwx

I don't know if I've seen a case where the issue was present at anything other than idle.

It will take someone being on the dyno to really tell if there is a true power difference. I've seen as many reports of people saying the car doesn't feel any different after the ECU/reflash as those saying it feels down on power. I don't really trust either case, people feel what they want to feel usually unless there is a real big difference.

But idle does point to issues with the cam being retarded, maybe the swing is too great for the ECU to deal with or it happens too slowly. Here is an excerpt from the 08 STi manual on how it operates on that engine, not sure I've seen it posted here before. Keep in mind the BRZ FA20 is probably a little different but same basic principle.

http://www.bescaredracing.com/sti/misc/DAVCS_08_STI.pdf

The shame is that we are left to guess, speculate, and offer conjecture about what Toyota truly knows, has done, and is doing to remedy these issues on the assembly line/parts pipeline...

[eurospeed]

Originally Posted by Oski

Updating my status:

10/21 - SOA offers good faith compensation of 7yr / 100,000 mile warranty and 3yr / 40,000 mile maintenance plans

10/23 - SOA sent me a release form for the compensation. In order to get the warranty and maintencne plans I have to release Subaru from all legal liability on the vehicle. In other words, I release my right to evoke California’s Lemon Law. I wish they had told me this tradeoff was required to accept their compensation. Not sure what to do?

If it were me, I would not sign the release and proceed to call them up letting them know the deal is absolutely unacceptable. It looks like your car was in service for over four weeks, so you may have a potential lemon case already. That said, if they were to refuse to work with me, I'd start the lemon law process immediately.

[MikesFRS]

Cel p0019 5000 miles just happened..

[M3power326]

Originally Posted by OmarGC

OmarGC, '13 FR-S, 1st occurrence: 420mi, Vin: 7079XX, Car with me-Parts on order since 8/28/12, O'Fallon, IL, Additional comments: 2nd occurrence:530mi ECU only stored p0017(ecu cleared/reset); 3rd: 718 mi found active CEL p0017 w/slip light then contacted Toyota about the issue and ordered parts ETA on parts is supposedly 9/4/12.

Sorry, been meaning to post here for quite some time... just got around to activating my account.

Add me to the list as well.

m3power326, 2013 FR-S, 3208 miles, 7084xx, still driving until my appt Tues when they will reflash ECU, O'Fallon IL.

----------------

I picked up my FR-S from Newbold BMW in O'Fallon, IL on 9/7/12. CEL and TC lights came on at 3208 miles. Code pulled was p0019. All that seemed to be wrong was a weird idle with occasionally dipping down from 600-700rpms to 400ish rpms. At 3499 miles, it violently idled at a stoplight for a couple seconds almost dying out. Clutch and brake were both pushed in at the time.


10/18 (Thurs) - stopped into Scion; told them what was wrong; they said to keep driving it until the appointment

10/23 (Tues) - scheduled appt day; I was in the dealership for 2 hours; they pulled code; they said they were going to order the new ECU; they said they would call me when it came in; they called me later in the day saying they didn't need a new ECU and that they just need to reflash; I don't have time to do the reflash until next Tues 10/30.


While I was in there, they said there was another FR-S that had been in their shop and it took a whole month to fix. It was when the TSB said to replace 6 (I think) items under the hood. They said Toyota cancelled that TSB, and released the current TSB which was to replace the ECU. However, reflashing the current ECU must be what they are trying first now.

[M3power326]

Would a tune from an ECUtek dealer fix the poor idle/CEL/TC lights?

[Lonewolf]

Originally Posted by MikesFRS

Cel p0019 5000 miles just happened..

Sorry to hear it...

[Le86]

Originally Posted by M3power326

Would a tune from an ECUtek dealer fix the poor idle/CEL/TC lights?

I actually was thinking about that myself earlier but it probably wouldn't. The primary cause of the CEL is code P0019 which is cam gear/vvt related. From my understanding, the vvt sensor is operated by oil pressure and the ECUtek tune does nothing to modify those pressures so unfortunately, I don't think an ECUtek flash will fix the issue, although it would be pretty cool if it did. Basically 2 birds with 1 stone. Knock out a CEL and squeeze some more power out of the car, all in one go doesn't sound half bad.

[cnk]

Originally Posted by Le86

I actually was thinking about that myself earlier but it probably wouldn't. The primary cause of the CEL is code P0019 which is cam gear/vvt related. From my understanding, the vvt sensor is operated by oil pressure and the ECUtek tune does nothing to modify those pressures so unfortunately, I don't think an ECUtek flash will fix the issue, although it would be pretty cool if it did. Basically 2 birds with 1 stone. Knock out a CEL and squeeze some more power out of the car, all in one go doesn't sound half bad.

Unless the tuner gets a hold of the new ROM used to fix the issue and builds maps off that ROM. Then anyone that flashed that tuned ROM file would in essence have the fix.

[MikesFRS]

MikesFrs, FRS, 5023, 7080XX, Status of repair unknown, Corona, CA

[track_warrior]

Is it weird to have 3k miles and around 40% of them being at the track and not having a single issue so far?