Oh-Oh's, I Think I Broke It!

[xwd]

The 2.5L turbo Subarus are pretty famous for cracking the ring landing on the #4 piston. I did many years ago when I had an EJ257 block in my 02 WRX. Poor tunes on the 08-09 WRX/STi models led to those failures even on stock cars. People got tunes as a reliability investment.

It's very easy to tell with a compression test. The smoking on startup happens with the cracked ringlands, here is a video:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmdBgNEWHaQ"]2007 STI Limited - Start Up Exhaust Smoke - YouTube[/ame]

But the codes you are getting aren't indicative of it and usually there is no associated noise/rough running until things get really bad.

[slidethis]

Originally Posted by pcasso87

Hopefully some of the electronics and mechanic gurus might have a better idea of what is going on but ill post a couple of bullet points on what is going on with my car.

Feb 1-3 2013 (Circuit of the Americas)
-When i tracked the car in Cota FEB 1-3 i got a CEL and the car went into limp mode on the second track day. The codes i got were: P219A Bank 1 Air/Fuel Ratio Inbalance, P000A Intake (a) Camshaft Position Sensor Slow Response Bank 1, P0011 Intake (a) Camshaft Position Timing - Over Advanced (Bank1)
I cleared the codes to see if they would pop up again and they did not, i continued tracking for another day and no problems what so ever the car ran fine.

Feb 23 2013 (Harris Hill Road Mazda Raceway)

1st Session
-Yesterday after 5 laps around the track i lost power on the straight for a second or two and my check engine light flashed twice but went away, i kept driving since it was a timed event and it did not do it again.

2nd Session
-Next session as i turned the car on it puffed a huge cloud of white smoke but it went away and stopped smoking, as i pulled out of the grid it puffed a cloud of smoke again according to a friend in the paddock. As i came back into the paddock my belt started whining but then went away after a couple of seconds.

3rd Session
-No smoke this time but i lost power on the same straight as session #1 but this time my car lost almost all power and sounded like it was misfiring and sounded like a boxer engine. I pulled into the paddock with my dash looking like a christmas tree and the car struggled to idle, i immediately turned her off and checked the codes i got P0011 Intake (a) Camshaft Position Timing - Over Advanced, and cylinder 2 misfire. I thought it might be an electronic glitch like at Cota but i cleared the codes and the car would not turn on.

Anybody have a clue what could be wrong? My tuner suggest flashing back to stock and taking it to the dealer since he says a couple of cars have had bad ecu's.

Here is the list of engine mods for reference:

-4100 miles on engine (bought it back in June 2012)
-Dynotronics Ecutek 93 octane tune
-Agency Power Lightweight pulley
-TRD drop in
-Motiv Concepts high flow cat
-Invidia Catback

Quick video:

Codes i got at Circuit of the Americas FEB 1-3

Its one of your plugs. Bank 1 is plug burned out. All you have to is change it. Its a misfiring plug. Theres four banks. And only one misfiring . Take it to mechanic to show you which one is bank 1 and change it yourself. Thats what happened to my mr-s long time ago. Good luck cganging it

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

[xwd]

Those are cam timing codes, I doubt it has anything to do with the spark plug.

So doing a google search there are others who have received the same exact set of codes and it was due to a faulty VVTi unit, not necessarily related to the more widespread issue others have had.

I guess I would agree aggressive tuning maybe caused a premature failure, hopefully that's it.

Also for some reason Subaru engines seem to hate Mobil 1.

[FirestormFRS]

I'm voting for a VVTi failure. Probably not the pulley itself, more likely the oil control valve is stuck open and not letting the VVT return to 0 position. The ECU can't compensate for it so you're running somewhere north of 0 advance in timing.

[20valvewynn83]

Originally Posted by dwx

Those are cam timing codes, I doubt it has anything to do with the spark plug.

So doing a google search there are others who have received the same exact set of codes and it was due to a faulty VVTi unit, not necessarily related to the more widespread issue others have had.

I guess I would agree aggressive tuning maybe caused a premature failure, hopefully that's it.

Also for some reason Subaru engines seem to hate Mobil 1.

Have already stated this but no feed back as of yet. FYI I work for Toyota and know that code is related to VVTI. I bet he has super thick oil and a horrible tune and maybe even running the wrong gas.

[track_warrior]

Originally Posted by 20valvewynn83

Have already stated this but no feed back as of yet. FYI I work for Toyota and know that code is related to VVTI. I bet he has super thick oil and a horrible tune and maybe even running the wrong gas.

Im running 5w30 and i dont run anything under 93 octane.

[20valvewynn83]

Originally Posted by pcasso87

Im running 5w30 (Its a track car) and i dont run anything under 93 octane, if you read the whole thread you would have seen i have the tune since november and did not have an issue until feb 1st.

Everyone can say what they want and even do as they please but 5w30 is a little thick for our cars (my opinion). Also you say you run 93 octane I would assume its tuned for that octane but that doesn't mean the tune isn't adjusting itself. Did you add any other mods since you tuned it. But on the real seams you may need New VVTI cam gears.

[xwd]

The manual states to use 5w30 if the car is under sustained load, like tracking the car.

The 0w-20 stuff is for fuel economy...

I would run something like Motul 300v.

[Dave-ROR]

Originally Posted by 20valvewynn83

Everyone can say what they want and even do as they please but 5w30 is a little thick for our cars (my opinion). Also you say you run 93 octane I would assume its tuned for that octane but that doesn't mean the tune isn't adjusting itself. Did you add any other mods since you tuned it. But on the real seams you may need New VVTI cam gears.

Have you read your owners manual?

5W-30 is fine.

[mad_sb]

believe i have seen this issue before and it was due to a clogged screen filter in one of the oil passages for the avcs system.. i will have to check with someone though as it may have been and evo not a subbie.

[mad_sb]

yep, just looked it up in the FR-s manula P0011 oil control valve filter is listed as a check item... More than likely that is the issue, these were known to fail on the sti's and were reccomended to be removed. I'll probably remove mine for good measure once i figure out how.

[Shimmyshake]

I'm no mechanic & the way your motor sounds reminds me of the time someone replaced my timing belt on my honda civic & they were off by 1-2 teeth & wasn't firing properly at all. Hope it's not a major issue for you.

[track_warrior]

Originally Posted by 20valvewynn83

Everyone can say what they want and even do as they please but 5w30 is a little thick for our cars (my opinion). Also you say you run 93 octane I would assume its tuned for that octane but that doesn't mean the tune isn't adjusting itself. Did you add any other mods since you tuned it. But on the real seams you may need New VVTI cam gears.

No added mods i was going to add headers and tune actually.

Originally Posted by dwx

The manual states to use 5w30 if the car is under sustained load, like tracking the car.

The 0w-20 stuff is for fuel economy...

I would run something like Motul 300v.

I normally run motul 300v 5w-30 its great stuff but its also liquid gold $$$, right now my budget is a bit low so i just ran some mobil 1 5w-30. Im purchasing some motul from CS Garage soon so my next oil change will be motul.

Originally Posted by Dave-ROR

Have you read your owners manual?

5W-30 is fine.

This , specially in TX where you have to take into consideration the extreme heat we get and add on top of that that i do events from time to time.



What to hear something funny, tonight i was driving the w210 E-420 when my wife and i started to feel the engine run weird and loose a bit of power, no code but it sounded like it was misfiring. As soon as i got home i was thinking a bad plug, or coilpack. Since i know this car inside out since ive had it since 1997 i checked plugs and coil packs one by one and found cylinder 4 was misfiring. I took out the plug and noticed it was a bit loose and found the inside to be soaked as well as very dirty. Cleaned the plug and coilpack put it back in the car and voila no more misfire. Next thing you know im going to start to misfire .

Im praying the issue with my FR-S is as simple as it was with my w210 tonight.

Pics of the issues with the w210:



The culprit:



Left coil pack soaked

[20valvewynn83]

Originally Posted by Dave-ROR

Have you read your owners manual?

5W-30 is fine.

No I just get trained on it from corporate. And as I stated people can say what they want and do what they won't to their cars but I still think 5w30 is too heavy for this car I wouldnt go higher then 5w20 but that's me. Personally I will stay with 0w20 and run a better quality oil like eneos sustina.