Juelz5420

i have aps cold air and a aps 3 1/2 inch exhaust and ecutek tune. i took it to subaru and they said that my car was running lean. they said it might be my exhaust or intake. i called my guy that tuned my car and he said it was just bad gas in my area. is that all becuase it seems my car is slower,When i give it full throttle it like bogs down or like stumbles. maybe my turbo is spooling to fast i need help. is there anything that i can do to help prevent this problem? any parts to buy anything? any advice would help. thanks

jdepould

iTrader: (2)

ditch the CAI

meilers

Actually, the APS CAI has the exact same flow dynamics as the stock airbox (in terms of MAF calibration)... it is the only one that is a bolt-on without a CEL of any kind. Your "tuner" is full of crap and gave you a bad tune -- no tuner on earth would blame detonation on "bad gas" (which doesn't exist; fuel is tightly regulated everywhere, and all the gas in the US comes out of the same 11 refineries) and a car cannot run lean due to the fuel unless you are trying to run 87 octane in the car. The problem has nothing to do with your turbo -- running leans means your air/fuel mixture is badly out of balance for properly timed detonation, and the only thing that could cause that is a bad tune (or something seriously wrong with your fuel delivery, which can't be the case for such a new car).

Wingless Wonder

iTrader: (7)

Was your STi tuned locally, or was this a mail order reflash? If local to you, most tuners would ask you to bring your car back to put it on the rollers and try to solve the problem.

Please fill out the location field with at least a general (state) area so that local members can suggest other options for you.

--
0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

meilers

You should definitely call the tuner and ask them for a retune. It is just good customer service for them to help you out, if the car didn't turn out as expected.

Oh, and don't take a modded car to a Subaru dealership.

Juelz5420

do you know any good tune shops in arizona? i get oil changes at subaru why should i not take it there? so i should tell him to put it up on the dyno he reset my ecu once before but it was just from the laptop and it corrected the problem for a little while then it went back to running lean. what should i ask him to do just retune it? thanks for the help

Friedenreich686

Whats up I from phoenix, AZ also and know juelz5420, but whats a good place locally to get your subaru tuned at. Cause dyno comp is where he took his ride and they haven't done a very good job considering he brings it in they fix the tune and a few months later the car leans out and runs crappy again. I also know one other person with an 05 sti that got there car tuned their and they also told him his car was running crappy because of gas. He ended up getting a completly upgraded fuel system and stopped using dyno comp and the problem went away. My othere friend took a boosted civic si there for a tune and his car ran like crap until he took it to a place in tucson were they re-tuned it and got it running good. Any suggestions would be helpful because I don't want the same problems they had when i take my 05 wrx to get tuned.

UK n00b

iTrader: (3)

Try calling Kingpin, they work on a ton go Subarus and are in AZ.

Mike

taerron

that sucks, i've been tuned twice by dyno comp and have been very happy with the service. sorry to hear that you got bent on it. i went there the second time cause kingpin wouldn't give me the time of day. i got an up and down pipe installed and they told me i would have a tune the next day. a week later and numerous calls and visits, i went back to dyno comp. seems no mater where you go, someone has had a bad experience at that place.

$.02

meilers

Actually Phoenix has a ton of options -- SPD Tuning, Kingpin, Vivid Racing, Dyno-Comp and at least two other shops in town are either UTEC or ECUTek tuners. Just like the previous poster, I agree that you will hear horror stories and praise for any shop you consider. There are some amazing threads about Kingpin on those other WRX forums; enough to make me decide I'm not going there, because they don't seem to take anyone seriously unless you are building a WRX up from scratch to race car using their particular packages.

People get unreasonably passionate about cars, for some reason; they'll eat a crappy hamburger or get sick from a 99-cent taco and go back again the next day, but if they feel cheated by 99 cents by an auto shop they'll want to go back and burn down the place.

I'm pretty shocked that Dyno-Comp would give you the "bad gas" excuse and not put your car back on the dyno. I've been there several times just to talk to them about options, and they always went out of their way for me and even invited me in to watch them tune a 440WHP STI. The shop owner has a daily-driver STI well in excess of 500hp (crank) and a RHD Skyline, which he also offered to let me take for a spin (I declined; bad form to wreck another man's car).

I'm definitely getting tuned at Dyno-Comp for one reason: AFAIK, they are still the only shop with an AWD dyno that can give you a realtime tune. I'm certain a road tune can be just as good, but there are so many variables involved in a road tune that a dyno tune just eliminates.

Definitely follow up with Dyno-Comp and tell us what happens. Did you ask for a to-the-limit tune, or a conservative one? Did you tune the car on different gas than you normally use?

Giving someone an oil change does NOT give the dealer enough information to know that your car is "running lean." To know that, they would have to hook it up to the ODBII scanner or run some tests, way outside the normal activity of an oil change. They were trying to get you to take the car back to stock, and to let them do it for you (for $110 an hour).

I've had a great experience with Camelback Subaru here in town; the shop guys all drive modded cars, and they are very enthusiastic about my 02 WRX and my future plans for it -- they even installed my aftermarket springs for me. But they've made it pretty clear that once I start making engine bay changes they won't be doing any more warranty work on the car, even though I have 25k left on the driveline warranty.

Juelz5420

i was just and dyno comp yesterday and richard said it was the fuel in arizona. i ask for a retune but he said that would do no good. he hooked it up to his laptop and loaded a new map or something and and reset the ecu and it corrected the problem for a little while but after a few weeks it runs lean again. he said that i might have gapage with my sparkplugsandthat is causing flameout as he put it. i only had it tuned once and that is when i got it flashed i used 91 but if i can get him to tune it i will use 100. i am going there on monday so he can check my sparkplugs should i ask for a tune and if so what kind.

meilers

No, when you get a car tuned, use the exact same gas you use every day; get a full tank at the same station you always use. If you tune for 100 then you're committed to using it forever! And since you can't get 100 in town, that means you'd be dumping tolulene in your tank (which is just begging for a blown engine, 'cause one day you won't get the proportions right).

Juelz5420

so dont use 100 octane at all or just when i tune. i usally use a 100 and only a couple gallons like twice a week then fill the rest with 91 is that bad or just when you tune? and what tune should i get? and have you ever heard of the sparkplug stuff i mentioned.
thanks meilers.

Wingless Wonder

iTrader: (7)

See meilers' post above.

If you have 100 octane in your tank when the tuning is performed, the boost, ignition advance, and fueling is optimized to yield power for the octane and burn characteristics of that high octane fuel. That's great if you always fill up with 100 octane. If not, anything less will likely cause timing to pull back and fueling to go very rich to try to prevent detonation under load - it may not be entirely successful at doing so.

Unless you are using some form of engine management that utilizes map switching capabilities (Cobb AccessPORT, Vishnu XEDE, etc.), using 91 octane fuel on a 100 octane tune can result poor performance at best and serious engine damage is almost inevitable if you put your right foot into it for any length of time.

Tune for the fuel you will normally be using in your car.

--
0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

Juelz5420

my car is still runing lean i have a ecutek flash do you guys think i should ask dyno comp to just put my ecu back to stock. some people tell me the stock ecu can handle up to 500 horses. do you think that might correct it and could it be the sparkplugs. i am going back on monday what tune should i ask for. and is there anything i can buy to help prevent this from happening.