So my buddys 02' WRX seemed to be running a bit rich (hesitation, good bit of black smoke, rough idle,****ty fuel consumption) ok so i say first things first you put about a thousand miles on this thing a day it could probably use a tune up so lets get some new plugs in.......which i wouldnt have offered to do if i had known how much of a ***** it is to put spark plugs in boxer style engine (im an rx-7 guy myself and dont know much about subarus)

Anyways so it takes us almost three hours do get in new spark plugs and after words it idles perfect, like a dream compared to before, so we take it out for spin and shes only boosting to like 8-9lbs max when earlier today even running pig rich it was hitting 13-14.

......he doesnt like this too much, i was confused as to how the problem could be fixed but with the cost of 6psi of boost. so he starts messing with his ecutek (came on car looks to me like a reflashed ecu along with a datalogger/monitor/piggy back thing were he can fine tune alot of stuff) i dont know much about it so i let him go at it (he is doing this while were driving around to) and as soon as see something along the lines of -reset ecutek thingy..........i say i dont think so bud but at two in the morning at a four way intersection.......he hits the button and all i see -----resetting---------------

shuts the car off, i say you better pray she starts.......she starts but right after she dies, starts again holds throttle to a couple grand...that works for a second before the throttle looses control and something else shuts it off, im not sure what but something was deffinetly telling it to stop running. So we limp it too a safe spot by starting revving it up before thottle goes out and letting out the clutch to coast around.

first thing....good job....second lets unhook it. Good idea but its spliced into the ecu and i dont know if unhooking it will make anything better so we unhook the data monitor and unhook the battery for a couple minutes. Start it up and woo hoo its idleing and has throttle response so i have him take it up and down the street and he says its getting around its boosting to 10psi now its just rough and i can tell as well with the black smoke out hte back, so we limp it to my house in its current state in my garage.

So if anyone has any idea or help that would be greatly appriciated also if anybody knows an easy way to manually reset the ecutek back to stock parameters that would be awesome and probably help out alot.

Also mod list - some kind of big down pipe (3in-4in?), Catless exaust, Godspeed front mount intercooler, the ECUtek thing. pretty sure thats it.

Thanks
Matt

 

imho 3 inch downpipe is the best fit for a stock turbo wrx. Also The catless exhaust causes boost creep ( which can blow your engine up ) and also a FMIC should only be used for a wrx pushing more than 350whp. So thats lik 3 things that are pretty much killing you car.

 

did you get a CEL ?

who did the ecutec

so he has a data logger and it reset it?

i say find a stock ecu if he has a stock turbo and start from there

 

Double check everything you touched changing the plugs for leaks, and pull all the error codes off the ecu. Then reset the ecu by unplugging the negative battery cable for a few minutes, and holding down the brakes. I know you can reset it with the Ecutek software, but if you do it like this there's nothing else you can screw up while trying to get to the reset screen. If nothing gets better the reset, take it to your nearest tuner and post back here about what went wrong.