wrx137

I am wondering if anybody can help me with this. I already did searches but was unable to find any info/help.

I have a 02 WRX (USA spec) with an Injen cold air intake and a Turbo XS RFL BOV. Everything else is stock. In the past few months my CEL has been comming on and off from time to time. It started when one day i was driving on the highway and i was playing with the BOV by letting it stay open and make the cool sound that it makes. anyways.... then my car lost all its power and i was unable to accelerate, so i slowed down and pulled over. turned the car off and waited for a few minutes. Started it and everything was back to normall. But the CEL light stayed on. A few days later it went off. I thought it had soemthing to do with the BOV so i didnt think anything of it. Then a month after that i was on the high way and missed a down shift and shifted into 2nd instead of 4th, redlined to 10k rpms and the light went on again. In the morning i got in the car and it reset itself. Now in the past few weeks i noticed i had less power it wasnt as peppy as it has been before. i thought i just have gotten used to the spped but then my light went on again and i noticed that in 1st gear around the 5500 rpm the car hestates a bit and doesnt to it in any other gear but in 4th if i get on it at about 90 miles an hour i have no more power and then the CEL went on again.(this happened last night)

So what i am wondering is if anybody may know what could be wrong with it. Or if they experianced the same problems. Any help would be good. Im going to go to the deal but im not sure how they will take the two mods i did and if they will just say thats the peoblem and wont offer any help.

Thanks Eveybody in advance

Peter

Obi-Wan

It might be best to stop by the dealer (or somewhere else) to have the CEL code pulled.
I've heard of a 'limp mode' that the car can go into, but not sure what it drives like when that happens.

NotoriousWRX

Why are you saying that you revved to 10K, when the last # on the tach is 9K?

Anyway, if you mis-shifted and quickly shot past the rev limiter, you could have done some major damage. Is there any noise such as loud tapping at idle? I suggest that you start by getting the ECU scanned for codes and have a compression and leak down tests done.

Lobster Man

Yea, and when you bring it back make sure you take off the BOV and the intake or your warrenty WILL be void.

WRX-U

J/K about the praying thing, but seriously put that sucker back to stock and get her to the shop for those CEL codes, when you say you were in 4th at 90 or so was the CEL on, cause I know if she goes into limp mode you will basicly loss all power in all gears at about 3, or 4000rpms right when she really starts to boost hard and consistant...Well any ways just take her to the shop that's your best bet!

~B

wrx137

NotoriousWRX
sorry i wasnt really looking what it tacked out at, what i meant is that it went past any numbers on the tach maybe it was only 9k im not sure.

WRX-U
it seems thats what happened, it looses power towards the higher rpms so im gonna go get it checked out.

I heard that an air intake doesnt void warrenty because it isint something that the dealer will replace under warrenty(the air filter) but im not gonna try my luck ill prob firt go to get the codes scanned at a non-dealer and see what that says ( i really dont have time to pull the intake out.

NotoriousWRX

Post on the Tri-State forum to see if a local member can scan it for you. Next step after that should be the compression and leak down tests.

WRX-U

def. get that leak down test performed too! If you do take it to a dealer ya gotta pull everything....you don't want to give the dealer any chance of blame cause they will try, I already made that mistake once.

wrx137

thanks everyone

KIMUTAKU

omg...u rev it to 10k...that could be big trouble...

btw...it is possible to rev it to 10k...the needle would just go past the 9k mark...i've seen many ppl done this...and the result is a blown engine...=(

i hope that's not the case for ya..

Dino

i had that once and i play around with the SAFC, the car die out on the highway. I pulled over, exactly the same as u happened, i took up the battary, the cel light came off. But the car had totally no boots, i was plan to go to the dealer the next day after arrived home with no boots. And the next day the car back to normal again, i was like o well that save me some time to dealer. The story not end yet, around the whole month the car was so weak. like the 2nd gear is not pulling, but i was too lazy to go to dealer. until the car suddenly came back to normal and never had a problem again.

well i just want to share my experance, sorry if my english is bad

good luck on your car

Obi-Wan

WRX137, don't forget to post your findings here about what your problem was.
Might save somebody else some time later.

wrx137

KIMUTAKU - i hope its not the case...

Dino - what mods did you have?

I took my BOV off and cleaned my MAp/MAF sensor that is attached to the intake.... that cleared my CEL... still once in a while it hesitates at around 5k... im planning on going to the dealer this week (so busy)

I also added a boost guage wich im having some problems with (i think) im posting a new topic on that to see if anybody can help.

Peter

mike

ok i am new here so i willl say sorry if this is out of place...
I have several aftermarket parts and i have had a similar problem with cel lights. I was beating my car about a month ago and it died, i got the cel light and lost all power. I pulled over and waited about 2 seconds and started it up again, the light was there but the car drove it sounded fine so i let it go, 2 days later the cel went away. Well i was not beating on the car at all and it started again with the engin kill. This had hapened every time i start to race the engin some. Long story short my engin performance parts are as follows i have hks header, catless up and down pipe (PDE) sti exhaust, cai, sti tmic. Other things are my performance sound system and hid kit 8,000k. do i need to reflash then Stock ecu? Please let me know, thanks