paulpas

I have a 97 outback with a phase II block, ported/polished DOHC heads, lightened flywheel, Amsoil Nanofiber air filter, brullen equal length headers and a fill header-back exaust. It's fast. 288k miles.

I have noticed with my ScanGague that at highway speeds I'm in open loop. It doesn't matter if I'm at 60mph or 100mph, always open loop. If I let go of the throttle and coast it returns to closed loop, but once I turn cruise back on or press the throttle to keep the speed constant, I'm back in open loop. I can barely get better than 23mpg.

The engine has 65k miles on it and has new plug wires, decently new iridium spark plugs, new pcv, timing belt, fuel filter, both o2 sensors, etc etc. It's fully tuned up.

One thing worth mentioning is that I had a misfire CEL on cyl 1/2 over the summer. I had my father, a mechanic back home, check my car out and he recommended I run techron through it. I have and it went away. I'm running my 3rd bottle through it now to make sure everything is clean, but have not seen any change in open loop conditions.

Everything seems fine except that I'm always in open loop unless I'm touching the gas pedal w/ a feathers weight. Do I need a new ECU or is there something else?