07 wrx question, for a friend, still with problems

[dirtyhandssubaru555]

i know this is the legacy forums but im asking a question for a freind that is working offshore right now and he is haveing a problem with his new wrx. only mod is 3.5in aps turbo back exhaust. he is makeing 14 to 16 psi and getting a check engine light when ever he gets on it hard. he didn't say anything about power loss or any thing like that. but im thinking fuel cut. what do you think? ill try to get more detail from him later.

so he is seeing power loss when he gets in the uper rpms, he said it feels like his car hits a wall of wind. aps said that there will be a increase in boost by a couple of pounds. so whats going on?

[vrg3]

I think he needs to have the engine trouble code(s) read.

I don't think it's fuel cut; he would have mentioned it feeling like he ran into a brick wall.

If the CEL is blinking, it's indicating excessive misfire.

[dirtyhandssubaru555]

i just sent him a email and he should get it in the next 12 hours or so, i asked him if it felt like he ran in to a "wall". what kind of code would an aftermarket exhaust throw? besides a miss fire

[vrg3]

The most common is a cat inefficiency code, I believe. I don't see why that would happen at WOT though.

Chances are that this has nothing to do with the exhaust and should therefore be covered by warranty.

[subytech]

I've heard and seen a couple of cases of overboost when running hard on a stock solenoid. Had a buddy with an STi, i replaced his solenoid a couple of times under warrenty before he finally said screw it i'm getting a boost controller. Does the car go into a limp mode for a while then run fine after a little bit?

[dirtyhandssubaru555]

i beleave that it is a catless. he still has the stock exhaust, in case of warranty issues

[subytech]

The most common is a cat inefficiency code, I believe. I don't see why that would happen at WOT though.

Chances are that this has nothing to do with the exhaust and should therefore be covered by warranty.

If its turbo back thats an aftermarket cat not covered under warrenty, and if the dealer wants to be dick the exhaust is technically a "Power Adder" there fore voiding your friends warrenty.

[dirtyhandssubaru555]

and i assume that if he puts the stock exhaust back on the check engine light would go away.

[subytech]

i beleave that it is a catless. he still has the stock exhaust, in case of warranty issues

Well if its a catless exhaust then the light is most certanly an P0420 catalist inefficency code, and if you have him put the stock exhaust back on and the code cleared it will reappear once you put the aftermarket exhaust on. If hes running no cats then theres really nothing you can do to avoid this code, the resisters and 02 spacers don't really work. The owner of my dealerships son has an modderatly modded WRX and weve tried everything there is to try and keep this code from comming back on his car (he's running an HKS turbo back catless exhaust) the only thing that has worked is the piggyback that he has right now allows you to disable the actual light bulb for the CEL, we just make sure he dosen't have any other codes when he comes in for his oil changes.

[subytech]

and i assume that if he puts the stock exhaust back on the check engine light would go away.

no he will have to clear it because its a code dealing with emissions which takes something retarded like 600 drive cycles with no problems to auto clear the code.

[dirtyhandssubaru555]

how easy are the codes to clear on a wrx? can it be done at home? laptop? is the code causeing any problems with the af mixture or any thing like that?

[subytech]

all you have to do to clear code in any car really is just dissconect the negative battery cable (I like to wait 20-30 min before reconnecting), this will erase the temporary memrory for all the onboard moduals, trans, airbag, body, security, engine everything. The only thing you will notice will be lost radio presets, and the CEL will be off. There might be some minor ECM relearn causing some weird minor things but i wouldn't worry about it. This shouldn't be causing any AF mix problems, all its doing is saying, hey the rear o2 dosent like whats coming out of the cat, so i really wouldn't worry about that kind of stuff

[Steeper]

get an OBD2 code reader from...well anywhere, they are cheap, allow you to check and clear codes at home in seconds.

I know in the earlier wrx a Cobb access port flash will allow for a catless exhaust, and you wont throw codes, but maybe not 07. Is the exhaust his ONLY mod, not even an intake or something, cause that will throw a MAF code, cant remember which, and will usually happen at wot. My buddy has a 05 and he throws the same 2 codes everytime, MAF and CAT ineficiency.

[ciper]

Steeper show your buddy this http://forums.evolutionm.net/showthread.php?t=114931

[vrg3]

I'm no lawyer, but...

Power adders don't void warranties. In fact, almost nothing can actually void the warranty; individual claims can be denied if a modification can be shown to be the cause of the claim, but the warranty as a whole remains intact.

Not to say that dealers don't violate that law, but still.

[dirtyhandssubaru555]

yeah our dealership wouldn't not even touch the car do the the aftermarket exhaust. there prety rude at my dealership and i paint the owners house!

[vrg3]

I don't know what your friend's recourse is, but I believe that dealership is definitely in the wrong. An aftermarket exhaust is not an acceptable reason to deny a warranty claim out of hand.

[dirtyhandssubaru555]

i've had many friends with brand new subies from my local dealership and nothing but crap from the dealership. like a k&n cold air intake voids the warranty.i have try to get parts from them and they just dick me around so i just go to my parts store and have them order my oem parts. i hate to bash on a subie dealership but theses guys dont deserve any respect!

[subytech]

I'm no lawyer, but...

Power adders don't void warranties. In fact, almost nothing can actually void the warranty; individual claims can be denied if a modification can be shown to be the cause of the claim, but the warranty as a whole remains intact.

Not to say that dealers don't violate that law, but still.

Ive been told bay several SOA contacts that any "power adder" of any kind can void parts if not all of your power train warranty, hell 3/4 of the stuff in the SPT catalog will effect or totally void your power train warranty. Now most dealerships, including mine, will look the other way if the problem has not been blatantly caused by said power adder. The law has absolutely nothing to do with your warranty, the only time law enters the equation is if said problem has caused some sort of safety concern. If its not stock and it has to do with your problem its not covered. I guess i should have said they will not validate your warrenty in this case. But I didn't think anyone would be this anal about about it. Also if a tech really wanted he could say that any power adder could cause any number of seemingly unrelated problems. We voided a guys warrety when he chunked his center diff because he had water injection. He also had a history of abuse and hopping from one dealership to another until he would get his problems covered.

[vrg3]

The law has absolutely nothing to do with your warranty, the only time law enters the equation is if said problem has caused some sort of safety concern. If its not stock and it has to do with your problem its not covered.

I'll repeat that I'm not a lawyer, but...

The first sentence is incorrect; the Magnusson-Moss Act is a piece of legislation that, among other things, requires that warranties be honored even if modifications have been made as long as those modifications didn't cause the failure being claimed.

So the second sentence is correct.

But the cause-effect relationship between a so-called "power adder" and whatever is causing his CEL to illuminate is not obvious.

[ciper]

This thread is a good example of what happens in the real world - Some dealers know what they are doing and can understand that stiffer suspension wont cause the steering rack to fail where as others would see that they are touching each other and deny warranty.

Your best bet is to find a forum that has a local region section and ask the members which dealer is mod friendly.

[subytech]

Bump

The law has absolutely nothing to do with your warranty, the only time law enters the equation is if said problem has caused some sort of safety concern. If its not stock and it has to do with your problem its not covered.

I'll repeat that I'm not a lawyer, but...

The first sentence is incorrect; the Magnusson-Moss Act is a piece of legislation that, among other things, requires that warranties be honored even if modifications have been made as long as those modifications didn't cause the failure being claimed.

So the second sentence is correct.

But the cause-effect relationship between a so-called "power adder" and whatever is causing his CEL to illuminate is not obvious.

In todays car and especially todays subarus everything is so compleatly interlinked that like i said you could theoreticly say that an exhaust system caused something like a bearing failure due to lack of oiling trust me on this i've heard of wearder failures. So in fact subaru if they so please can say that a said power adder caused a failure, Dont get me wrong i'm the last guy to tell a customer to piss off cuz hes modded his car i'm just saying that cars are becoming so complicated that we are going to see a definate rise in warrenty denials because of modifications seemingly unrelated to said problems. Not to mention modding a car opens up the door for claims of abuse and neglect. Take the new evo for example, the trans makes outputs dependent on a said RPM and the power at that RPM so at the very least you will need a reflash just to do an intake and exhaust. Also i will say I was wrong about the law having nothing to do with a warrenty. Applogies to anyone whom i may have greatly offended.

So just to clarify for the acutal question just look around for a mod friendly shop which should be fairly easy, I clear codes for guys with access ports and other crap all the time. As long and you dont try and have the shop fix the problem you should be fine. I would just find out what the code is first and go from there.

[FuJi K]

turboback will give you cat inefficiency code
ont '06+ USDM WRXs, there will be boost creep with turboback exhausts. THE CEL does come on if you reach over the fuel cut. I've seen it happen in an '02 WRX when we were cranking up the boost with a MBC.

[dirtyhandssubaru555]

ok still have a problem and not sure what it is. my friend says it feels like the car stops makeing power when he gets the checkengine light, like if the car was to hit a wall of air and slow the car

[Arctic Assassian]

Did you pull the code with the code reader? It's pretty helpful to know which of 1000 systems to look at.