I have a buddy here at work that has an 03 WRX 5 speed wagon with 90K miles. Regular oil changes with synthetic and blend. Today when coming to work he was at a light and when it turned green he went through first with boost building and then into second and lost all boost using moderate throttle. No noise, no smoke, no idiot lights. Nothing that would indicate a problem. It drives fine but like a dog without the boost. He tried to register here but the page would not display so I am posting for him. Any ideas? We looked at the wastegate arm and it was not lose like it broke. I don't know if it may be stuck open?
Check the clip on the wastegate actuator arm that connects at the turbo. There are little E clips that hold the actuator arm on to the wategate that can pop lose. It will then run like crap. I had this happen to me once. The clips are available at any auto shop pretty much.
i had a piece of my uppipe cat come loose and stop the turbo from spinning. does he still have a stock uppipe?
Yes, and that was my first thought. Was your turbo damaged as a result or was is small enough to just catch it and hold it? Personally, I just need to find the time to put on my TBE and get a gutted or STI UP at a decent price so that does not happen to me.
mine was a small sliver just enough to jam into the wheel and stop motion. actually no harm was done to the turbo but im sure each case can have different damage. i just lucked out and when mine got clogged it was on the interstate at very low boost levels.
He has a boost gauge, that's how he knew there wasn't any boost along with the sluggishness. He wanted to check out some of the hoses first. I offered to hook up my ecuexplorer and cable to see what the computer is showing. We may try that tomorrow. Hopefully there is no perminant damage. I told him to call SS. He was on the dyno but said to check so see if any hoses were cracked from what I understand.
its easier to find out if you know exactly what the symptoms are may even be the boost gauge hose are off
He is looking into that tonight by checking the boost gauge hose and controller hose. I don't think it is the gauge because he said it did not produce any boost like it should and there was just no power like there should be when it should be producing boost. I will wait to hear from him tomorrow and see what he figured out. We may then hook up the ecuexplorer and see what it says. Maybe make some runs and post up the results.
We could not verify in the parking lot at work I send him that 133MB video about changing the UP and that will show him how to remove the heat shield and look at it. I sent him a link to this thread so hopefully he is looking and trying. I will see what he says in the AM and let you know. Thanks.
The only other thing that I had happen that cause results like his was one time when I did not tighten down the y pipe enough at the turbo and it popped lose under acceleration...easy to figure out once I popped the hood!
"Lost boost" is me - drummond5 replaced the vacuum hoses, many had turned to "plastic" very hard and cracked easily. started the car & no difference. didn't go any further as the car drives and i need it today. Thursday / Friday i can afford to have it out of commission. * will take off the shielding tonight to check on linkage. Cannarella and i will hook up to the computer today to see if that will tell us anything. ? will it hurt it any to drive it with no boost? ? yes i've got a boost gauge and i've got vacuum but can't get it to get over 0. ? is there any "tests" that I can perform that would help me narrow down what I should be looking for? thanks
since the source of your problem isn't known, i would refrain from driving it to make sure the amount of damage doesn't increase
^^^ What he said (if something is jammed in the turbo it might not be hurt YET, but could damage the turbo if you continue). That said, here are some tests: If it doesn't even quite make it to 0 psi, then the turbo is not spinning. If it makes it at all positive, then it could be a popped off intercooler hose. If the ecu is mad, then it should still make almost 8 psi, try resetting the ECU and see if anything changes. SS
what mods do you have? especially any that have been installed or tinkered with in the past few days?
I havent heard from drummond5 today so I don't know if he is here at work. He may have decided to take it in. SS, have you seen him up there today?
Well I talked to him and he said it is getting up to 0 and a tad over on the boost gauge. Hopefully he will post an update. Kinda new to the whole forum thing. He is planning on removing the heat shield tonight and look to see if the E clip came off leaving the waste gate lose.
I just got an email from him and it was that E clip that came off. So the waste gate was hanging open. He made a makeshift clip, since he did not have one on hand, and is going to let me know what happens when he gets in.
I thought it sounded a lot like my experience! Glad it was something cheap and easy. I had to make a temp out of a paperclip to get me home!