getting paranoid

[SergeantScooby]

With reading a lot of subaru forums its becoming clear to me that fuel remaps are of utmost importance, assuming that if its wrong your engine will go BANG and you will be crying all the way to the garage for a rebuild.

I am making a real big assumption here and taking the dealers word that my my00 ra is fine and should be run on optimax quite happily however i am paranoid now after reading various postings.

Is there anyway of telling what on earth the mapping on your car is set for ?

any obvious signs that something is not quite right or does the engine just go BANG one day when its had enough ?

thanks

mr paranoid

 

[ANDYJDMSTI]

If you are in any doubt as to whether the car was mapped for uk uel then get it checked out.

Myself presonnally was informed that my car was mapped for UK fuel when it landed in Britain, however after a visit to Andyf last year for a remap he was able to tell me that the car had indeed NOT been mapped. When he plugs in his ECUTEK software he can tell how many times the ecu has been tweaked. Now assuming that your car is a classic you would really want the apexi kit, am sure someone that has gone through this will be able to shed abit more light on the matter.

I ran my car on optimax with afew trips up and down the motorway from Hereford without any dramas but arter getting it mapped it gave me the full fuzzy feeling that it was bombproof.

As a matter of course, if you are unsure i would be running on optimax with booster until you are 100% happy with the state of your cars map.

 

[]

[SergeantScooby]

wise words andy, i do have that paranoid thought in back of mind that one day the engine is just going to go bang and that will be game over.

I dont know if i can stomach much more cash been paid out on the up keep and running of this car, i think i slightly underestimated  just how much it costs to run an impreza

oh well we live and learn

 

 

[ANDYJDMSTI]

Another quick one or you...........if you have not done so already get yourself an Knocklink. It will show you if you are getting any form of Det/ Knock from your engine.

 

[]

[SergeantScooby]

ching ching goes the cash register

 

 

[Gumball]

With regards to how i know my cars not happy-

I have a knocklink fitted to the underside of the dash. The car already has one but this acts as a visual aid for my own reference to know if something is wrong.

The car runs on optimax with octane booster and has been mapped for this.

If the car gets fuel that it doesnt appreciate then the internal knock picks up small signs of danger/det and retards the map. This is a very clever measure taken by the ecu to back off until it gets the octane levels it needs to function again at the high levels of menace/boost/force your driving the car at.

A few tanks of clean/the right fuel and this will come back to normal. This varies from car to car. Mine takes longer than i would like to return but there you go.

I guess...and i was exactly the same way when i first got my car, that people live in fear of losing warranty or changing the ecu on their car incase it all goes terribly wrong.

I bought this scoob for 20k, thought it was nice and quick, and it was tbh. running 320/310 from the dealership. Then when i overcame my fear (almost) and took it to andy forrest for a remap and more power.........he found the car wasnt safe at all and had been boosting too high and the air fuel ratio was wild child.

So, and i would say this all the time- "taking your car to Andy Forrest will make your car safer, give you better power delivery and if you decide your still unhappy or scared then get the map taken off"

[ANDYJDMSTI]

ching ching goes the cash register

 

 

 

Am hearing ya..........£120 ker ching is better than a possible 2 - 3k KER CHING CHING CHING []

[SergeantScooby]

thanks for the input so far you guys

so i get a knock link, been mechanically challenged i would require to have someone fit it for me ching ching ching lol  

i discover that there is a mapping problem due to knocks showing up on knock link so i need a remap ching ching ching ching a ling but then i will have piece of mind. 

[Gumball]

correct answer.

Knocklink- £140?

Fitting- £30

Oooooh the car seems to be fine as it pulls the way it should and theres no red lights on- you say

OR

Oooooh thats a nice xmas tree i can see on my dashboard, i think ill take my car to the ecu doctor who will rematch the fuel, air, boost and make it safe for you.

PowerFC- £i dont know sorry, maybe £500?

Free fitting lol

now you have spent either £170 or £670 and your cars not going to blow up

£60 will also get you a nice oil change with some good 10/60 or 15/50 and stop the dirty stuff blocking your pump and meaning you can spend your 3k on your holiday or your kids cigarettes for a year instead of a big end replacement

[ormiboy]

another vote for andy f from me.

i was in the same boat as you about a year ago. Was told by garage ( salesman ) that normal unleaded was fine for my jdm 95 wrx. came on here and learned about remaps, aftermarket ecus etc,etc and tied this info to the fact that my car seemed to have good days and bad days. After  pi$$ing around with eeproms and such like with no real benefit i bit the bullet and took the car to andy f for a power fc install and setup. cost was about £750, now everyday is a good day.

so defo get andy to either remap you ( about £500 ?)or go for the apexi power fc.

the power fc has the option for a commander unit. This can show you det/knock in near realtime and can fire your dash CEL to indicate knock and only costs £80 sheets. With this installed you can pretty much do away with the knocklink, tho its still handy as it catches the eye when the big red led fires! and can display lots of fancy bits of info to feed your paranoia .

either way you wont really know what your motor is capable of untill its set up correctly.

 

so start saving!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[darryll]

hope to get my car to andys this summer sometime everytime i get the money together to get th apexi and comander something else goes wrong but thats scoobys for u.I would also like to say just cause your cars been mapped doesnt mean it wont go bang loads more can go wrong but again thats scoobys £££££££.

[WUZ]

SS - I can fit a set of Det cans to your car and see how it "feels" on Optimax and we can check AFR and some other things when I get home.

I also have a KnockLink spare if you need one. 120 BRAND NEW!

Russell

[wilky]

Is that a shameless tout for buisness mashman?[]

 

 

[SergeantScooby]

Russell

that sounds ideal mate and i'll take the knocklink off your hands

just tell me where and when and i will be there.

where in the world are you at moment ?

 

 

[yoshi]

I'm installing an air/fuel ratio meter in the car with a wide-band lamda sensor.

For those of you who don't know - it makes sure that your fueling is correct, particularly at higher boost.

It plumbs into your downpipe and isn't difficult to fit.  The digital readout lets you know when fuel is too rich or too lean. 

My ECU is a TOMS TECS and needs 100 octane.  So I use Silkokene or Millers to boost Optimax to 100.  That's a must when using a Jap fuel map / ECU.

To get more techy, it's the MON rating which is important.  And BP Ultimate has a higher MON rating than Optimax.  Most people believe up to 18psi, things are OK with octane boost/optimax etc. but soon as you go over that boost level things become very critical and racing fuel would be a better option.

As for knocking, I only have the factory knock sensors.  I'd hope the ecu/factory setup will let me know when things are wrong as I understand a big job in my car to add an additional knock sensor (I've got a Toyota 2JZ-GTE engine).