Hi Guys,

Thanks so much for accepting me into the club I am the proud owner of my first WRX. I bought it knowing it had a few little issues but nothing too major. I come from the BMW mini-scene background we have 4 R53 Minis in varying states of repair.

The Subaru is an almost standard 2006 Hawkeye with 85k on the clock (Has a scorpion backbox, Team Dynamix Wheels and STi spoiler), MOT expired in march 2019 and had a massive oil leak from the driver's side rocker cover it has been sat for the last 12-18months and not moved... I have since got it back to our workshop for some much needed TLC including a full service, new battery, rocker gasket replacement and fitting of a few performance parts nothing major but just a few bits as we love modifying

So firstly when we got it back to the workshop we ran a diagnostic on the car and found the secondary air pump had failed and was flagging a few codes putting the CEL on the dash. we made the decision based on some forums to remove this and blank it off instead of repair as from what we gather this does very little other than help with emissions on startup. We removed everything except the barometer. whilst we put the car back together it seemed like a prime time to change the rocker cover gaskets, spark plug gaskets and the plugs. it was then we realised that the rocker cover was fine and the issue was the middle-lower bolt has at some point been overtightened and stripped the thread. For now, I have cured this by using a longer bolt... but it will need to be heli-coiled/time-serted at some point.

The car went back together with some engine flush coolant cleaner, new gearbox fluid and driveshaft gaskets, Mishimoto induction kit, Forge Dump Valve (these seem to be a bit marmite from what I gather?) and Yellowspeed Coilovers lowering approx 35mm all round and some new Wheels as well as the Team Dynamics were in a bad state

Now to my confusion, obviously, the light is still on the dash as I am waiting for my Tactrix cable to be delivered so that I can remove these codes (Let me know if I have missed any!):

P0410 – Secondary Air Pump System

P0413 – Secondary Air Pump A Open

P0414 – Secondary Air Pump A Shorted

P0418 – Secondary Air Pump Relay A

P2432 – Secondary Air Pump Circuit Low

P2433 – Secondary Air Pump Circuit High

P2441 – Secondary Air Pump Valve 1 Stuck Closed

P2444 – Secondary Air Pump 1 Stuck on B1

Once these are gone I should be able to turn the CEL off as I understand and then be able to get the car MOT'd and down to Duncan @ Racedynamix for a map... since putting the car back together the car will no longer idle... I started the car it would run for approx 5 seconds then die, I then read online that some people remove the Barometer and have better results, so I removed that and now the car runs and idles but it is struggling to run/hunting... there are no-fault codes other than the ones relating to the secondary air pump. Is there anything else that could be an issue that would cause something like this? Or is it because I haven't removed the secondary air pump codes and had the modifications mapped in? Does anyone have a base map for this kind of setup that I could upload from Romraider that's would be good enough to use to get me to race dynamic for a proper map?

Thank you so much for your help and apologies for the long message, Hoping there might be someone who can help

Jon

 

Hi Guys,

So I have been working through my list of problems with the WRX I have just bought. I bought it with a leaking Rocker Cover being told it was the gasket... that's fine I thought small mission to change but not horrendous. Replaced the gasket only to find that it was leaking because one of the bolts had stripped the thread in the head. Ok annoying I thought so after a little read online I found out that some people have had success fitting a slightly longer bolt to tied me over... tried this but it still leaked.

I then thought the only real way to fix this is a Time Sert or Helicoil, so I removed the lambda, heat shield and the 3 way manifold thing only to see that the head where the bolt fixes into has been welded I'm not sure how successful the Time Sert or Helicoil will be now as I'm potentially wondering if the weld might have a hole in it and its that leaking instead?

Anyway its a 2006 WRX and from what I gather this engine had slightly different pistons with a Compression ratio of 8.4:1, Slightly different block (AB630 shortblock), as well as the AB820 heads all from the factory (please correct me if I'm wrong I'm just learning Subarus!) does this mean that I will need to source a 2006 drivers side head or will any of them fit/be the same based on the above, I'm assuming not? are there any performance head options oy there I could use instead of trying to source one of these heads? and lastly, does anyone have one of these heads should I need one?

Thanks so much in advance for your help,

Jon

 

Hi jon.

Interesting read so far - get some pics up if you can. Where did you get your tactrix from - that’s the keyword that lead me here.. I’ve just removed the secondary pump and TGV’s so would be interested in getting hold of one of them.

Unsure about your head fitment question but I’ve a pair of 2007 STI EJ257 heads listed in for sale if you’re still looking.