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View Full Version : Help-SVX runs like CRAP--Code 23????


Joshua R. Abel
01-06-2006, 11:21 PM
Hello, I hope somebody can help me with my problem. :confused: My Svx has been running like complete crap for over a year and I'm all out of ideas. It all started with a rough idle. Then snowballed into horrible gas mileage, really rough and high idle, loss of power, and a strong unburnt fuel smell coming from the excessively smokey exhaust. (other than that she's perfect)
After the check engine light became a permanent fixture on my dash, like a Mickey Mouse bobblehead, I checked the code (via blue wire inserted into black harness) and got a code 37. Ah! just an 02 sensor. Easy, quick, and made sense. This is where my hell began.
I swapped out both of the 02 sensors and she ran fine for about 2-3 weeks. Then, soon after-same problems. So, I switched them agian. Just to be sure they weren't defective. Highly unlikely, but they were WALKER not OEM so I wanted to eliminate that possibility. Nothing. Still Crap. After driving the car for a while in this condition, one day I heard a "clunk". Apparently the transmission decided to devour itself. (again) It punched a nickle size hole in the case and cracked all the way through. After this expensive hiccup, the alternater went, then the power steering pump, then the water pump, thermostat, belt, wheel bearings, rear tire punctured, then to top it off-my super b!tchy neighbor backed into it and did $1600 worth of body damage. Then a couple of months later, (car still sitting) I noticed the radiator had cracked from the impact. Too late to tell her about that.
Anyway, I still have not fixed the original problem. My mechanic-after changing the water pump suggested to change the spark plugs. He said it sounded like a miss. (sounds like 6 misses to me) So, after 6-7 hours, a sore back, a pint of blood, and two broken knuckles, I swapped in a set of NGK's. I then fired her up. She immediately revved up over 2000 RPM, held for 5 seconds or so then stalled. Every time- same thing. I had to give a lot of throttle to keep it from stalling. I had removed the battery to change the plugs, so I figured I would check the code again to see if it was clear. This time it was a code-23. An AIR FLOW METER OR CIRCUIT. Of course! Why didn't I check the "airflow meter or circuit" in the first place?
Obviously not having a clue what this means, can anyone help me out with this? Should I bite the bullet and just take it to the dealer? Or will they charge me $80 to tell me that it has a "code 23?" Or worse, change my air filter.:mad:
Is this possibly a MAF or MAP sensor? Crank or cam? Or does this code have nothing to do with my horribly running car? I am thinking about putting my SVX out of her misery. She has cost a small fortune to repair and still can't make it out of the garage. It would be ashame to torch such a nice car. Especially with all of those nice new parts.
Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance,
Joshua/Pittsburgh
92 Subaru SVX LSL (118,000 mi)
92 Ford Taurus SHO
91 Geo Storm GSI
93 Mazda RX-7 TT

ensteele
01-06-2006, 11:52 PM
I hope you can figure this out. It is no fun to have a car that isn't running properly. :(

ensteele
01-06-2006, 11:53 PM
I hope you get this figured out. It is not fun to have a car that is not running properly. Good luck. :(

svxfiles
01-07-2006, 04:43 AM
Josh, I'll be coming to Pgh in the next two weeks, and I'll bring my Subaru Sellect Moniter,:) .
pm me with your phone # and we can have a mini meet at Jose & Tonys.
In the mean time it sounds like when you changed plugs you knocked a vacuum line off.
There are two horizontal 1/2" lines on the drivers side of the airbox, and one vertical 1/2" line on the passenger side, another 1/2" horizontal line on the passenger side, and on the back of the pass side, a 1" line coming in from the drivers side.
You should also (first:rolleyes: ) pull the airbox off compleatly to make sure the 60 mm wide rubber tubes going to the throttle body are correct and not pinched. Tom.

Earthworm
01-07-2006, 07:09 AM
Also make sure all the intake bolts are secure. I have seen on several occasions where you could turn the bolts with your fingers. Being loose they will let unmetered air into the engine and cause rough or no idle.

Budfreak
01-07-2006, 11:59 PM
hhhmmmm.:rolleyes: Some of that sounds kind of familiar.;)

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/showthread.php?t=30520&highlight=cutting

Joshua R. Abel
01-13-2006, 03:21 PM
Thanks everyone for your advice with my poorly running SVX. Sorry I didn't post sooner, I was out of town on business until last night. I will attempt to check the vacuum lines and the intake manifold on Sunday. (after the game-Go STEELERS!)

Joshua R. Abel
01-16-2006, 09:47 PM
Hello, I just popped the hood on Sunday to find that I forgot to plug the MAF sensor back in after swapping out the plugs. I'm a huge moron. This solved the high idle/stalling problem. Unfortunately I still haven't solved the original problem. It's still runing super rich with a rough idle, no balls on acceleration, and pretty stinky exhaust.
I guess the plug change didn't solve this. The 02 sensor change a few months ago didn't either. OK, I'm out of ideas now. I guess I'll drive it around for a little tomorrow to see if it throws another check engine code. Maybe it'll be something else simple. Perhaps my cats are clogged, or fuel (charcoal) cannister needs to be replaced.
I'm up for any more suggestions. Thanks again everyone.

Joshua R. Abel
02-07-2006, 07:35 PM
Hello, after playing around with a few things, plugs, MAF sensor, etc.. I cleared the codes and took it for a test spin. Car still running terribly-I jumped on to the nearest highway, and before I could even get up to speed, the check engine light came on again. I crawled home and checked it. Once again the code was a 37. Left side 02 sensor. This time I ordered a couple 02 sensors from Subaru. Installed them, started the car up, still runs terribly. Check engine light still code 37. There is no way, after swapping in 5 different 02 sensors that this could possibly be the problem. My next hunch is the computer. Any one have any ideas?????????????????????
Thanks,
Joshua/Pittsburgh

Earthworm
02-08-2006, 11:11 AM
It's highly possible your timing belt jumped!

Joshua R. Abel
02-08-2006, 11:22 PM
Thanks for the advice, but I actually just had the water pump replaced about 3-4 miles ago. It's running just as bad now, as before the water pump was replaced. So, I think that scenario is pretty unlikely.
Thanks, any other ideas?

SubyLuver
02-09-2006, 10:15 PM
Thanks for the advice, but I actually just had the water pump replaced about 3-4 miles ago. It's running just as bad now, as before the water pump was replaced. So, I think that scenario is pretty unlikely.
Thanks, any other ideas?

Is it possible the cat is no good, I think I had a similiar problem on my 2.5rs where I swapped out several O2 sensors and the CE light kept turning on. after a while of searching I found that the 2.5RS was prone to bad Cat Converters and that would trigger the issue... (Dont know if it would affect the performance so badly though)

Budfreak
02-09-2006, 10:41 PM
Do you hear any exhaust leaks? Maybe a cracked header or bad gasket? Mine threw the code 32 and 37 with new sensors until recently when I had my exhaust fixed up. I still have a leak to deal with, but I haven't had any CEL's since then.

Suby Fan
02-14-2006, 11:22 AM
its very clear that you need to check your cats for clogs.... or blow out

there are some quick tests you can do to them

one is pound on your cat with your hand if it is bad you will hear a rattling sound coming form it....

the next one requires a remote temp guage... warm your car up to opperating temp and messure the temp before and after the cats... if there is around a 200 degree diffrence in the up and down pipe then your cats are cloged

if it passes these two tests it still could be bad but you going to need a 5 gas analizer to figure out if it is good for sure

tangwichjustin
02-14-2006, 01:03 PM
I had similar problems to your issues. Only difference is mine would flat out die on the freeway sometimes even under acceleration. The solution was replacing the MAF, I have had no issues since (year later). Nothing else helped as I also had changed out my O2 sensors to no avail.

oab_au
02-14-2006, 03:31 PM
Joshua the code for an O2 sensor, does not always mean that the sensor is faulty. The code means that the reading that the sensor is producing, is out of the range that sensor should produce, and the ECU has no other 'out of limits' inputs that would explain the reading.
This is more likely a fuel problem, like high fuel pressure, leaky fuel pressure regulator, leaky injector, etc. These will not post a code, but will cause an out of limits reading from the O2 sensor.
I would look at this area for the cause.

Harvey.;)

Joshua R. Abel
02-15-2006, 11:40 PM
Thank you all for this helpful advice. I will certainly attempt to look at each of these suggestions to rule out some of the possibilities. There is a bit of a "knocking" or "clicking" sound coming from under the hood. I had assumed that this was because of the engine running so rich. I guess it is entirely possible that it is one or more of the injectors doing something out of the ordinary. This may also explain why it is running so rich. Any idea how to test these?
Also, if the exhaust pipes are both still pouring out exhaust gases equally, is it likely that the cats are not clogged? Or is this no indication of the flow inside of the cats? The exhaust manifolds would be kind of tough to check for cracks because of the heat shields, but I may try to remove them for a visual inspection.
I will also try to replace the MAF sensor this week and hope this is a quick solution.
Thank you all once again. I hope I can drive this car sometime again. I kind of miss driving it.

oab_au
02-16-2006, 03:23 PM
Thank you all for this helpful advice. I will certainly attempt to look at each of these suggestions to rule out some of the possibilities. There is a bit of a "knocking" or "clicking" sound coming from under the hood. I had assumed that this was because of the engine running so rich. I guess it is entirely possible that it is one or more of the injectors doing something out of the ordinary. This may also explain why it is running so rich. Any idea how to test these?
Also, if the exhaust pipes are both still pouring out exhaust gases equally, is it likely that the cats are not clogged? Or is this no indication of the flow inside of the cats? The exhaust manifolds would be kind of tough to check for cracks because of the heat shields, but I may try to remove them for a visual inspection.
I will also try to replace the MAF sensor this week and hope this is a quick solution.
Thank you all once again. I hope I can drive this car sometime again. I kind of miss driving it.

Hi Joshua, looking at what clues we have, a code 37, a knocking/clicking, and rich running.
Use a length of garden hose as a stereoscope, probe around under the hood to try to locate the sound.
As it is rich,it won't be an exhaust leak.
A code 37 is consistently posted, this is the left side of the engine, so I doubt it is the regulator leaking, more likely a injector on that side. If this corresponds to where the clicking is coming from, it may point to the cause.

All the best.:)
Harvey.;)

Joshua R. Abel
02-17-2006, 01:00 AM
Thank you for this bit of advice. It will be the first thing I check as soon as I have a minute. It seems logical, and would explain what my mechanic is saying sounds like a "miss".
The MAF sensor (suggested by another member) is a $400+ part at the dealer. I would hate to buy one of these and not solve the problem.
Hopefully Sunday I can get back under the hood and take a listen to the injectors. I'm guessing I should just be listening for anything sounding odd.
Thanks again,
Joshua/Pittsburgh