Turbo trouble, and question about pulling trouble codes

[tizzle]

Lets start with the trouble codes. The car is an 88 RX. Where are the connectors located? There is 2 black ones and 2 green ones under the steering column. I know the greens ones are for the timing. If its the black ones, am I supposed to watch the check engine light for blinking, because nothing happened, and where is the o2 monitor? My manuals are very unspecific about any of this.

 

Turbo troubles. I'll give you the sequence of events. The car had an idle problem solved by replacing the idle air conrol, gasket was most likely the problem. Car worked fine, Take it for a drive around the loop, and everything is working well, turbo's kicking in like it should, then eventually the sound changes. The turbo is now making a whooshing sound similar to driving through slush, and I'm not getting boost, instead the car begins to bog down.

 

Drove the car back, and there's coolant all over the engine. I figure out the problem is the intake manifold was not torqued down enough. So I fixed that, but there is still the problem with the turbo.

 

2 other things, is the oil pressure guage supposed to fluctuate depending on the type of driving I'm doing, and the volt meter is reading about 14, shouldn't it be around 12?

 

 

Thanks

[Vanislru]

If you pull the piece of trim of under the steering column[ phillips screws]

you'll see a black box sttsched to the underside of the column. With the ign. in the acc. position the front of the black box[computer] will have a flashing led, that's where you read codes from. You don't need to unplug or plug in any connectors.

 

Oil and bat. gauge are within normal range.

 

It sounds like you have left a hose undone either on the turbo intake pipe or TB.

Good Luck:)

[tizzle]

So this is on the column itself, not the panels with the fuses? I've checked the hoses a billion times, but I guess I'll take some peices off, so I can get to all the hoses, and make sure they're as snug as possible

[Vanislru]

That's right it's actually mounted on the column itself, you'll need to remove three phillips screws and 4 phillips plastic grommets.

Check the hoses on all ends of the piece that says 4wdturbo.

[tizzle]

thanks

[tizzle]

Removed 5 or 6 screws, no plastic ones, and found no blinking light with ignition in acc???

 

Yep there was a problematic hose. The breather hose under the pitch stop was cracked, so I went a nearby hose shop and replaced several solidified hose. Car ran much smoother, and the turbo worked as it should. YEA!!

 

But alas the crappiness continues...still getting some coolant spray. Seems to be coming from the passenger side of the intake manifold. This has new gaskets, and It is properly torqued down, although it wasn't a couple days ago.

 

Maybee I'm paranoid, but I think I can hear pinging. The timing has been checked several times in the last week, and its on the dot, premium gas.

 

bah

 

---todd

[MilesFox]

connect thr green plugs to read the codes. if you locate a hole on the side of the ecu that is the led.

 

plug them in and turn the key on. to clear the codes, plug in the black ones. then turn the key off and disconnect all the connectors once you are finished

[tizzle]

connect thr green plugs to read the codes. if you locate a hole on the side of the ecu that is the led.

 

plug them in and turn the key on. to clear the codes, plug in the black ones. then turn the key off and disconnect all the connectors once you are finished

 

Allright, thanks!

 

 

update: coolant leak was most likely solved by replacing the coolant hose to the turbo, and another hose while I was in there, also the coolant temp sensor was loose, and I cleaned it really good. But of course, when I fix one problem, another arises.

 

Car goes into gear, but doesn't move. Tried shifting into a high gear, and letting off the clutch to see if it would stall, but it did nothing.

[MilesFox]

hmmm. how many miles? could the clutch have let go? lock the diff and see if she moves. that will rule out any broken axles in front

[tizzle]

107,000 miles. Never noticed any slipping before. Going to play with the clutch cable and hill holder tommorrow and see what happens, and I'll try locking the diff.

[MilesFox]

if you can shift gears while the car is running but not moving, and while not pushing in the clutch, you can rule out the cable. even if the cable was broken, the clutch would naturally be engaged.

 

sometimes when a clutch lets go it will just incinerate into fibers all at once

 

while messing with the hill holder, you will want your clutch cable adjusted where you want it before adjusting the hill holder. if the hill holder is too tight the brakes will stick if you try to go forward from a reversing, or from starts on a hill

,

[Skip]

Check to make sure you didn't bump the high low range lever into neutral.

 

There is some disagreement on the color of the connectors that need plugged together to read the codes.

 

But if you have not seen the CEL (Check Engine Light) on. NO codes will be stored.

 

Here is the article in our repair manual (see USRM top of the page)

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/article.php?a=44

 

The green connectors are the "Test Mode" connectors

I believe you want the black ones

"Read Memory" connectors

 

You do not get the codes from the engine check light in your model.

They are output on the 02 monitor.

 

The 02 monitor (LED) is on the back end of the ECU.

Which is mounted under the steering column.

(ECU end facing you after lowering the trim panel).

Hope this helps.

 

You may want to peak under the distributor cap to see if any moisture got in there.

 

Hope this helps some.

[tizzle]

Check to make sure you didn't bump the high low range lever into neutral.

 

Danggit Skip, thanks. I know I messed with that yesterday. but problem solved today. Today's new problem: battery