Tonight my 99' 2.5rs started running real rough, and if you went past about 40-50% throttle it would break up, lose power And pop. It almost sounds like a cammed out drag car at idle. I had a local shop scan it and they said it had a cam angle sensor code.* I came home and replaced the cam sensor with one from a 98' 2.5gt and it is running slightly better, it idles okish, but the same thig happens when you get to 40-50% throttle with the lose of power and what not. I noticed when I just rev it up in neutral it revs decently.* I checked all the wiring for something obviously wrong and didn't find anything. The exhaust smells strongly of sulfur as well... So what's my next move?*
Ok, pulled all the timing covers and spun the motor around about a billion times, and I could never get all the marks to line up. The closest I go was at TDC (or atleast I think it was TDC) the marks were all 5-6 teeth behind where they should be.* My next question is should I just get a new tensioner to be safe? When I did the new belt earlier this spring I didn't buy a new one, but I used one off a lower mileage Wrx (75-100k miles). I'm thinking it'd be worth the peace of mind.
I would be looking at all the other pulleys too. The CEL for the cam position sensor would mean that timing is off some. I would get it set accordingly and see how she runs, but I'm thinking bent valves.
I ran it on the old tensioner last night and miracle of miracles, it runs fine, no weird noises at all. I bought a new tensioner this am. I'm still dumb founded that it was off 5-6 teeth, and it not only didn't destroy the motor, but it ran and drove.
