Car: 2008 Subaru WRX, 5 speed Modifications: None Problem Description: Various dash lights, engine whine, random power loss with screeching noise Recent Modifications/Maintenance: Power steering tensioner adjusted Hi all. I am having a rather odd problem with my car and will try to explain it the best I can. There is some maintenance history I want to include, not sure if it is relevant but it could be. My car has the random check engine light + traction control light + flashing cruise light combo going on right now. This has been an ongoing problem since I bought the car, even when it was under warranty (ironically enough, the Subaru dealer couldn't even tell me what was wrong with it). It primarily happens in cold weather and, in the past, has been accompanied by rough idling/misfire. They come and go at seemingly random times. 2 years ago I was having trouble starting my car (had original battery/plugs), the dash was lit up with the light combo and it was running abnormally rough, especially while accelerating. I took it in, had the plugs/battery replaced and they discovered that I had to have my entire turbo redone because of this fun issue - http://www.forcedperformance.net/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=Info_SubaruOil 3500 dollars later, no lights and car ran perfectly. I moved to Minnesota this past August (had been living in Seattle) and the lights came back on a particularly cold morning in December. Since then, again it has been an off/on issue and, up until recently, there has been no issue with car performance or idling. Upon starting it did have a terrible screeching sound that I thought was maybe the power steering belt. Took it in and they adjusted the tensioner for that, which solved the screeching problem. When it is really cold the car still makes a loud whirr type noise when it starts but it only lasts a few seconds. In the last few weeks the engine has not sounded 'normal'. It is an older car so I am not expecting it to run as quietly as it did but it definitely has a whine now when running, which goes up proportionally with engine RPM (no dashboard lights accompanied this when it started). This weekend I drove up north to escape the Super Bowl madness and on the freeway the dash light combo appeared again. Being a super common thing for my car, I ignored it and kept going. Car ran fine the rest of the trip (minus the engine whine). However, yesterday on my way home the car suddenly started having issues. The best way I can describe this noise is the noise your starter makes if you accidentally try to start the car when it is already running. Like a weird sort of grinding screech noise but not a metal grinding. Along with this, the engine seemed to drop power. The RPM's stayed the same but it was if the car had suddenly hit a stiff wind. This was just at a steady velocity, not during acceleration. The only notable aspect was I was going up a hill. For the remaining trip, it continued to happen at random times, again during a steady speed and not during acceleration. Eventually when I got closer to the city, every time I took my foot off the pedal, the car would kind of lurch and it would make a noise similar to that of an ice chunk falling out of your wheel well. Sorry for the very lengthy post but, given that I've had issues with the dash lights before, I wanted to give a good background. If anything I hope to get a good recommendation of a shop in the Minneapolis area. Thank you in advance! TL : DR - car with history of CEL+traction control + flashing cruise light warnings experiences odd grinding noise and loss of power at constant speeds.
First, take your car to any auto parts store (Advance Auto, O'Reilly, Auto Zone, etc) and have them read the CEL and report back. If you want to do it yourself, get one of these and use the Torque app: https://www.amazon.com/BAFX-Product...?ie=UTF8&qid=1517846120&sr=8-4&keywords=obdii
How many miles? Have you scanned any of the CELs? If so, what were/are they? Do you have an itemized invoice for the turbo replacement that shows what all was replaced/done? How long ago was that? RE: the noise... rather than ask you to recreate it, can you find a youtube vid that's similar? Almost sounds like your chra spun apart but could also be a number of other things (heat shield, pulley, rod bearings, differential...) Probably goes without saying, but I'd stop driving it until you can get it properly diagnosed. Jesse @jmyhre05 and his crew at JM Auto can help on the diagnosis and repair end.
www.jmautomn.com www.facebook.com/jmautomn Contact us if you would like to schedule a time to have us check it out or drop it off anytime. We specialize in these and work on them all day! We diagnose many cars the dealers can't.
To update - I did order an OBD reader but Prime shipping failed me and it did not arrive in time. I had to drive my car Wed/Thurs (Mon/Tues my husband was out of town so I used his) and it was fine Wednesday (minus the whine) but yesterday driving home it almost had a howl when it was at higher RPMs. It then started shaking super badly at high speeds so I just drove it directly to the shop I had gone to before. They called today and said it was streaming black smoke out of the exhaust and it looks like my turbo has died (again). I love my car so this is just.....ugh. Anyway, sorry I couldn't use all of your expertise. I was waiting for the OBD (also, I live right next to a Bobby and Steve's and they refused to read the codes for me unless I had it fixed there) and the timing just didn't work out.
