A while back I posted this thread: http://mnsubaru.com/forums/showthre...t-noob-thinks-he-has-a-boost-leak-quot-thread... Now that it has warmed up I'm pretty consistently hit around 17 lbs and everything is happy. However, beginning yesterday morning I started to hear the telltale "squealing balloon" whine at WOT in 3rd gear (sometimes 4th). It's not until I get to max boost, once it comes on it's a pretty consistent pitch. I don't notice a big drop in power, yet. I'm hoping boost leak and not turbo on its way out, seeing how the car is less than a year old, I'm pretty good with OCI's and I"m not running obnoxious boost. We'll see... I still have the same "live in an apartment with no tools and don't know what I'm doing in the first place anyway" issue. Would someone be willing to walk me through how to chase this down? I get the general idea but I don't have a compressor or any of the other toys required for a leak test. I was thinking of popping down to first gear but I still wouldn't know exactly what I'm doing and I'd REALLY appreciate an experienced set of eyes/ears to help me figure out how to troubleshoot this. Anyone going to be down at como tonight that might be willing to at least take a listen and make sure I'm on the right track? Seems pretty tell-tale to me, but I don't really know what I'm doing so...
you still have a warranty, right? Barring a boost leak test, the most common places to check are at the bpv, the tgv to tb gaskets, and the intercooler fins on turbo lgt. The first 2 you can test with seafoam. Just let it idle (op temp) then spray seafoam in that area, if the idle rises you know you have a leak at that spot (seafoam soaked through and got to the combustion chamber). Like you mentioned, turbo could be the culprit as well, but do the easy checks first.
As much warranty as a guy can have with a turbo back, for whatever that's worth... If it ends up being the turbo I might just go for a drop in BNR. Seems awfully early for a forced upgrade though. That would be very disappointing. Nobody makes a proper IC yet either so I'd either need to have one custom fabbed or sit around with an ultra conservative tune. Word. I'll try the seafoam deal. First Gear doesn't have a boost leak tester so I think I might just buy one. Probably wouldn't hurt to have it around and test every month or two.
I am not sure if this will help... but on the WRX (my 2009 and Ben's 2011) we blew out the following. You could always check out the engine bay and see if the setup on your car is similar to ours. It is worth a shot.... I did have a BPV related leak... check out the pics (click to make bigger) View attachment 24988 View attachment 24989 View attachment 24993 View attachment 24990 I also blew both of these out. One on the Intercooler side and one on the TB side. I am sorry i don't have a picture of the engine setup, only the gaskets. The hose is the big one that goes from the TMIC to your TB/Engine. The gaskets looked like this afterwords... View attachment 24991 View attachment 24992 I know they are different cars, but I hope it helps.... maybe our setups are similar.
Should be relatively close. My turbo is mounted differently but everything else ought to be similar. There's also an unnecessary coupler on the 5th gen lego that likes to fold over and cause problems. EFI and a few others ran in to it. People reporting that issue described a different sound though:
take that rubber piece of crap and toss it in the garbage. I (and Ben) have been running 23 PSI on my (our) car fine without it.
Lmao, Taras' hose kept popping off. So we decide to go to the gas station and put in some work. That piece was still on -_- Junk that trick!
Thankfully I am now much more inclined to say boost leak over dying turbo now. Sound has deepened and gotten louder. Now it sounds like air intake but lower and angrier. Not-so-thankfully I am also much more inclined due to losing 3-4# of boost and my DAM dropped as low as .7. fml. Needless to say we'll be keeping it under 2k until resolved. Daddy needs tools. Yup, that's been the "fix" for everyone it managed to piss off. I kinda sounds like my leak is coming from near the IC so it's likely I'll be removing this while I'm attempting to figure this out.
Check if the end tanks are separating from the core of the intercooler. The little metal tabs that hold on the plastic end tanks have a tendency to straighten out and cause major leaks.
Derek got me sorted out, success! It was the gasket/coupler thingy I posted AND the same hose ofsprunk posted. I was able to get it back up to 17#'s last night with a bit of dedication. :jumpy: Thanks Derek!
I taught Derek everything he knows. Haha, jk! But we did have all the same boost leaks at very similar times.
Nice, although i don't know if admitting to that is a good thing He had issues with the TB hose rubber caps, and I also checked that BPV hose. The first tug it seemed to be on there, but then it slid right off as I was telling him it looked like it was on good.... LOL, so we used a ziptie and got it secured (after 5 tries).
If you unscrew that hose right above that BPV to manifold hose you can get better access to that nipple area. Once I got the zip tie on mine it was on there really well. I gave it some hard tugs and it didn't budge.
Yeah my issue was getting the ziptie on the nipple but not flush with the motor so I could tighten it with the needle nose. I got it on every time, it just pulled off the first 4 times when i tested it.... i guess the 5th time is the charm.
I don't know. I never really paid attention. There are two hoses that run along the manifold. One is rubber and just pops into a clip. You can just pull it out of the way. The other one is hard plastic and is held to the manifold with a screw. If you unscrew it you can move it out of the way a bit and get a little better access to that nipple.
Not to be a nut-swinger here, but I wanted to say thanks to Derek again! The IC -> TB/manifold hose squirmed it's way out of a clamp on my way to a family gathering last night (not the IC side of course, that would be too easy). Lost 6'ish #'s of boost and it sounded my vents when I crank the AC all the way up while under boost. I was able to identify the issue, pop off the IC, fix the clamp and get it all put together in about 20 minutes. For most of you that's probably a "so what?" scenario. For me that's the first time I've had enough confidence to pull and fix something on my own that will piss off the engine if not done right. Well, at least on a car that cost more than $1k. Later this week I'm going to start hunting a possible exhaust leak, with confidence. :slayer:
glad you guys got everything sorted out, for future leaks get a tennis ball and cut holes on opposite sides of it, then clamp it into your intake/tip, then put a compressor attachment into the other hole. Clamp it up, charge your system with air, and listen for your leak. "In addition you can also light up a cigarette (I do not smoke) and move it around inside the engine compartment. The air that is leaking will make the smoke move." Source: http://www.audigeeks.com/forums/index.php?topic=219.0 I used this method before and it worked like a charm to find out that I had a bad vacuum line, and a faulty diverter valve.
Glad I could help man, also happy that I let you put it back together so you knew what to do.... good stuff! I had to mess with my clamp too last week, i think i have mine on good now.
true that, those front mount cuplers love to come loose. But wouldn't you guys get less boost drop and lag with an upgraded top mount vs. a fmic?? ( maybe a noob question, I am trying to learn the subi ways )
More places to leak is definitely true. That's a good point. Could definitely be a hassle in the future... That is generally believed to be true. And it is logical because there is a greater volume of air that needs to be compressed. But in reality the difference is minimal at best.
Right now I have a TMIC from IIR (200% bigger than stock), FMIC is in my future. Ben should also have pointed out the larger amount cold air you get from the FMIC vs the Heat Soaked TMIC.... this makes any lag (which you might not even notice) not worth worrying about when you look at the FMIC benefits. Some random tuner that may or may not have been in my car Tuesday made me start to think about this option a bit more (FMIC).
Lag can sometimes be overrated. Lag from fmic? Must be a poosay to whine about it Lag from a 40r on a 2.0? Lol id whine too
I didn't have any problems with a TMIC for the majority of the year. There's maybe 10 days a year that the TMIC really is terrible. Other than that I thought mine was fine. I didn't think it was ever holding me back except those 100F days when I was sitting in traffic. I'd pop the hood and it would be too hot to touch. That can't be good for cooling, lol. The TMIC does have the benefit of being a MUCH easier install. FMIC took me probably 12hrs! But I did do it on a worknight, so I had to undo some of my work the first night and hold off on finishing until the next night. For someone prepared, it would probably take 8hrs. And you have to hack up your OEM bumper. The only other downside of the FMIC is the cost. Comparing "knock off" models of both TMIC and FMIC, the FMIC is a few hundred bucks more. The benefits of a FMIC are pretty good, though. It has a minimal difference in lag and overall better cooling (especially in regards to heat soak). I don't know if those things would be worth the few hundred bucks to swap, but the FMIC really open ups the options for more turbo's
