yeah i'll have a chat to doug when the time comes for a tune & see if he knows where leigh's at & if he's coming to town

You can ring Leigh directly at Bussleton Subaru Service or arrange it through me and we can get him to sort it out next time he's in Perth. He's usually up a couple of times a month with the laptop under his arm.
Check the basics first, use a can of carby cleaner to check for vacuum leaks, split hoses etc. Clean the throttle body, use Subaru Upper engine cleaner.

yeah always use UEC when doing oil changes, last one done about 2000k ago, will test for vac leaks though i'm pretty certain i have none, i'm thinking about moving the map sensor to the engine bay to reduce the length of the vac line (currently goes into the passenger footwell) do you think this could impact the idle?

Probably a good plan anyway, but I think it would effect response off idle and transitions if anything and thats fine? If so, I don't think thats the issue.
A faulty MAP sensor could cause it though.

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yeah i'm using the link 5bar map sensor that came with my ecu, will relocate it in the engine bay & see if it makes a difference, hope its not stuffed, it still looks brand new but i guess you never know

but yeah any other time car runs great

okay checked around on the weekend and found no vac leaks, have ordered wideband gauge to connect to my wideband 02 sensor & it should arrive shortly, but in the meantime....

I'm now wondering if my altarnator (or the voltage regulator inside it) could be on its way out? could this cause an idle issue as described? i'm still on my orignal forester alternator whch has now done around 240,000 k's, could it be time for a new one? if i check the battery voltage when its doing the wandering and the volts go up and down would this be a sign?

i have also noticed lately that when I 1st start my car and the engine is coming upto temp, if i put my indicator on the temp gauge will go up and down slightly in time with the indicator... another sign of voltage reg on its way out?

Did you check the afr ratios at idle as well as air temp compensation?

Also, when you turn on your lights at night, do the lights flicker and brighten up and stabilises when you rev the car? If it does, you've got a bad earth somewhere. Getting a grouding kit will solve that.

no thats a bit over my head, haven't hooked the link up to a laptop to check but i will mention that to leigh when i get him to retune it, just want to make sure everything is operating as it should before i do

had a poke around with my multimeter last night, battery voltage at idle or when revved never goes above 13.8v so i'm suspecting the voltage reg inside the alternator is on its way out?

okay so i've tried a few different configurations with the hose to the map sensor, makes not difference really, added some extra earth wires from the battery to the chassis/block/ecu cradle

the problem seems to be exaggerated when the headlights are on, could this be an alternator problem?

okay, so I replaced the plugs and coilpacks beacuse i had them there anyway
also remove the avcs solenoid banjo bolt filters, however.....

idle is still dodgey

wideband AFR gauge arrived yesterday so i've now connected that up, i've noticed that when driving along normarlly with partial throttle the gauge sits around the 13-15 range although if i get off the gas pedal completely the gauge goes all the way to lean as the revs drop to idle... is this normal?

when i'm sitting stationary & the idle starts to wander the gauge is flickering on 18-20 & somethimes full lean

when i'm sitting stationary & the idle is fine the gauge flickers at 14.7-15 (which i think it should be doing all the time)

when car is at WOT the gauge shows no sign of running lean (flits qround between 11 & 13)

someone please coprrect me if i'm wrong but if it was in the tune, it would be a constant problem not intermittent wouldn't it ?

starting to think my injectors need a clean/service/replace ????

can i have some opinions please