neal

hey there thanks for looking and for any help. I'm looking for a good mechanic that's local on the north shore preferably around the silverdale & whangaparaoa area that is fairly priced and not going to charge the earth cos I drive a performance & modified subi. can anyone help or point me in the right direction? cheers neal

hey guys heres the finishing post and awnser to the problem, i figure its only fair to post up a solution to this problem for those who are experiencing the same symptoms and searching the net for answers but also to concur with what these guys have been saying all along.. the problem is a cracked coil on plug which is found on the v2 wrx but to my amazement it wasnt just one or two but all 4 coil plugs were hair line cracked. when i was told to check the rubber tip insulation for cracks i didnt find anything (to be honest the rubber sleeve tips seem in really good condition, like new infact) but when i cleaned up all the coil plugs i noticed what seemed to be a hair line crack on the actual plastic thats on the plug just above the rubber insulation (now i know what slystiguy meant ) so i wriggled the sleeve off but as soon as i did the end of the coil plug disintegrated so i thought i would check another and yet again i noticed a crack just above the rubber insulation sleeve and when i attempted to remove the sleeve exactly the same happened again so i checked #3 plug but yet again i noticed a hair line crack and when i attempted to remove the sleeve... yep you guessed it, it fell apart so by the time i reached #4 coil plug i figured 'whats to loose' and sure enough it fell apart. whats interesting is that all 4 coil plugs have fell apart in the same place on the under side of where it slots into the engine which is interesting i thought that they all give out at the same point. my theory is that i only got away with running full throttle and boost for so long is because the coil plugs were undisturbed for so long and that as soon as i unsettled them by removing/reinstalling them it caused them to weaken and maybe the damage was done the 1st time i put my foot flat to the floor on test for the new spark plugs that caused them all to hair line fracture? just a thought. the picture i am posting is how all 4 look, exactly in the same place and even taper-in the same. cheers for reading and i hope this has been a help to someone with a classic WRX having the same problem and thanks to you guys on here for helping me out

okay thanks koom & slyguy I will check the coil plugs in detail and see what condition they are actually in and if they are perishing I will go down that route you guys suggest although im not too confident on wiring it all up, I will need to pay someone to do it I think. I have a guy I have used for mechanical stuff I met on this site but I think he is sick of working on early wrx's (shame cos he did a good job at a good price) so may need to find someone else in Auckland.

im running standard ecu and running 10.5psi. I was running 12psi for a while (with no issues) but decided its probably a bit lean for the factory setup so I decided to wind in the mbc to 10.5 until I upgrade the turbo, ecu & fuel pump. oh yeah... coil on plug apparently.

turns out it might well be the coil pack adikt. im' going to pull them off for a proper look over the weekend mate.

okay cheers for your reply slysti I will pull the plugs off and have a real good look and let you know if decide to go down the route of later model coil packs. I thought the ecu controlled boost, fuel & ignition maps? I worry that 20psi would melt my puny cast pistons. my aim is to swap out the ecu for a v1 sti (they ran cast internals from what I researched), swap out the little td04 for td05 replacement & replace the puel pump to safely run 14psi instead of factory 10psi the early gf8 wrx's run. the spark plug renewal was supposed to be just a little treat for the car before I installed all the upgraded ecu, turbo and fuel pump. but a simple spark plug change is turning out to be a pain in the arse do you not think it could be something as simple as being too gentle with tightening the plugs?

cheers for that I will give em' a clean out. they did look quite clean inside when I took them off but I will clean them anyhow. car has done 148000 so engine isn't too gunky

didn't notice any grounding strap on the coils. im pretty sure the bolt for the coils is wound in tight.

0.8 on both sets of plugs

coils bolt into position. gap is set to 0.8

0.8 on both new and old mate. cheers for reply

hi there, I recently decided it was probably about time I changed the spark plugs on the car, when I did I started it up and it idled fine, drove fine but when I put my foot down and revs got up to about 4500-5000 on boost I noticed it started to miss. a guy at work suggested I may have hair-line cracked one of the plugs whilst fondling it into place so with that in mind I took them all out again and found nothing wrong but thought to myself that I may as well put the old ones back (seeming there was no issue when these were in the car in the 1st place) so I gave them a brush up and put them back in but the car is doing exactly the same thing... idles fine, drives fine but when I put my foot down between 4500-5000 its missing again. does anyone have any suggestions?? my thoughts are maybe I was being too gentle on both accounts of tightening the plugs into place and that they are not wound in tight enough perhaps?? any help would be really appreciated.