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Possible pinking? Experienced SUBARBIE owner help wanted!


Ledge`

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Basically I\'m about to purchase a Legacy that I\'ve been in the market for, only thing I want sorted is the check engine light is on. Owner reckons his mechanic tells him the O2 sensor needs replacing. I\'m in two minds over this info ..

I accept that this can cause the check engine light to trigger, BUT, there is a strange ticking noise coming from the engine I think .. Trying to explain here. When we accelerate, it\'s like a light ticking coming from what sounds like behind the dash on the drivers side, but you cannot hear it in the engine bay .. No strange noises coming from the engine bay when revving, both turbo chargers sounds perfect, no engine knocking, nothing. You only hear it when inside driving.

I\'m thinking there is more than just the O2 sensor here .. Knock sensor dramas? Possible pinking (I\'ve never heard of pinking, my father owns a workshop this is what he reckons it could be)? Any other explanations?

Some info on the car:

2001 Legacy Wagon E-Tune

131,000 k\'s

Serviced every 10,000 k\'s since imported according to owner

Manual

No aftermarket pieces whatsoever

Any info from you guys is much appreciated.

;)

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check the fuel it\'s running on. e-tunes are NOTORIOUS for detonation, but the car being a 2001, SHOULD means it\'s a revision d, meaning it\'s retunable, and pulling some timing out of the maps will help. until then run it on 98 ONLY, hopefully no more damage could be done.

as far as i\'m aware, the only way you\'ll have a CEL flash for detonation is if you are running an open source group n tune, which as far as i\'m aware isn\'t available for the twin turb legacies. under load knocking WILL shorten the life of the engine, so hopefully it can be caught soon enough. (retune)

replace the o2 sensor will help with the fuel economy too, as sometimes they read lean, throw a gode and the computer just shovels more gas in to fix it. not good...

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Owner says always run on 95 or 98 if possible.

See I understand what you are telling me, but if that\'s the case, why can I not hear the noise in the engine bay?

Another explanation I thought of is a grommet is missing from the firewall .. Is it possible it\'s just normal engine operating noise coming through the firewall into the cabin? Another thing for me to investigate.

Although the owner is dead certain the engine management light is due to the O2 sensor, nothing else according to his mechanic who diagnosed the problem.

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+1 Just avoid it

It\'s a 30 second job to have it tell you what the CE light is for (you can plug in a plug under the dash and it will flash a code at you), but why someone would try to sell a car with the check engine light on is beyond me when the fix is all of $150

For what its worth "pinging" sounds almost like the sound of gravel hitting tin - like an irregular "tink tink" sound - if its actually audible to the unassisted ear when driving under boost then it\'s pretty nasty - personally I\'d steer away from it OR get a second opinion - as has been said the rev "d" legacies are notorious for it and its incredibly hard on engines (pinging / knock / detonation / pre ignition all the same thing)

You wont be able to hear it in the engine bay because it only happens when the engine is under load

Could be any number of other solenoids ticking (there\'s a few of them) but hard to diagnose on the internet - hell it could just be something physical knocking around

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I\'m going for a second opinion on it.

I agree - why would someone present a car worth 7k with a check engine light on .. It\'s beyond me ..

Trying to organise someone I know from Diesel and Turbo to have a geeze at it, also have a Subaru mechanic in the know that can look at it.

TBH it does sound like a tinny \'pinging\' sound .. Personally I\'ve never come across such sound, ever ..

Owner thinks it\'s just one of the \'turbo\'s winding up .. \' Oooo k.

Quite hard to come across a manual twin turbo charged wagon these days with low k\'s and actually worth something as why I\'m genuinely interested in the car.

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 evowrx said:

Low km means sfa if its been pinging its nuts off for the last 30thou km. But the doorhinges wont be so worn...

8) 8)

Like I say I\'ve organised a Mr. Subaru to take a geeze at it, see if he can quickly diagnose the issue for me.

Even so, I won\'t be buying the car with known issues so hoping the guy is negotiable with this sort of thing.

Claims to have run on 95 or 98 if possible always since it was brought into the country. Will soon hopefully find out.

Thanks gents for the advice. :-* :-*

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  • 1 month later...

My 01 E-tune was bad when I bought it, I tried all sorts of things other than the right fuel, a Subaru mechanic told me that Its just luck in what legacy will do it and what wont, mine was finally cured when I put a couple of tanks of 98 in it and I used some Nulon Octane Boost & Clean, this helped a lot when I went back to 95 now it doesn\'t do it at all

(by the way I can only use 95 because we only have 95 in Nelson no 98 at all)

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It\'s not expensive. The dealer here reflashed mine for around $200ish. Small price to pay I reckon. It did lose a little power but that\'s to be expected and it\'s good to have the peace of mind. Very mild pinking before going uphill, nothing at all now.

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 ndb21 said:

It\'s not expensive. The dealer here reflashed mine for around $200ish. Small price to pay I reckon. It did lose a little power but that\'s to be expected and it\'s good to have the peace of mind. Very mild pinking before going uphill, nothing at all now.

Thats weird. You would expect a gain regardless as its not retarding timing anymore.

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That\'s a really common issue with the E-Tunes, I hear people saying they have a E-Tune and it\'s quicker than a GTB and other subarus but what it actually means is Economy Tune. Designed to run on higher octane fuel in japan.

The differences are not really that obvious until you start tearing one apart beside a GTB and see that almost everything is different, Heads, intake, exhaust ports, and more.

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 jost said:

That\'s a really common issue with the E-Tunes, I hear people saying they have a E-Tune and it\'s quicker than a GTB and other subarus but what it actually means is Economy Tune. Designed to run on higher octane fuel in japan.

The differences are not really that obvious until you start tearing one apart beside a GTB and see that almost everything is different, Heads, intake, exhaust ports, and more.

Huh, today I learnt!

I\'m guessing most engine parts would be better flowing to achieve some economy?

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 Eight dollar said:

E-tune had a light throttle ping only, it was never under full load

That\'s interesting. Say for example I change gear too early and put load on the car mine does make a rather interesting noise ..

My initial thought was under full load. Did not think this noise was pinging.

Ocatane boost? Yay or nay?

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