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Old 09-24-2021, 03:40 PM   #1
Scootin0605
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Unhappy 2004 STI - SOS -wiring harness problems (Cranks no start)

hello everyone, I am new to the forums, but I'm gonna try and do my best to explain the process I've been through for the past year as best as I can.

So I have been the proud owner of a 2004 sti blobeye since about august 2019. the car came built (ish) when i bought it. the mods that i know as of this moment are as follows.

Manley pistons and rods, built heads, 1200 cc injectors ( on E85), walbro 540 fuel pump, Front mount ets intercooler, Blouch turbo ( unsure of the size of the top of my head), invidia exhaust, cobb intake, battery relocation ( to the trunk),fuel labs pressure regulator, and a cobb accessport with custom tune from nur performance.

since the start of me owning this car, nothing was ever perfect. a few months into me buying the car I was running regular petrol 93 and the car would be extremely labored at an idle and most of the time stalled out. but the problem when away as I drove and kept the rpm higher than 1500. eventually I found that when I switched over to my e85 tune, the problem i experienced had gone away for whatever reason. a few months of driving like this and my fuel pump had gone out ( I was unsure of my diagnostics skills at the time, thus the reason I brought the car to NUR performance to do it for me). my car left there months later with a new fuel pump, battery relocation, new fuel lines and a new tune. granted looking back now i realize that some of those things were irrelevant to the problem and i got taxed. but when it left there the car had a "new tune" but it almost seems as though they tuned the car around a problem because it still was still running rough (though it was running).

I continued to daily the car until November of 2020, when, long story short, I hit a curb straight on at about 65 mph. this accident shattered my wheels and busted up my front subframe pretty good, as well as my brake lines blew up because of me hitting the brakes idk why but they did. at this time, the car was still running and idling when I would bring it back to my house and turn it on, but because of the nature of the accident I was worried that something had gone wrong internally in the engine.

introducing 1K motorsports, the shop that i brought my car to in about march 2021. they looked over the car and told me that (other than the problems it already had) the car was in good shape and is absolutely salvageable. we pulled the injectors and had them serviced ( 2 of the injectors were at less than 75% flow leading me to this this was the cause of my original idling and fuel problem from before i went to NUR performance in 2020). when we re installed the injectors and turned the car on, she ran great. I've never heard the motor scream like it did that day. I came by on multiple occasions over a week or so to check on the car and start it. every time I got in the car she started right up and idled great( I even brought the car up to running temp every time on just an idle). at this point in the story we are at about late may early June 2021. after the motor was looked over, the only things left to do were: get new wheels and tire, buy and install a new subframe, new brake lines, and I had to also get new coil overs as the right side two had collapsed in on themselves. so nothing left to do with the motor or drive train or electrical or anything, just parts to make the car roll safely.

Fast forward July 5 2021, all the parts are installed and at a glace the car was ready to go. up until the point where it doesn't start. the car would crank, and make the air smell like fuel, but would lose power quick as it wouldn't start and burning out the starter doesn't help power levels. at this point I asked 1k motorsports to figure out the problem and they "tried" but couldn't find the problem. after two months of them flagging on my car, I decided to try and take the car somewhere else. I started with the Subaru dealership, and even though they don't traditionally work of modified cars, we convinced the service manager to go ahead and take a look at the car anyways. they could not figure out the problem. from there I brought it to a different shop ( Hoffman tuning ). very knowledgeable guy. probably the only shop to actually give me any type of a straight answer throughout this ordeal. what he told me is that the car gets spark, it gets fuel, and it gets air. (this has also been reinforced by 1k motorsports and Subaru dealership as they told me the same thing.

now this is where it gets irritating. throughout the prosses of all of this since the accident the car has been towed about 6 times total going from shop to body shop back to shop and then to different shops. somewhere along the way my cobb accessport was either stolen or lost out of the car and none of the shops I've been to have any idea where it went. and because the car went so many different places, it is all but impossible to find out who was the one responsible for losing it or taking it or whatever happened to it. Hoffman had asked me for the accessport, so that he could see what tune says the car is supposed to be doing and comparing it to what the car is actually doing. as I couldn't provide the accessport, we ran into a stand still. Hoffman continued to do his best and tell me whatever he could to try and get the car running. do not quote me as I could very well butcher what he actually said but it was something along the lines of the crank sensor is only getting 1v of power vs the 5v it needs to tell positioning. and he also said something about how the injectors wont fire because the computer doesn't know what's going on. (sorry I know that last sentence doesn't really mean much but that's about all I got :/)

Hoffman tuning told me that the problem probably resides in the wiring harness as the problem has to do with electrical communication. he printed out some papers for me; it says "ECM I/O signal engine (diagnostics)". on this diag sheet he gave it to me with the following highlighted;

Ignition switch- connector number B137, terminal number 15(engine off 10-13v, engine on 13-14v),
Sensor power supply- connector number B136, terminal number 16(engine off and on 5v),
and finally crankshaft position sensor- signal (+) connector number B135 terminal number 10 engine off 0v, engine on -7v - 7v/ signal(-) connector number B135 terminal number 22.
( I will try to add a picture of the papers if I can)

essentially what Hoffman told me is that I will end up throwing 3 grand into the car electrically just to get the car started, as my ecu is married to an accessport that I no longer have, and then the problem in the harness. of course this is what someone who is charging 160$ an hour would tell me anyways.

I do not know where to go from here. there has to be a better and cheaper way to find out the problem other than buying a new harness figuring that mess out. I know eventually I will need an unmarried ecu and probably another accessport down the road, but there has to be a way that I can figure out how to get this car started. I have been without a daily driver for 11 months and I've spent thousands of $ in ubers dealing with this, so time is of the essence. on the other hand I have nothing BUT free time. so there has to be a way to figure out the problem, I just have no idea how to do it. electrical problems continue to elude my understanding, but I am very eager to learn so that hopefully, i will never have to go back to a shop for anything but a tune again.

Literally anything can help at this point, so if any of you can help me figure out this problem i would be no doubt indebted to you. if there's anything I left out or any information you need to help please don't hesitate to ask. I am an open book and the only thing I want is to be back in my car.

thank you to anyone who helps, it means more than you know.
-Dylan
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Old 09-24-2021, 03:49 PM   #2
Dakota D
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as far as the accessport goes i believe if you buy a new accessport it will overwrite the previous accessport marry/tune on your ecu and marry to the new accessport

additionally cobb will generally give you a discount if you provide a police report/proof of purchase
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Old 09-24-2021, 04:04 PM   #3
Jp925
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This sounds like the stuff my nightmares are made of; that being said I have a few thoughts but it sounds like Hoffman has done a great job chasing this gremlin.

1. if you aren't running e85 it might be worth looking into reverting the fuel components to stock, with this done you can reflash the ECU to a more standard stage 2 map or even something custom to start ruling out problems to the ECU.

2. if you buy a new access port, it will revert the car ECU to stock, so if you don't know where it was tuned or have a copy of the map; the car will basically be using a base tune if you revert it.

3. if your AP disappeared, and you dont know where, it is possible someone unmarried it from your car and that is now why your highly modified car won't start.

all that being said, have you tried a new sensor or do you have any buddies who you could swap sensors with to start ruling out bad components?

sorry for your headache, hopefully you figure out whats going on to get this beast back on the road!


Quote:
Originally Posted by Scootin0605 View Post
hello everyone, I am new to the forums, but I'm gonna try and do my best to explain the process I've been through for the past year as best as I can.

So I have been the proud owner of a 2004 sti blobeye since about august 2019. the car came built (ish) when i bought it. the mods that i know as of this moment are as follows.

Manley pistons and rods, built heads, 1200 cc injectors ( on E85), walbro 540 fuel pump, Front mount ets intercooler, Blouch turbo ( unsure of the size of the top of my head), invidia exhaust, cobb intake, battery relocation ( to the trunk),fuel labs pressure regulator, and a cobb accessport with custom tune from nur performance.

since the start of me owning this car, nothing was ever perfect. a few months into me buying the car I was running regular petrol 93 and the car would be extremely labored at an idle and most of the time stalled out. but the problem when away as I drove and kept the rpm higher than 1500. eventually I found that when I switched over to my e85 tune, the problem i experienced had gone away for whatever reason. a few months of driving like this and my fuel pump had gone out ( I was unsure of my diagnostics skills at the time, thus the reason I brought the car to NUR performance to do it for me). my car left there months later with a new fuel pump, battery relocation, new fuel lines and a new tune. granted looking back now i realize that some of those things were irrelevant to the problem and i got taxed. but when it left there the car had a "new tune" but it almost seems as though they tuned the car around a problem because it still was still running rough (though it was running).

I continued to daily the car until November of 2020, when, long story short, I hit a curb straight on at about 65 mph. this accident shattered my wheels and busted up my front subframe pretty good, as well as my brake lines blew up because of me hitting the brakes idk why but they did. at this time, the car was still running and idling when I would bring it back to my house and turn it on, but because of the nature of the accident I was worried that something had gone wrong internally in the engine.

introducing 1K motorsports, the shop that i brought my car to in about march 2021. they looked over the car and told me that (other than the problems it already had) the car was in good shape and is absolutely salvageable. we pulled the injectors and had them serviced ( 2 of the injectors were at less than 75% flow leading me to this this was the cause of my original idling and fuel problem from before i went to NUR performance in 2020). when we re installed the injectors and turned the car on, she ran great. I've never heard the motor scream like it did that day. I came by on multiple occasions over a week or so to check on the car and start it. every time I got in the car she started right up and idled great( I even brought the car up to running temp every time on just an idle). at this point in the story we are at about late may early June 2021. after the motor was looked over, the only things left to do were: get new wheels and tire, buy and install a new subframe, new brake lines, and I had to also get new coil overs as the right side two had collapsed in on themselves. so nothing left to do with the motor or drive train or electrical or anything, just parts to make the car roll safely.

Fast forward July 5 2021, all the parts are installed and at a glace the car was ready to go. up until the point where it doesn't start. the car would crank, and make the air smell like fuel, but would lose power quick as it wouldn't start and burning out the starter doesn't help power levels. at this point I asked 1k motorsports to figure out the problem and they "tried" but couldn't find the problem. after two months of them flagging on my car, I decided to try and take the car somewhere else. I started with the Subaru dealership, and even though they don't traditionally work of modified cars, we convinced the service manager to go ahead and take a look at the car anyways. they could not figure out the problem. from there I brought it to a different shop ( Hoffman tuning ). very knowledgeable guy. probably the only shop to actually give me any type of a straight answer throughout this ordeal. what he told me is that the car gets spark, it gets fuel, and it gets air. (this has also been reinforced by 1k motorsports and Subaru dealership as they told me the same thing.

now this is where it gets irritating. throughout the prosses of all of this since the accident the car has been towed about 6 times total going from shop to body shop back to shop and then to different shops. somewhere along the way my cobb accessport was either stolen or lost out of the car and none of the shops I've been to have any idea where it went. and because the car went so many different places, it is all but impossible to find out who was the one responsible for losing it or taking it or whatever happened to it. Hoffman had asked me for the accessport, so that he could see what tune says the car is supposed to be doing and comparing it to what the car is actually doing. as I couldn't provide the accessport, we ran into a stand still. Hoffman continued to do his best and tell me whatever he could to try and get the car running. do not quote me as I could very well butcher what he actually said but it was something along the lines of the crank sensor is only getting 1v of power vs the 5v it needs to tell positioning. and he also said something about how the injectors wont fire because the computer doesn't know what's going on. (sorry I know that last sentence doesn't really mean much but that's about all I got :/)

Hoffman tuning told me that the problem probably resides in the wiring harness as the problem has to do with electrical communication. he printed out some papers for me; it says "ECM I/O signal engine (diagnostics)". on this diag sheet he gave it to me with the following highlighted;

Ignition switch- connector number B137, terminal number 15(engine off 10-13v, engine on 13-14v),
Sensor power supply- connector number B136, terminal number 16(engine off and on 5v),
and finally crankshaft position sensor- signal (+) connector number B135 terminal number 10 engine off 0v, engine on -7v - 7v/ signal(-) connector number B135 terminal number 22.
( I will try to add a picture of the papers if I can)

essentially what Hoffman told me is that I will end up throwing 3 grand into the car electrically just to get the car started, as my ecu is married to an accessport that I no longer have, and then the problem in the harness. of course this is what someone who is charging 160$ an hour would tell me anyways.

I do not know where to go from here. there has to be a better and cheaper way to find out the problem other than buying a new harness figuring that mess out. I know eventually I will need an unmarried ecu and probably another accessport down the road, but there has to be a way that I can figure out how to get this car started. I have been without a daily driver for 11 months and I've spent thousands of $ in ubers dealing with this, so time is of the essence. on the other hand I have nothing BUT free time. so there has to be a way to figure out the problem, I just have no idea how to do it. electrical problems continue to elude my understanding, but I am very eager to learn so that hopefully, i will never have to go back to a shop for anything but a tune again.

Literally anything can help at this point, so if any of you can help me figure out this problem i would be no doubt indebted to you. if there's anything I left out or any information you need to help please don't hesitate to ask. I am an open book and the only thing I want is to be back in my car.

thank you to anyone who helps, it means more than you know.
-Dylan
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Old 09-24-2021, 04:06 PM   #4
Jp925
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where are you located? someone with a Tactrix cable would be able to tell you if your ECU is married to an AP still.

Also, did you or any of the shops confirm your timing is on? I've seen belts slips, people tear the car apart, and it was a classic tensioner failure.

Last edited by Jp925; 09-24-2021 at 04:46 PM.
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Old 09-24-2021, 05:11 PM   #5
AliBenn
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Engine/Engine internals are not going to be affected from a crash
Unless, a definite impact to said engine
If this was a false statement, ZERO junkyards/eBay sales of used engines would exist

Now a hard crash could damage something that affects engines performance
Best bet is a cut/smashed harness or wire

IMO from your description,
Crash has nothing to do with engine problems
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Old 09-24-2021, 06:09 PM   #6
Jp925
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Unless he popped timing from impact into the subframe.

Quote:
Originally Posted by AliBenn View Post
Engine/Engine internals are not going to be affected from a crash
Unless, a definite impact to said engine
If this was a false statement, ZERO junkyards/eBay sales of used engines would exist

Now a hard crash could damage something that affects engines performance
Best bet is a cut/smashed harness or wire

IMO from your description,
Crash has nothing to do with engine problems
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Old 09-24-2021, 06:23 PM   #7
AliBenn
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Anything is possible
But curb hit(without airbag deployed (assuming))
Not going to cause engine dmg

OP said was having some issues b4 crash too
Hopefully I read that dissertation right
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Old 09-24-2021, 06:39 PM   #8
AliBenn
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OP
Any OBD2 codes?
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Old 09-24-2021, 06:39 PM   #9
AliBenn
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OP
Any OBD2 codes?
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Old 09-25-2021, 12:55 AM   #10
Scootin0605
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okay so the thing is the car was running fine for an extended period of time after the accident, so im sure the timing is good. the thing about it that doesn't make sense is the fact that it started and ran fine and then all of a sudden after doing nothing but sitting the car just decided to not start. nothing mechanical was touched on the vehicle after the injectors were served and put back in. I'm about 95% sure that the engine parts are fine after the accident.
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Old 09-25-2021, 01:14 AM   #11
benflynn
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Mine wouldn’t start after batt out for 6mos, had to hook a ssm3 up to it, never had to relearn anything, just kinda woke it up.
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Old 09-26-2021, 11:51 PM   #12
Jp925
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I would do this, and report back. It’s much easier to actually check this instead of just saying “but I know it’s not ______” because it really could be anything.

Check timing
Check intake manifold harness connections to look for burn marks or signs of a short
Confirm your car is still married to the tuner
Cry
Potentially replace the ecu, or at least have it thoroughly tested
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Old 09-27-2021, 05:06 PM   #13
FlangeBolts
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Scootin0605 View Post
okay so the thing is the car was running fine for an extended period of time after the accident ... it started and ran fine and then all of a sudden after doing nothing but sitting the car just decided to not start.
So, I've spent a lot of time undoing mods, re-pinning butchered wiring harnesses, and otherwise cleaning up or reverting bad aftermarket work, and your narrative here has a striking familiarity.

It's definitely good that it ran. Given that, I wouldn't touch the tuning at all.

It sounds a lot like your engine wiring harness.

It's old, brittle, it's been modified, and wiring gremlins are really expensive to pay by the hour to chase.

The part is 24020AD054 from Subaru and even at dealer retail it's real inexpensive. It wholesales for $283. That's way cheaper than paying a guy 120 an hour to poke at an old broken one.

Start there, with a new one. Get your guy to pin the correct injector connectors onto it, pigtails are a frequent source of issues. It's 2021, every injector connector ever made can be had from the internet and a high quality open barrel crimp tool that won't f up the pin fitment is cheap. Get him to pin the flexfuel into whatever sensor port you repurposed for it with the OEM connector too.

That probably gets your car started. If not, you have good wiring to chase bad sensors.

Also, wouldn't hurt to do a fuel pressure test, because most aftermarket fuel pump installs are hack jobs that are literally begging to fail from vibration... Incorrect fuel pressure will definitely stop an engine from starting and running.
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Old 09-27-2021, 05:06 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Scootin0605 View Post
okay so the thing is the car was running fine for an extended period of time after the accident ... it started and ran fine and then all of a sudden after doing nothing but sitting the car just decided to not start.
So, I've spent a lot of time undoing mods, re-pinning butchered wiring harnesses, and otherwise cleaning up or reverting bad aftermarket work, and your narrative here has a striking familiarity.

It's definitely good that it ran. Given that, I wouldn't touch the tuning at all.

It sounds a lot like your engine wiring harness.

It's old, brittle, it's been modified, and wiring gremlins are really expensive to pay by the hour to chase.

The part is 24020AD054 from Subaru and even at dealer retail it's real inexpensive. It wholesales for $283. That's way cheaper than paying a guy 120 an hour to poke at an old broken one.

Start there, with a new one. Get your guy to pin the correct injector connectors onto it, pigtails are a frequent source of issues. It's 2021, every injector connector ever made can be had from the internet and a high quality open barrel crimp tool that won't f up the pin fitment is cheap. Get him to pin the flexfuel into whatever sensor port you repurposed for it with the OEM connector too.

That probably gets your car started. If not, you have good wiring to chase bad sensors.

Also, wouldn't hurt to do a fuel pressure test, because most aftermarket fuel pump installs are hack jobs that are literally begging to fail from vibration... Incorrect fuel pressure will definitely stop an engine from starting and running.
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Old 09-28-2021, 07:26 PM   #15
Scootin0605
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okay so ive found out a little bit more specifically what is going on with the car, apperently the ecu is not giving out a 5v reference for the sensors. ive also been told the there is no crank signal and the the computer is not communicating with the rest of the parts. hoffman suggested that i get a whole new ecu and wiring harness from an aftermarket source. thoughts on this and how it affects my situation?
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Old 09-28-2021, 07:29 PM   #16
Scootin0605
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also if this sounds like something that needs to be done, does anyone know a good company that can provide a solid wiring harness? i asked about replacing it with a factory wiring harness and was told that this would be a bad idea because of the modifications that have already been done to my car
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Old 09-29-2021, 11:12 AM   #17
Scootin0605
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also if this sounds like something that needs to be done, does anyone know a good company that can provide a solid wiring harness? i asked about replacing it with a factory wiring harness and was told that this would be a bad idea because of the modifications that have already been done to my car
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Old 09-29-2021, 12:27 PM   #18
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Give i-Wire a call. They might be able to mod or fix up your current harness if its not complete crap.
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Old 09-29-2021, 02:36 PM   #19
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Oem 280ish not bad place to start, tho u should be able to ohm out the harness and verify it’s good or not
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