What kind of intake do you have?

 

It's a cold air intake.

 

Are you currently tuned for the cold air intake? If you have your stock intake throw it back on and see if that fixes the problem...that will at least rule out some options of what may be causing it...

 

I bought the car with the cold air, it ran perfectly fine for these first 3 months or so. I'm really hoping that's not the problem here.

The timing of when this problem occurred can't be coincidence I would think.

 

Hmm...you could also take the spark plugs back out and check the gaps and make sure everything there looks ok.

 

I guess I should have mentioned that I swapped all new plugs with the old ones before I figured out it was the MAF sensor, sorry.

With the old plugs, the car runs w/o the MAF connected, but starts and then dies with the old and the new MAF sensors connected. It's possible to keep the car running with the MAF sensors connected, but it's an extremely rough idle, and it's near impossible to keep it running. (It's to the point where you have to tap the gas to keep it running, which I feel is very bad for the motor)

 

Well now we are above me! Hopefully someone more knowledgeable chimes in soon!

 

I hope so too.

I really don't want to take this to the dealer. :/

Thanks for your suggestions.

 

I have to ask so sorry in advance but is the MAF oriented correctly (i.e. not installed backwards)? Are you absolutely certain that the correct coil pack connector is installed for each plug or anything else left unplugged? Is there any ground wires that got knocked about etc.? What were the sparkplug gaps?

 

I have to ask so sorry in advance but is the MAF oriented correctly (i.e. not installed backwards)?

Pretty much called it.....

 

The MAF sensor is installed in the correct position, all of the coil packs are in the correct place, the gaps are alright on the old plugs but could be better, but on the new plugs they are much more accurate, and more consistent than the old ones. The gaps on both the old and the new are between .28" and .31"

The only wire that I can think of that has been moved around a bit is the exhaust temp wire that has a braket connected to the back cylinder coil pack, on the passenger side. I didn't think of considering this wire an issue because the when the MAF is disconnected the car runs fine, but with a CEL.

(Edit)Also I made sure to place the wire back in the correct position after re-installing the coil pack.

 

those gaps seem pretty big. I just changed the plugs in my 02, yes its a PITA!!! especially the driver side haha. Any who, i used NGKs and the gaps were .040

 

I'm sure its not the spark plugs, the motor runs fine without the maf connected. But its runs rich.

 

Do you have a bov?

 

The stock one.

 

hmm well damn. When you were cleaning the MAF did you touch the sensor? They are pretty fragile and get messed up easily.

 

I used the utmost care not to touch the IAT but I'm not sure if my friend did when he was handling it, which is one of the reasons I decided to go out and buy a new one. But the new one isn't working either.

I'm really hoping that the new one got messed up in the over night shipping, also the sales guy at the store I bought it from handled it pretty carelessly. I'm going to try and get the MAF. Off of my buddies sti and see if it works. *fingers crossed*

Sorry if the spelling was crap, I sent this on my phone.

 

Well, I took it to Subaru and I paid them $100 to diagnose my car, and they told me what I was already suspecting, the MAF is faulty. I really wish the auto part store sent me a functioning MAF to begin with. :/

Thanks for all of the suggestions and help.

 

IT'S FIXED!

I'm short on time right now, but I will post pics and the solution I found later today.

I feel that this solution and the problems presented here could be extreamly helpful to others. I learned a very expensive lesson today, and I want to do everything I can to help others learn it for free.

 

Please tell us all about it when you get a chance. :thumbup:

 

Alright, I'm very sorry for the extreme late reply, but I'm a full time student with a full time job living on my own so we know how that goes...

Anyways, this is the correct way to install the piping...

It's quite obvious that the piping is supposed to fit this way. It fits perfectly and when installed backwards it's crooked.

I was reading online about MAF sensors and I came across a thread stating that the MAF needs at least 3 inches of straight piping in order to function properly. After thinking over this I noticed it did not indeed have 3 inches of piping.

So that's when I installed the piping like this...

When it's installed this way, it's quite obvious that it's not supposed to be oriented like this. Whoever made the cold-air kit installed it like this to begin with and placed the MAF hole according to this orientation and this is what caused me so much trouble.

Long story short, make sure you have 3 inches of straight piping before taking your car to the dealership to get inspected...

Also on a side note the dealership just told me I needed a new MAF sensor and did not look at the piping at all.

 

Crazy, but sounds like that's the fix. I'm glad I'm rubbing the stock setup with a K&N filter. :-D

 

Ha yeah, I have also heard that plastic is a better insulator than metal any ways, and I've noticed that the engine bay on this car gets a lot hotter than other cars.

 

In the picture on top, the MAF is installed backwards.

 

Time to rescale your MAF or put the stock one back on.

 

Not on this piping it wont. After mycologist posted about the orientation I tried to install it the other way. It only fits one way.

 

I had the same problem. I did a spark plug change and when installed everything back together my car would start then die right away. I foud this thread and seen the pic that you posted of the Air Intake. The MAF sensor was exactly how it was in the first picture. So I rotated the intake pipe as you did in the second picture and my car started right away. The thing is the Air Intake looks funny that way. Can't you just flip the actual MAF sensor on the Intake Pipe?

 

On my piping it wont allow me to install the MAF in any other orientation.

I can't remember where I read this, perhaps another thread in these forums or somewhere else, that the MAF needs at least 2 or 3 inches of straight piping before it can get an accurate reading. I think the reason for this has something to do with the aerodynamics inside the pipe.

 

i have the exact same problem, that was after i switched spark plugs and coilpack.