My 1.8L Subaru Impreza 1995 (manual, front wheel drive) recently
started to behave strangely:

When an engine is truly cold (mornings or driving home after
work), it starts and begins to drive normally, however, shortly
after that it tends to lose power for a moment or two, then
resumes OK, then these cycles repeat until an engine fully
warms up. Then it behaves perfectly O.K.

It's kind of difficult to describe. Basically, I press
accelerator and feel that it "does not work" - very little
(if anything) happens; then, as I continue to hold it down,
the car "wakes up" and finally responds and accelerates.
This usually happens at least several times, rather
unpredictably. It's as if the engine is not getting enough
fuel or air, or as if the mixture is not ignited in timely
fashion.

May or may not be related, I also noticed that, when the car
is in this state, it seems to idle strangely - an engine
shakes (I can feel the car shaking a lot more) and tachometer
goes up and down from high 1,000 rpm to about 100 (when warm,
it idles at approximately 400 rpm normally).

The car is up for some expensive maintenance and break job
pretty soon, so before I do any of it, I'd like to know
what might be the problem with the engine and how expensive
it might be. (I can, after all, buy another car, if it
does not make financial sense to fix this one).

Any ideas? Many thanks in advance.

George

"George A." wrote:

> My 1.8L Subaru Impreza 1995 (manual, front wheel drive) recently
> started to behave strangely:
>
> When an engine is truly cold (mornings or driving home after
> work), it starts and begins to drive normally, however, shortly
> after that it tends to lose power for a moment or two, then
> resumes OK, then these cycles repeat until an engine fully
> warms up. Then it behaves perfectly O.K.
>
> It's kind of difficult to describe. Basically, I press
> accelerator and feel that it "does not work" - very little
> (if anything) happens; then, as I continue to hold it down,
> the car "wakes up" and finally responds and accelerates.
> This usually happens at least several times, rather
> unpredictably. It's as if the engine is not getting enough
> fuel or air, or as if the mixture is not ignited in timely
> fashion.
>
> May or may not be related, I also noticed that, when the car
> is in this state, it seems to idle strangely - an engine
> shakes (I can feel the car shaking a lot more) and tachometer
> goes up and down from high 1,000 rpm to about 100 (when warm,
> it idles at approximately 400 rpm normally).

I'd advise in the first instance that you do the simple things like replace the
fuel and air filters plus spark plugs.

If somome can test fuel pressure too, so much the better. It might also pay to
add some injector cleaner to the tank or have the injectors professionally
cleaned ultrasonically.

Graham

strchild wrote:

> When was the last time you did the basic tune-up

How do you 'tune up' a car with an ECU ?

Graham

strchild wrote:

> When was the last time you did the basic tune-up or at least inspected your
> plugs, wires, fuel filter, air filter, PCV, and anything anybody else can
> think of for a basic tune-up. I wonder if this could be temp-sensor
> related? Sounds similar to what my '93 was doing before I replaced the
> plugs. Are you receiving any engine codes from the check engine light? 400
> RPM seems low to idle at.

I certainly agree about the 400 rpm. It's only a 4 banger ffs !

Doesn't the Impreza have individual coils per plug too ? Worth checking them as
well.

Graham

Eeyore <rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com> wrote:
>strchild wrote:
>
>> When was the last time you did the basic tune-up
>
>How do you 'tune up' a car with an ECU ?

Replacing plugs and filters mostly. No actual tuning involved any more,
but the price schedule still calls it a tune-up anyway.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."