Wifes car has gone insane.

[lucas]

Morning everyone, my wifes car has developed a very strange problem and I'm not sure the engine thread is the appropriate place but here goes. She drives a 1993 SS auto with 285k unmodified

4 days ago she called me in a panic at 4;30 in the morning that her car was having horrible hesitation while getting on the freeway, she say she couldn't hear the turbo spool, the car bucked at idle when she pulled off and wouldnt rev above 2-3k rpm range during acceleration. I went to pick her up and take her to work, about an hour later i came back to look at the car started it up rand kinda like poop but evened out within a few mins. No check engine light. I ran the codes and got Knock sensor, cam sensor, and crank sensor.

We had it towed to Pacific import auto a well known subaru specialist in the seattle tacoma area, they have worked on the car before. They kept it two days and couldn't find anything wrong with it. My wife tried to drive it to work again this morning and it did the same thing. She managed to turn around and drive it home this time but said the rpm's were freaking out between 2-3k but evened out after a few minutes.

Im beside myself as to where I should start.... and and all help is appreciated and my wife might make you cookies.

[Legacy777]

Have you run the active diagnostic check with the green connectors? If not, I'd recommend doing that and see if anything comes up. If nothing comes up, I'd suggest clearing the codes from the ECU so that if the problem happens again you know you're starting from a clean slate.

I'd also suggest looking at the knock sensor to see if the wiring or plastic body on the sensor look cracked.

[lucas]

Ive only done the black connectors, but ill try the green ones. The knock sensor was gonna be my starting point. I forgot to mention that the timing belt was the last maintenance done on the car but has had 1000 miles put on it since.

[lucas]

just did the D check and no codes were present, Checked the knock sensor and it looked brand new.....

[Legacy777]

Ok, reset codes using the battery or both connectors method; instructions are on my site. Once you've verified no codes are stored, then you may want to drive the car a little bit to see if anything comes up.

How does the car drive now?

[lucas]

I did the battery dance and the fuse 14, car seems fine. Would a failing transmission cause this kind of problem? also i did find the cam sensor connector completely soaked in oil even on the inside of the housing.

No codes are present at this time.

[lucas]

Car is running fine now. I swear my two turbo legacies heal themselves. They are literally made with bits of jesus.

[cj91legss]

If it acts up again bring it by and i'll have a look at it. Those connectors that are oil soaked should be cleaned up to help prevent electrical issues.

[lucas]

i bought some electrical connector cleaner and i think that was the problem, thanks for the offer though. The electrical stuff is definitely a struggle for me.

[cj91legss]

Still is for me too. But if you take your time you can figure it out.

[icrman]

One other thing, I thought I heard that Subaru's also suffer from the same ECU capacitor issues that other Japanese made cars do of that age.