legacycentral bbs

My buddy has a 91 legacy wagon, which has been running a little rough
recently. (Occasional misfire, sluggish/jerky when you go on the gas)

The other day, he gave it an oil change, and washed down the engine
bay with a garden hose (while the engine was running)

When he restarted the engine later, it seemed like it was only firing
on two cylinders, yet still limping along. We thought that the
wires/ distributor may have been affected by the water, so we left
the hood up, and let everything dry out in the sun.

When we returned a day later, the car wouldn't start ... it turned
over fine, but only seemed to be catching on one cylinder.


I am pretty familiar with cars and car maintenance, but not
necessarily with Subarus. Does this sound like a common Subaru
problem? Is there a particular sensor that may have been affected by
the water? Could the fuel pump be the most likely cause?

Any help you could give would be most appreciated. Thank you




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Check the fuel pump first! Take off a fuel line from the filter and
stick in a can or bucket (remember the fuel is supposed to be at least
40 lb psi) turn on the key to run. You should get a burst of fuel! IF
not plan B. $.02 worth Dan


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Hi-Firstly, you don`t have a distributor & secondly, if your plug wires are`nt too old & the plug boots are sealing correctly, you probably got water in one of 3 areas. The connector (plug-in) to the MAF, the connector to your throttle body or possibly your igniter. If you have over 100k on your fuel pump, it would`nt hurt to replace it. This is assuming the maintenance has been kept up on the car (tune, fuel filter, etc.) If not, start there. A hint for you: NEVER use any high-pressure water spray on the engine! When cleaning the engine, tape off the aformentioned electrical areas & use a low-pressure spray to clean it. I recommend straight (non-diluted) Simple Green sprayed on a warm engine (extra on greasier parts), let sit for 5 mins., then spray off. You`ll like the results.---ROD (AZ.)

----- Original Message -----
From: pubwisdom@yahoo.com
To: BC-BFLegacyWorks@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2001 10:43 PM
Subject: [BC-BFLegacyWorks] 91 Legacy won't start - please help


My buddy has a 91 legacy wagon, which has been running a little rough
recently. (Occasional misfire, sluggish/jerky when you go on the gas)

The other day, he gave it an oil change, and washed down the engine
bay with a garden hose (while the engine was running)

When he restarted the engine later, it seemed like it was only firing
on two cylinders, yet still limping along. We thought that the
wires/ distributor may have been affected by the water, so we left
the hood up, and let everything dry out in the sun.

When we returned a day later, the car wouldn't start ... it turned
over fine, but only seemed to be catching on one cylinder.


I am pretty familiar with cars and car maintenance, but not
necessarily with Subarus. Does this sound like a common Subaru
problem? Is there a particular sensor that may have been affected by
the water? Could the fuel pump be the most likely cause?

Any help you could give would be most appreciated. Thank you




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BC-BFLegacyWorks-unsubscribe@egroups.com



zZz <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> .



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zZz <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> .

I had a problem awhile back with the overflow bottle leaking on
my '91 turbo. Turns out it was leaking right into one of the spark
plug wells. Eventually it pooled in the well enough to ground out the
plug causing severe misfire. Check those plug wells for water, that
might be your problem.

Sean L




--- In BC-BFLegacyWorks@y..., pubwisdom@y... wrote:
>
> My buddy has a 91 legacy wagon, which has been running a little
rough
> recently. (Occasional misfire, sluggish/jerky when you go on the
gas)
>
> The other day, he gave it an oil change, and washed down the engine
> bay with a garden hose (while the engine was running)
>
> When he restarted the engine later, it seemed like it was only
firing
> on two cylinders, yet still limping along. We thought that the
> wires/ distributor may have been affected by the water, so we left
> the hood up, and let everything dry out in the sun.
>
> When we returned a day later, the car wouldn't start ... it turned
> over fine, but only seemed to be catching on one cylinder.
>
>
> I am pretty familiar with cars and car maintenance, but not
> necessarily with Subarus. Does this sound like a common Subaru
> problem? Is there a particular sensor that may have been affected
by
> the water? Could the fuel pump be the most likely cause?
>
> Any help you could give would be most appreciated. Thank you


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--- In BC-BFLegacyWorks@y..., lukan.sean@o... wrote:
> I had a problem awhile back with the overflow bottle leaking on
> my '91 turbo. Turns out it was leaking right into one of the spark
> plug wells. Eventually it pooled in the well enough to ground out
the
> plug causing severe misfire. Check those plug wells for water, that
> might be your problem.
>
> Sean L
>

So we figured pulling the plug boots would be the easiest thing ...
sure enough, they were soaked. After drying out the wells, we
greased up the terminals, put it all back together, and now we are
back to idling on three cylinders (which was exactly how we were pre-
wash)

Thank you all for all your help! ... Now if only we could figure out
why it was idling like crap to begin with ...


-Mike


>
> --- In BC-BFLegacyWorks@y..., pubwisdom@y... wrote:
> >
> > My buddy has a 91 legacy wagon, which has been running a little
> rough
> > recently. (Occasional misfire, sluggish/jerky when you go on the
> gas)
> >
> > The other day, he gave it an oil change, and washed down the
engine
> > bay with a garden hose (while the engine was running)
> >
> > When he restarted the engine later, it seemed like it was only
> firing
> > on two cylinders, yet still limping along. We thought that the
> > wires/ distributor may have been affected by the water, so we
left
> > the hood up, and let everything dry out in the sun.
> >
> > When we returned a day later, the car wouldn't start ... it
turned
> > over fine, but only seemed to be catching on one cylinder.
> >
> >
> > I am pretty familiar with cars and car maintenance, but not
> > necessarily with Subarus. Does this sound like a common Subaru
> > problem? Is there a particular sensor that may have been
affected
> by
> > the water? Could the fuel pump be the most likely cause?
> >
> > Any help you could give would be most appreciated. Thank you


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I had the same problem but I did not wash anything in the engine bay that
week. Tihs is what happened.
I went to a spare parts place for a couple of secs when I came out to start
it would only fire a couple of cylinders and stalled. I put my foot on the
go pedel and then started it (which you should not do)only running on a
couple of cylinders the amount I do not know. I kept it running and it all
started running properly after a short time.
When I had a service done I asked about it and he said its the coil pack.
He told me to let it go until it finally packed it in. I only have a NA 2.2
in OZ and if you have a turbo model the coils are separtate. Could even be
the ignitor. My car had 195,000 kilometres on the clock when it happened
about 3 months ago and now it has 216,000 and nothing yet.


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