legacycentral bbs

the car has been (not) running strangely as of yesterday.. 91 L wagon... see my post in MISC forum for details

so it seems like it might be the coil... primary resistance is listed in the haynes manual as 0.63 to 0.77ohms for the hitachi coil and 0.62 to 0.76 ohms for the diamond coil....

I'm not sure if I have hitachi or diamond, but the numbers are close, and the primary resistance on my coil is showing up as more like .9 to 1.3 ohms

secondary resistance is listed as 10.4 to 15.6 k-ohms for hitachi and 17.9 to 24.5 k-ohms for diamond... mine shows up as around 14 k-ohms

so if it's diamond coil pack both the primary and secondary resistance are wrong, but if it's the hitachi, just the primary resistance is wrong... how do I tell which it is?

Diamond packs have a black sticker on them that says "Diamond" on it. Hitachi packs generally have a colored sticker that just has the Subaru part number on it.

does what I'm saying seem to make sense?

It seems possible. I don't know much about the modes of failure of ignition coils. If you can find anyone with a Legacy/Impreza/Outback that has the same style coil (most do), maybe you could convince them to lend the coil to you for a few minutes to test.

just tried with my friend's '99 legacy with a 2.2... coil had a different connector on it. will go to yard tomorrow and pick one up

Yeah, they started changing the EJ22's coil in 97 or so, and the EJ25's in 99 or so.

Good luck.

Did you try seeing if you could fill the tank with fresh fuel and some Sea Foam or Techron or something?

I can't find a gas can.. guess I'll have to buy one today. I'll get gas can, gas, and sea-foam, and see if that helps......

what's the best way to test my fuel pump?

I guess you could test fuel pressure... But I don't think this is typical of a failing fuel pump; they usually pretty much quit rather than working badly.

this doesn't sound much like a coil to me... usually they just quit entirely or you drop 2 cylinders, sometimes heat-related (OK until warm and then trouble)

if you checked your plugs and one or two were fouled, I would suspect the coil, if all the plugs look the same, then move on to something else. It sounds worse than just losing a cylider, they'll run OK that way but a bit rough.

I think your readings of the coil seem pretty close for a hand-held meter, if dead I would expect radical different readings, like 0 ohms or open line

hm... if it doesn't sound like fuel pump failing and it doesn't sound like coil failing, then wtf does it sound like is the problem!? any input is greatly appreciated

pull the connector on the maf sensor and start the car. See what happens.

Have you checked to see if there were any codes in the ECU?

is there a quick description of how to do such a thing somewhere? I'm searching right now but I'm on dialup so it's delaying me from going to work on the car which is stuck in overnight parking in town (20min away)

I agree it doesn't sound like a coil problem. I had a similar suspicion about the (Diamond)coil on my 95 wagon a couple of months ago and the secondary resistance readings came up about the same as yours - i.e. about twice what the Haynes manual states. I bought a brand new one ($215 Australian) only to find the restance values were identical. Subaru would not take the part back so I wasted my money! The problem eventually turned out to be a faulty camshaft position sensor.

well I pulled the connector on the MAF and then the connector on the TPS yesterday.. and then the car ran.. I drove it about 50 miles, and today, while I was on my way to get my mail in town, the car did the exact same thing. it's sitting beside the road right now in the parking area of a swimming hole. rednecks will probably steal my tools and cd player.

for some reason the "power" light comes on before the engine stalls right now.. haynes manual says nothing about power light.

not really sure where to go from here..

mikem what were the symptoms of your problem? similar?

I also remember reading something about a knock sensor recall somewhere.. how do I know if this has been done? could that be the problem?

it sounds like you may be losing the proper voltage TO the coil...check all your battery and alternator connections and grounds

did all the little dash lights light up, battery, power, abs (if you have) that's what happens when the voltage goes wacky high or low. with my car it was too high, and it would buck badly but never stall. if low it could be a nnumber of connections, if high, probably bad voltage regulator (internal to the alternator). I diagnosed it by making up long leads, an putting my multimeter reading voltage from the alternator, where I could see it on the passenger seat, and saw 15+V, too much

not all the lights came on, just power, and it didn't stay on the whole time, but then it would quit and all lights would come on. I tried to read the codes, but I ripped basically the whole underdash apart and did not find that stupid black connector. there was a green connector that connected 1 wire to 1 wire, but it was WAY up in behind everything and was bundled up with the other wires in a way that would not allow me to plug it in. there was, however, no black connector that connected one wire to one wire.. I'll check again when I go back out there.

just went and found the black connector... connected it and turned the key to "on" and it seems like the C.E. light just keeps blinking the same speed forever.. maybe I'm too stoned to catch the pattern. I'll go back and check in a little bit with the list of codes on-hand

Operose, Hope you have managed to retrieve your car - or get it going. The symptoms on mine were somewhat different to yours; mine would always start and run from cold perfectly; it was only when it had been running for a while and you stopped at the shops for 10 mins or so then there was just no spark. Everything was turning over fine. I would carry a spare plug with me and pull an HT lead off to check the spark so I was certain that it was the ignition circuit somewhere - just couldnt find exactly where. I think the key is to determine the error codes which you have.

How old are the plugs and plug wires?

brand new. the car is still beside the road. today I am borrowing my brother's laptop to hook up vrg3's scan tool. I'll also check spark on all wires with one of the plugs I pulled