legacycentral bbs

So my buddy has a 1990 Legacy sedan (EJ22) auto and when he comes to a stoplight he has to put it in neutral and keep his foot on the accelerator otherwise the car will die.... if the car DOES die, he has to wait for about 10 minutes... then it'll start. he says its always done it....

fuel filter? igniter? ideas?

thanks!!

NuclearBacon wrote:So my buddy has a 1990 Legacy sedan (EJ22) auto and when he comes to a stoplight he has to put it in neutral and keep his foot on the accelerator otherwise the car will die.... if the car DOES die, he has to wait for about 10 minutes... then it'll start. he says its always done it....

fuel filter? igniter? ideas?

thanks!!

IAC

man i feel like a noob... IAC = ?

Idle Air Control motor, or in fuji talk Idle Air Motor.

Idle valve.

I havnt seen a real big problem with them clogging up, but I really havnt worked on a whole lot of older cars in general. One thing that is severlly overlooked is the throttle plate itself. Clean it, youd be surprised of the results.

If that doesnt help....

I'd look at fuel, not ignition. Ignition problems usually are load based. Deffinatelly start with the filter, its the cheapest easiest place to start and if its in question then it probablly needs to be replaced anyway.

A bottle of Techron will do wonders as well. Even better is a bottle of GM Top Engine Cleaner. Toxic stuff. Spray it right into the intake manifold. It cleans the back of the valves. If the valves are dirty they dont seat right. When that happens there will be poor vacum at idle. poor vacum at idle will pull less air past the meter, thus less fuel, thus less air, and so on......

Fuel pumps are a very commen problem these days. Fuel is more expensive, and people dont fill their tanks as much. Fuel cools the pump, and if its not submersed, it gets hot. Electric motors dont like heat.

I've been seeing alot of IAC problems on these older cars at work lately, wouldn't be surprised if its your problem, throttle plate issues are generally confined to sticking throttle and stumbling off idle, usually the carbon/crap build up at the throttle plate will keep the plate sealed and this sounds like a lack of vacuum at idle problem to me. Carbon on the valves would cause a hard start all the time i would think not just when warm. Is the CEL on and if not I wonder if there are any history codes stored. I guess the other obvious question would be are there any large vacuum leaks?

The throttle plate doesnt close off all the way. At idle, your talking about at least 2 litres of air having to be sucked into the motor per revolution. That much air couldnt run through the Idle air circuit.

The IAC is really just there to compinsate for other factors like fuel, o2 percentage, altitude, tempature ect. I ran my motor without an IAC and it idled at 800 RPM perfect everytime.

Not to argue or doubt what your saying I just dont see how you can get that much air past the plate when its shut unless your proping it open more than it should be.

interesting!!!! thank you for the replys! i'll be checking his car out in abot a week or so.... ran into him yesterday morning... and gave his girlfriend a ride to work in my Tleg....

she thought it was a "little" faster then her NA .... well that... and mine runs ...

Kelly wrote:Even better is a bottle of GM Top Engine Cleaner. Toxic stuff.

Does that stuff come from the dealer? Is there a parts store equivalent? Brake wash does wonders for stuff I work on, and is flammable.

sea foam it!!! i just like using it on everything neighbors drive by staring at me like what the hell did he do to that car?!? even better is to do it to someone else's car when there not around so when then fire it up big clouad of smoke hahaha.. how long has it been since a good tune up?

Has anyone thought that it could be the ECU? I just bought a 92 legacy wagon NA, and it does the same thing. The power just simply instantly cuts out intermitently. Part throttle, full throttle, no throttle. In or out of gear. Warm or cold. Moving or stopped. I only have 70K on the odo, and the car is amazing - No rust, no dings, no cracks (like new). I am just really tired of being honked at and flipped off. Sometimes, the engine completely dies, tach reads at 0 rpm, and will then rev back to life with a stab at the throttle. It always starts back up, eventually, in less than 10 minutes, though. For some reason, my father bets his house that it is the ECU. I haven't heard anything like that from you guys, and it sounds like you guys really know your stuff. Any suggestions? Obviously, I am new to Subies, but so far, I like what I have seen. Thanks.

Vacuum leak or IACV

ecu ground? i had an 93 l wag that had all sorts of gremlins abot it mostly grounds all next to ecu. i final gave it away after reairin and replacing wires that didn't test out. well that car also picked up water on the pass side from a rotten fender and leaky ac..

So my buddy never got back to me after i got my cell phone back..... but i ran into HIS buddy and he told me what happened...

Crank Angle Sensor....

Check engine light wasnt on.... because the bulb ACTUALLY BURNT OUT!!!!! crazy!!! Replaced the housing (this thing was a total beater, dashboard missing....ect ect....) yes the housing.... like the ENTIRE speedo cluster....

it had a working check engine light... that blinked the appropriate number of times for a crank angle sensor.... got one from pick a part... and she's back on the road!!!

all 112% of her beaterness!! thanks everyone!!