legacycentral bbs

I recently became the owner of a 1991 Legacy RHD wagon, and am having a little trouble with it.

After owning it for about three weeks, it started having problems idling when cold and not having much power, so I started checking, and one of the prior owners had removed the check engine light.

Anyway, long story short, the following parts have been replaced:

Knock Sensor (New OEM), Oxygen Sensor (New Bosch), Fuel Pressure Regulator (Old one was letting 45 PSI through, which probably fouled out the O2 sensor), New Plugs (NGK), New Fuel Filter, Used K&N off another Subaru of mine that died.

The MAF looks clean. The car starts easily enough, but if you give it any gas, it acts like it's going to die, and has almost no power. Putting it in drive results in the car creeping along, and almost dying. After the car gets warm, if you can get it up to about 1500 RPM, it starts running okay, not super-well, but okay.

This thing is making me nuts, and I'm looking for any ideas about what it could be.

And before anybody asks, No, I haven't check the TPS yet. I thought I would ask here before I started doing that. And the car is now running code free, but it's not running well..

Thanks in advance for any help.

Leak after MAF...?...

After checking some more, it appears that the Idle Air Control valve is making a lot of noise when I go to throttle up. I don't think this is normal.

Also, as something strange, I've noticed that if I throttle up with the engine turned off, I get a buzzing sound down near where the transmission is. Any ideas what could be causing that, or is that normal?

The buzzing is normal.

I'd suggest replacing the coolant temp sensor.

Legacy777 wrote:The buzzing is normal.

I'd suggest replacing the coolant temp sensor.

I second the coolant temp sensor! Be sure to get the correct one. There are 2, one for the gauge and one for the ECU. You need the one for the ECU. Also, dont worry about draining the coolant, just pull it out and a little might come out but not much. Its located on the drivers side of the coolant "bridge" under the manifold. good luck!

lol just remembered its a RHD so that would be the PASSENGER side of the motor lol.

Checked the TPS, and the numbers coming off it were a little... Weird. I was getting 9K between 2&3, I think, where it's supposed to be 12K, and it was going to infinity about 1/2 to 2/3s of the way from closed to open.

Replaced the TPS, and the car runs fine.

Thanks for everybody's suggestions, tho.. This thing, as near as I can tell, didn't run for about two years, so there may be some more issues that are going to show up as I run it more.

Thanks again, everyone!