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engine stalling after spark plug change

Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:26 pm
by dawagonbus
Long time lurker, first time poster. 94 wagon w/ 167,000 miles, no mods, running well (at least it wasn't stalling) before I changed the spark plugs(NGK) this weekend. Now it stalls when clutch is disengaged until the engine warms up after about 4-6 miles. After that distance it runs just fine. Again, all I did was change out the plugs. Wires are fine and connected well. Any ideas?

Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:54 pm
by Bdub
Check the gaps of all the plugs, see if they are all within tolerance and the same.

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 3:28 am
by dawagonbus
Thanks, did that before I installed them. all were @ .039-.040. One other thing I forgot to mention when the car is first started after sitting overnight it will run just fine until until you hit the gas. Then it wil stall until warmed up..; any body have any clues??

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 3:41 am
by mike-tracy
That happened to me on my newer Legacy. What ended up fixing the problem was unplugging/plugging in the ECU and cleaning all the grounds in the engine bay. It took me forever to figure that one out.

If I remember right my toyota pickup had similar problems until I replaced the O2 sensor, but that was more obvious because the exhaust smelled very rich.

Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:21 pm
by dawagonbus
I wanted to update everybody on this issue. I never did get around to checking what might be causing the engine to die like it was doing after I changed out the plugs but lo and behold over the past few weeks the problem has corrected itself slowly but surely. I've only had to restart it once in the past week. My guess is that I won't have any more issues after this week or next.

Hopefully.
Thank you to the two that posted replies. I appreciate it.

Untill next time...

Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:40 pm
by ericem
My car had similar issues. I think one of your plugs don't have the washers seated correctly. Best thing to do is put a little bit of lithium grease on the gasket so it doesn't slide down the threads.