legacycentral bbs

Hey everyone I have a 93 touring wagon with a jdm ej20g and recently I've been having problems with acceleration and very dim headlights even though they are new. It seems like it has slight difficulty starting up but it idles and revs fine. The hesitation and shaking are more prominent in lower gears when the acceleration is sharper and when taking turns when the throttle is down. It seems like it's an an ignition problem but I have no idea where to start other than spark plugs which I have replaced. I keep replacing things trying to fix it but I need to know what's going on. Any help will be appreciated.

I think I would go over all the grounds to make sure they are making good contact and have the alternator checked to see if it is putting out properly.

Jeff

Do you think it's shorting out?

alternator.?

Wouldn't a bad alternator kill my battery eventually? I've been driving it like this for months and it's always started and ran the same. Do you think it could be the injectors or fuel pump?

I have read about quite a few issues related to a bad alternator and yes it would kill the battery over time. In your first post you said the car was acting up recently and now you are saying you have been driving it for months like this. Dim lights, starting difficulty and driveability issues sounds to me like it could be an alternator that isn't up to snuff.

Jeff

in my history with shitty EA82 alts, when the voltage regulator goes out your volts will increase in relation to rpm's.. like going from 10-19v durring the rev range

Have you had the alternator & battery tested? Most parts stores will test them for free. I will note that testing the alternator in the car may have a false positive that it's ok, so if you can remove it and bring it in to test, that would be better.

Also, if you have a voltmeter you can check the system voltage yourself at idle and as you raise the engine rpms.

Like Josh said start with the alternator and battery. I changed the alternator on every 10+yr old Subaru I have ever owned.

I also discovered that many ej20g ecu's fail with age. I'll post up what I find when I open mine up