Had to call subaru assistance out this morning as the scoob (MY00) wouldn't start. It was sorta turning over but wasn't firing at all. The voltage-check routine on the cat 1 system gave a reading of 12 volts so the battery was fine.

Bloke came out and asked me when was the last time it had been run, I told him I'd used it yesterday and had only reversed it out of the garage to get my bike sorted, then drove it back in a short while later. He suspected flooding and, after temporarily disabling the fuel supply it eventually fired up. He also mentioned that they get a lot of callouts on sundays after people have done the same thing, but to wash their car on the saturday.

I'm curious now as to how this can happen. What's the difference between the car being fired up for 30 seconds, as opposed to 30 minutes (apart from operating temparatures of course). Also which sensor would have decided that the engine was flooded and therefore (presumably) killed the ignition?

Whip

 

This is intensely irritating! Happened to me twice in two weeks, both times when shifting the Scoob to let the wife move her wheels. Second time round I waited 2 hrs cos I suspected it had flooded to no avail - cost me plenty for a new set of plugs which the dealer told me they might as well change when "clearing the cylinders since it was an hors labour to pull them anyway".
Now I never move the car unless I'm goin' for a spin. It'd be interestin' to know whether this is a common Scooby fault.

Canuck

 

Its simple really and occurs to most sensor driven modern engines. You start the car from cold so the ecu throws loads of fuel into the mix (like an old choke used to) so the engine is running v.rich. You turn off the car. You restart the car and the ecu thinks "thats 'king cold" and throws a load more fuel in. At this point you have a huge overfueling problem coupled with the fact that the engine is cold (and therefore the piston rings etc are not sealing correctly yet). The fuel has to go somewhere which is usually past the rings 'washing' the bores. Washed bores = no sealing which in turn = no compression (its all escapeing). No compression = no start. The more you turn the engine the worse it gets until you have to remove the plugs to dry them off.

Avoid this by letting the car idle and warm up before turning the thing off. If it does happen try pulling the fuel pump fuse and cranking the engine for a bit (thus starving it of fuel / preventing overfuelling) pop the fuse back in and crank it again it should start but it may take a little while.

Hope thats a simple explanation!!!

 

Not bad Duncan, for a country boy!!!!

 

DMB - Cheers for the explanation, makes perfect sense. I suppose now would be a good time for an oil change, as fuel will have contaminated it.

Glad to see that I'm not the only person who's had this problem!

Whip

 

RON you cheeky ******!! Which of us lives further out in the sticks?? Oh yeah the Godspeeds are ordered

Whip no probs its more common than you could imagine! just glad you could understand my blatherings