Helo everybody,

Well I'm new at these forums, it's great to see a place like this. I'm from Chile, and I have an Impreza, it's a 1.6TS, 2005 model. Maybe you don't know this model cause 1.6 engines are available only in some countries. It's, a SOHC engine with 95HP, which doesn't do well at all with the 1270kgs. of the car.

I'm not worried about power anyway, cause I don't use my car for racing or anything like that. It's just the car that I use daily. The reason I'm writing is because the car is having a very weird problem.

It's my first car, so in the first months I wasn't able to notice anything strange cause I didn't have other cars to compare with. However, I noticed that sometimes when I started from a red light, the car had a noticeable loss of power under 2500RPM. When the engine reached 2500RPM, you could feel like if something pushed the car and now it seemed to be a "normal" car.

What's curious about this problem, is that it doesn't happen only in certain conditions. In fact, it happens completely randomly. It has nothing to do with the engine's temperature or anything. It can happen many times in a day, or it can happen once a week. It can last only five minutes, or it can last hours.

One day I got bored of this, the loss of power was making the car unsafe, especially when starting from a "stop" sign with bad visibility. It was like if the car was "choking", and it was really hard to start from 0km/h in a safe way, so I could cross the street fast enough. Starting uphill?? THAT was a problem, and it still is a problem when this "failure" appears. So I took the car to the Subaru Service. They cleaned the MAP, the spark plugs and adjusted some other things. The car left the service well, just as I had left it to them, cause when I took it to the service the failure wasn't happening (but the mechanics where aware of it cause I had showed the problem to them a few days before).

Two days later, the problem appeared again and I took the car again to the service. This time, I arrived there with the "choking" problem of the car. They connected the Subaru SelectMonitor to the car and we went to drive for a few minutes. The SelectMonitor showed a failure in the crankshaft(?) sensor, but the guy who was with me gave no importance to it at all. He told me to stop, he then reseted the ECU, and we started again. Voila!! The problem of the car was gone.
I went home knowing that it would come back in any moment. Suddenly, when I was going uphill in a place I usually go in 3rd gear, the car started "choking" and I had to put 2nd gear, and I could do it to the top at a very slow speed.

Well, this really worries me, I'm completely dissapointed with the car. I love the way it looks, it's very comfortable, etc. But this car has given me more problems than good times.

What do you think could be the problem?? Should I pay attention to that cranckshaft(?) sensor? I know of other 1.6TS that had the same problem, and the people here at Subaru couldn't help him, so he made a complete mess and they changed his car for a new one. I don't know if I'll be able to do the same thing, so your help is reaaaally welcome.

Greets from down here, thanks in advance, bye!!!

 

It does sound like you have a possable crank sensor fault, I am not 100% sure on your model , but most engine management systems if they detect a fault, will go into "limp home mode" eg reduced power to get you home/garage, They record the fault code in the ecu, unfortunatly they don`t usually record a time / date it happened, and can be from a silly little fault from a long time before, eg someone unplugs the wrong plug when the engine is running, The guy that reset it probably cleared it first to see whats new,
I would take it back , ask them to read fault codes, then reset, try to take the guy out in the car untill it happens again, then read again,
not sure in your part of the world, But I would if they don`t want to / it wont do it when he`s in there, Ask them if they have a loan car you can have, and the mechanic use your car until the fault is found,
Have a good one
Tim

 

Thanks for your help Tim-H. I'll take the car back there so they get new readings.

Any other ideas?? Some people have told me it could be the fuel pump. Other have told me it could be the spark plugs' cables.

Thanks again, bye!

 

49 views and only 1 idea??

cheers, bye!