ok 1996 wrx 260ps version 2.

had a problem with car last week turned out to be fuel pump, after replaced car was fine no troble at all, today however was on way home and she just died on me as if the ignition had been turned off, no spluttering no knockinf popping or banging just slowly came to a stop, all it is doing is turning over untill battery dies, put a jumper pack on and still not starting in case alternator had gone,

have checked my timing belt it is still intact so i am thinking electrical i have all ignition lights and the CEL did NOT come on to register a fault,

how do i check for a spark at the plugs is it a case of remiving each individual coil pack and rest it agaist the chassis to see if she sparks, if no spark on all packs where do i look,

in need of desperate help as i rely on the car as i have a disabled son who needs it to get to his day care,

thanks guys for any help

Mark

 

have been told cam/crank sensor if now spark, thinking about it last couple of days when i give it some beans it seemed to hit either a boost or fuel cut although my avcr is only set at 0.95bar on high setting, at the low setting 0.75 it sits at that fine with no problem of cut at all,

this morning for some reason when i changed up a gear there was a rather large crack sound from the tailpipe more than useual and the avcr read a boost reading of 1.24 boost..............car seemed fine all day no problems then this afternoon when it just seemed to run out of power

 

When you turn on the ignition but before you crank the starter you should hear the fuel pump start. It should buzz for a few seconds then stop. If you dont hear this then look at the power supply to the fuel pump/fuses etc.

After that you will be needing to check for spark from the plugs.

If you dont find anything obvious you will need a garage, preferably a Subaru specialist.

Andy

 

Just to clarify, do you have a standard Subaru ECU, or Apexi/aftermarket?

If you do have Subaru management, and the engine dies in the manner you've described without the CEL coming on, and you are confident that fuel supply wasn't interrupted, the likeliest explanation is that the ECU main power dropped out, either the fuse supplying it or the relay further down the circuit.

That's true, if there's no spark. However if one of those two had failed or ceased to read when the engine died earlier on, it should have put the CEL on straight away (and a black plug check would have revealed error 11 or 13).

When you turn the ignition on now, is the check engine light coming on or not? Also, what happens if you do a black plug check now? Do you get errors, all clear or no flashing CEL at all?

In addition, when you had the fuel pump replaced, was it new, or an old/recycled one? Were the connections to it checked before/during replacement?

 

hi splitpin, i have Z4 ecu, will do a black plug check this am to check for errors and report bk, will also find out as for the pump and check all wiring,

cheers

errors as follows,

42-idle switch
45-pressure sensor
24-idle control system malfunction
31-tps circuit

yes the CEL light comes on as normal

ok i have a spark on the 2 drivers side so that would rule out cam and crank sensor would it not?
fuel pump is priming so again i can rule that out?

kind of stumped now so any other idea's from the read errors

 

so many people read this yet so little replies....................

 

The title caught my eye- Died while driving advice please. My advice at this point would have been to stop haunting us.

Once I realised it was a technical issue I couldn't offer more.

Anyways free bump, anyone help this man?

 

Yep, same for me, I assumed someone had sadly died

 

How can you be stumped? You have 4 fault codes.

42,24 and possibly 31 could cause starting issues.
and
45 and again possibly 31 could cause running issues.

You could possibly try a full reset, just incase some are old/stored codes. But as i see it you have plenty to go at.

 

Right, given all the above, one possibly relevant point. When was the last time you read the error memory prior to this? Or, to put it another way, is it possible these errors have been hanging around for a good old while and are nothing to do with the current problem?

And...

Again, just to confirm, did you see the CEL come on when the engine died? If not (and if you're absolutely sure), those errors you're reporting above have been hanging round in the historic code memory for some time and are probably nothing to do with the current problem (and therefore a red herring).

While they may be legitimate and current, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that the 24, 31 and 42 errors have been caused by someone turning the ignition on with the inlet manifold loom disconnected, for example.

Yes, you can rule them out if you're getting spark somewhere. The ECU only switches on spark and fuel once it acquires timing info from those two sensors.

Semi. You move past it for the time being until you've got spark in all four cylinders. It's within the bounds of possibility that you have some sort of fuel supply issue though.

The key point with those is, as above, whether they're relevant to this problem or a bit of past history. If you're sure you didn't see the CEL come on when the engine died, they're probably from the past.

The next thing I would recommend you do in this scenario is reset the ECU. You clearly can't do this via the proper method (i.e. black and green plugs then drive) if the engine won't start. So, disconnect the battery for about an hour, have a go at starting, and then, assuming it doesn't fire, connect the black plugs again and see if you have any stored errors. If it comes up clear, then we will assume, for the time being, that those errors are historic rather than current.

Spark from two cylinders: Are you absolutely sure there's nothing coming from the 2/4 side? I don't know whether the phase 1 classics run wasted spark or independent ignition - so it would be worth asking someone who knows the older cars better than I do. If they do run wasted, it would be worth checking which cylinders are paired.

The other thing you can do right now is transfer one of the coilpacks from one of the cylinders that is working over to the two that aren't and checking for signs of life. If you get spark, then this suggests pack failure (although it would be unusual for two to go at exactly the same time). If it doesn't, the next point up the chain is the igniter pack (which again, I'm presuming is a separate item on a phase 1 car). Do you know anyone else with the same age Impreza in your area you could borrow one from to check?

Incidentally, if it's sparking on two cylinders, is it banging/popping/firing over without catching when you try and start it?