This morning I parked my car, facing forwards, in a friends driveway, which is up hill.

I turned the car off, got out, didn't lock it and went to the house. I was there for less than five minutes, came back to my car got in, put the key in the ignition and turned it. The car started straight away, as I would have expected and then coughed and died. I tried to start it again and even though the starter motor spun freely it was not going to start.

I felt it sounded like it had run out of petrol but I had over three quarters of a tank left?

Luckily I was able to roll backwards out of the driveway and park on the other side of the road, which was level. I stopped there for a minute while I contemplated calling the AA. I had a look around the dash, turned the radio off and looked for any obvious signs as to why the car would not start.

So I tried the ignition key again and after a few quick spins of the starter the engine burst into life as if none of the above had even happened.

It had run perfectly before this happened and has run perfectly since.

Was it caused by fuel starvation because I was parked with the front pointing up hill? Or was it just one of those inexplicable things that sometimes happens?

Has anyone else experienced anything similar in a Subaru?

 

The fuel pick up is in the front on the tank on the o/s. Certainly if you were low on fuel its possible all the fuel was at the back of the tank so the pump couldnt pic any upp

 

Interesting.

But it's like I said, The fuel gauge was on three quarters. But the slope was making the car lean to the left a bit, possibly pulling the petrol away from the fuel pick up!

I'll stay away from parking with the car facing up steepish slopes and see whether I get a similar problem again in different circumstances.

 

If you had 3/4 of a tank mate it would need to be one hell of a steep slope,,

 

Hmmm I know. That's what makes me think it's an unusual problem that does not manifest itself at any other time I'm driving it.

I'll keep up the AA membership as I feel sure I'll need it one day if this proves to be an undiagnosable intermittent problem.

But like I said above, as soon as the car was on a level surface it started no problem!

 

if i was you i would swap the fuel pump to be safe,. it does seem to be flow related,

 

Yes might be a good idea!

 

Do you have a Sigma alarm, and does your freind live near a police/fire station or big supermarket? You may have had radio lockout.
Did you notice if the key light on the dashboard was alight?

 

A very interesting theory.

The house I was visiting is quite big and probably does have some kind of burglar alarm fitted, but is nowhere near either a Police or Fire Station or a Supermarket.

My car only has the standard factory fitted alarm/immobiliser, so nothing fancy!

 

I think there's something in this. I've got the standard immobiliser and it starts first time, except when I'm parked behind an ambulance station. They have the doors open and it's around 10 feet away and it's failed to start 3 times in a row! Does seem a bit bizarre but can't think of another reason!

The other day it happened after reading this post, so pushed the car about 10 feet further away from the ambulance station and sure enough, fired up straight away!

Thanks for the post joey!

 

I have tried repeatedly to reproduce the situation that caused this to happen to me, i.e, parking on a slope with the front of the car uppermost, locking it, not locking it, etc, etc and I've never been able to have it happen again and so I am inclined to think that it may have been caused by electrical interference produced by something near where I was parked.

If it happens anywhere again I'll have a good look around for a possible source of electrical interference and if there is something that may cause me a problem, I'll have to push the car away and try to start it again and if it starts, I'll have the answer!

 

If it does turn out to be interference, you may have a fault code, Number 53 I believe stored on the ECU. It's only happened once to me, at a Tesco's petrol station. I have a PSi3, so run an ECU scan for errors after it happened. 53 has somthing to do with the key transponder.
Also, again, if it is interference on the transponder (the chip in the key), there isn't a cheap fix. It also happens with the Sigma alarms, but this stops the key fob from working. If you know the PIN for the alarm, thats the workaround.

 

I love the way Joey keeps referring to 53 ....... Twin Flids favourite person

 

53. I'm starting to think maybe number 53 has only ever happened to me. 53

 

Twin Flid,

I prefer the term 'bromance'