darrenbrigman

Well, I think I have good news! I put a new coil on, and put an anti-foul adapter between the rear 02 and the cat, cleared codes, and let the engine warm up. I'm idling at 712rpm, maf at 3.89 to 3.93, map KPA at 30, coolant temp at 188, 15 degrees ignition advance, STF trm1 5.1 to 5.7, fuel system 1 closed, 02s11 .72 to .74 volts, 02s12 at .785 volts, and best of all, no engine flutter! I honestly have no idea what most of the info above means, but that is what the scanner showed. It also shows catalyst normal! I'm going to drive it a bit today and see if the CEL comes on again. Looks like it is time to order new cats. Thanks for all the help, you guys are the best!!

Yep, I'm not overly concerned about the cat codes now. As soon as I get the skipping fixed, I'm going to put new cats on the car. I don't want to spend the money on new cats (they are quite pricey!) only to find out that I have a problem that will damage the cats. I have ordered a set of subaru wires, and as soon as they come in, I'll put them on. I'm also going to try swapping coils with my friend's car to see if that makes a difference. Thanks for all the suggestions! It's nice to see that there are people out there who actually understand subies. It seems that I'm the only one in this part of the state that actually likes a subaru!

I haven't done the water test yet. I will give that a try tonight. Plugs are NGK, and the wires... well, no, the wires are not factory subaru wires. (was trying to save a few bucks.) If the coil is acting up, would it not trigger the CEL for cylinder misfire? As you can tell, I'm not much of a mechanic when it comes to these things.

Hello everyone! I'm Darren from south GA, and recently purchased a '99 legacy outback with the twin cam 2.5 liter engine/auto trans. The engine 'flutters' for lack of a better term. It almost feels like a cylinder misfire, but it usually isn't that bad. The car has 180,000 miles on it, but appears to have been taken care of fairly well. The CEL was on when I bought the car, and codes showed misfire on 3 of the 4 cylinders. I changed the plugs, reset the light, and it came back on within 100 miles. Same misfire codes. Then put new plug wires on, and reset. I put about 400 miles on it, and the CEL stayed out. The flutter was still there though. (although it did run much better after the plugs and wires.) I put a new fuel filter in, and replaced all 4 injectors. Car runs great above 2000 rpm, but below that, I still have the flutter. The exhaust seemed to be restricted, when comparing the output from the tailpipe with another '99 that a friend has. I pulled the cats off and... well, yeah, I removed a portion of the catalyst brick. Was going to see if this fixed the problem, and if it did, was going to order new cats. Anyway, the car has much better throttle response now, but still has the flutter. Strangely enough, when I reset the CEL light, it seems like the car runs perfectly with no flutter for a few miles. After 'fixing' the cats, I'm getting the CEL again, but this time it is showing a code for catalyst inefficiency. I'm sure this is due to the cats being open. I'm showing .08 volts on the front O2 sensor, and .075 on the rear. I certainly don't mind spending the money to get this thing running right, but I hate to just throw money at it until it works. My wife is a little ticked at me for selling her volvo V70 to purchase this one... guess I should have asked first! I do have a mechanic buddy who says that the problem is a bad inner CV joint, but after putting it in neutral and bringing the engine up to about 1200 rpms, the flutter could be felt. Then he said it has to be a motor mount. I think he's just guessing at this point. Anyway, if anybody has any suggestions, please let me know!