cascadeclimbn

I have a 96 impreza obw and yesterday I went to start my car to leave work and nothing happened. I got a jump from a friend b/c at first I thought I had a dead battery but everything in the interior worked as well as my exterior lights. The car made absolutely no sounds...no clicking, nothing. I thought maybe the alternator but I always assumed the battery would either be completely dead or still make attempt to turn the car over even if the alternator was dead. The fuel filter and lines as well as spark wires and plugs are all only 2 months (or less) old. I tried pumping the gas, starting it in nuetral, still nothing. Finally after like 10 minutes and standing around scratching my head it started right up just fine and drove fine. Ive stopped and started it several times since...still have no idea what could have caused it. I'm taking a 500+ mile trip down to Bend, OR and through some remote country and I'd rather it not happen again...anyone have any ideas on what my problem could have been/is? The only other symptom I have with my car is it leaks a bit of oil and the engine runs hot and has a burning smell sometimes but I figure thats normal on a car pushing close to 250k.

So I went to change my brakes today and clean up my calipers and the pin's in the calipers were seized so I had to take the torch to hammer them free. In the process one got bent so I spent all day long tracking down a pin...O'Reilly's was the only one who had it since they have a warehouse in town that I was able to pick it up at but it turns out that the one they sold me is the wrong size...its a 11mm head with a mx8 thread size and the pin itself was too short and too narrow in width. I need a 14mm head and mx10 thread size but nobody seems to be able to find any such pin for a 96 Subaru Impreza Outback. It's a mystery pin and something that has to be special ordered by the myriad number of auto parts stores in my area. Does anybody know what is going on here? Why is the pin that fits my caliper different from what auto parts store's computers are telling them? Can anyone affirm that I require the aforementioned pin type as the correct pin type? Not sure what to do here. Ordering a new caliper won't solve the problem because it wont come with the pin. Ordering a new caliper bracket will leave me without wheels till Tuesday afternoon. I need to know how to get a hold of the right sized caliper pin.

What's the process for putting in new carpet? Is it just ripping up the old carpet and laying the new stuff down and snapping it into place or something like that? Do I need any special tools or can I just take a day and rip out old then throw in new? Also...what year for the impreza obw can I look at for an exact carpet match?

I want to re-do the interior in my new to me 96 impreza obw. What I definitely need is all new carpet and new seats. What's the best way to go about installing new carpet? I figure I just rip up the current carpet completely and find a good donor car and take the carpet out of there, ya? Also, what year vehicle would you guys recommend taking seats out of if I wanted to put in more comfortable seats?

Sounds to me like a fuel filter issue. Its a $20 part and easy to replace. I'd also look into replacing your timing belt.

I had a similar problem with my 96 Impreza OBW 2.2 just recently. It would rev up the rpm's but would not accelerate up hills and would lose power. From what your saying I think your on the right track with a possible fuel probelm. Did the vehicle throw a check engine light? Have you checked all your plugs for signs of fouling? I would start with the cheapest things first, like things you can check for free and cheap parts and move up. Check your wires and make sure there is no damage there. When was the last time you changed your pcv valve? Fuel filter?

No idea when the O2 sensor was replaced as I just bought the car a couple months ago. It did only misfire when warm and never when cold. But, since changing the fuel filter and pcv valve a few days ago I haven't had any problems out of it and I have put another 400 miles on it from a fishing trip the last couple days...so I think I fixed it (with much help from the folks on this forum).

It seemed to run "fine". Good I suppose. The car has had things wrong with it since I bought it so I dont really have anything to compare it too as far as what it's supposed to feel like power wise but it does seem to still feel a little underpowered...it does have 240k mi on it though. But overall, the last 175 hwy mi it has run well with no issues other than just feeling slightly underpowered..also the trans shifts just a little hard from 1st to second...but that's about it. Ill still plan to clean the egr valve tomorrow and I'm going to also change the oil. Any other recommendations on things to clean or look at while im cleaning the egr?

Whoops! I read my notes wrong in my phone...the compression was between 175 and 180 psi not 75 and 80...sorry about that. Were you able to find anything on vaccum pressure and/or fuel pressure. I still havent been able to find specs on those either...maybe I'm googling the wrong keywords.

I have the EJ22...built before 6/1996

Not to hijack this thread but Im also thinking about doing something with my carpet b/c it's filthy with stains, dog hair, dirt and also ripped up quite a bit...anyone ever just taken the carpet out completely and "rhino lined" the floors? Ive heard of people doing this in Jeeps; wondering what the outcome would be in a subie. And to add to this thread...ive been to junk yards and seen parts cars with really nice carpet so maybe check your local scrap yards for your exact vehicle and see what the interior looks like.

So here is my update on the test drive from yesterday: After changing the fuel filter and pcv valve I took it out on the highway and within 5 miles it started having the same symptoms (car shaking, erratic shifting, loss of acceleration) but this time it didnt throw a check engine light and "drove out of it" so to speak so I kept driving then another 15 miles down the highway the same thing happened again except this time the symptoms did lead to a flashing CEL and I had to pull over for 10 minutes. I drove it down the back roads back to the closest auto parts store where the read the CEL and it was another misfire code in cylinder 1. Funny thing is, when I left the auto parts store the CEL dissapeared from my dash and the car seemed to drive normal again so I decided to take it back on the highway and drove for an hour at 60-70mph with no problems--I was close to my parents house so I drove there and my stepdad helped me check compression, fuel pressure, and vaccum. I couldnt find the specs anywhere so can anyone tell me if this checks out: Compression was around 175-80 in all cylinders, fuel pressure was steady at 28psi, and vacuum (here at sea level) was 27. Can anyone tell me if all that is within range? Also can anyone tell me why I would have the same symptoms after changing the fuelk filter and pcv valve for the first 15 miles and then the next 175 miles of highway driving no issues at all? I even took it up a long steep hill that I never make it up without triggering the CEL and it did absolutely fine. I don't know if I fixed it, masked the problem, or just got lucky for a few miles. Any dieas/opinions/thoughts, etc are appreciated.

Thanks willwright! I havent cleaned the egr valve yet but plan on doing that tomorrow...what else do you reccomend going thru and cleaning up? And do I just clean the EGR with brake fluid?

I checked and there was no corrosion. Just put in a new fuel filter and Pcv valve and am about to test drive it. The old fuel filter looked like it hadn't been replaced in a very long time but the gas that poured out looked clean to me (though I probably don't know what I'm supposed to be looking at). The Pcv valve looked like a disaster though and perhaps has never been changed. Lots of nasty sludge and other particulates inside it and I have it a shake and didn't hear any moving parts. Will report back on how the test drive went in like a half hr.

Ah okay. Well my 96 OBW's coil pack has the female connector...opposite of the one in the photo. I think those are on just the outback wagons. At any rate, still didnt see any noticeable damage to the coil pack itself.

Good point. I didn't even check the electrical connector that runs from the engine bay. Ill take a look today. Although when I tested the old coil pack I didnt notice any corrosion on the connector coming of the coil pack.

I bought a fuel filter last night and will be changing that this afternoon when I get home...it'd be real nice if that little thing was the issue (fingers crossed). What made you think your problem was the crank sensor?

Any check engine lights? Have you noticed any decrease in power? Could be a fuel pump issue.

Does anybody else think my problem could be the fuel pump? Any way to check before dropping $120 on a new one?

So upon recommendation from this site I went and got better plug wires. None of the auto part stores had any NKG's in stock and it would have taken min., 2 days for them to come in and the Subie dealership didnt have OEM's in stock either so I went with a set of Intermotor Premium wires. They were $48 (about the same price as NKG's) and the guy at Cut Rate Auto said he liked them way better than NKG's. They are made to exact OEM specs. Put them on started up the car and immediately noticed a big difference...these wires are good. But, unfortunately not my problem as the misfire in cylinder 1 from this morning has now come back as a misfire in cylinder 3. Tomorrow I'm going to look in to replacing the fuel pump and Sunday I'm gonna check compression. Anybody have anything else to add or any ideas as to what could be going on? Also, what is the worst case scenario I could be facing with misfires jumping from cylinder to cylinder, car shaking and losing acceleration power?

I think fuel pump and fuel filter will be were I focus tomorrow. Thanks for the advice.

I keep hearing that about the wires from a lot of folks on here. You really think it could be the wires? If that's the case I suppose I'll pick up a new set of oem's at the dealer tomorrow.

So I'm going to pour a pint of seafoam into my gas tank and see if that helps anything till I can go over to my stepdads Sunday and check compression and fuel pressure. In the meantime does anyone else have any ideas on what to check/replace?

grossgary, when I bought the car about 2 months ago it did have 2 other codes at the time--a MAP sensor which was resolved by reconnecting a vaccum line that'd come undone and a knock sensor code which was resolved by replacing the faulty knock sensor...neither of those issues have returned since fixing the first time 1000+ miles ago of which there havent been any other check engine lights since other than the multiple misfire's. I used Duralast wires and NGK V-Power plugs and today I bought a Duralast ignition coil b/c its the only one in stock within 25 miles. I have not replaced the fuel filter and dont know if the previous owner ever did...what problem could that be causing? Maybe I'll try and replace that today. How do I check fuel presssure? Is there a way to test the ignitor?

I own a 96 impreza outback wagon. I have a misfire that keeps bouncing around cylinders and comes back everytime I replace something. Last month I replaced the plugs because of a misfire in cylinder 2 I believe...the car ran fine for a week. Then CEL came on again and showed another misfire so I replaced wires. After the wire swap it ran fine for another two weeks and started having the same problem with the CEL showing at first a misfire in cylinder three then 2 days later a misfire in cylinder's 3 and 4 so this led me to believe that if there were misfires in both 3 and 4 which run off the same side of the coil pack that it has to be the ignition coil...this morning i put on a new ignition coil and not more than 10 miles down the highway the problem came back and is now showing a misfire on cylinder #1. The whole time the symptoms have always been that the car will start running rough and shaking and not accelerate with rpm's especially at higher speeds and on steeper grades. The car will also have some slight smoke from underneath the engine after the CEL starts flashing. The girl at Autozone thinks its a fuel injector but that doesnt make any sense to me unless it would be that all 4 fuel injectors need replaced. Any ideas?