Weird thing happened with the 98 Outback today

[mr.radon]

Drove about 2 miles to the post office at lunch. Spent 20 minutes in there. Returned to the car but the Outback did not want to start. Cranked a second time and it lit up.

Then the idle went up to 2,800? Stayed there for about three minutes.

Been acting fine since then. Normal starts, normal idle?

 

WTF????

 

:eek:

[tcspeer]

Maybe the idle air control valve needs cleaning? you can do a search here to see how to do it, it's very easy no need to take it off.

[mr.radon]

Thanks, I was thinking that or a sticky throttle position sensor or throttle body. Have not worked on a EJ25 IAC, just the old EA82 ones.

I'm going to hook up my reader tomorrow and watch it. Took the wife to dinner and it did it going to and from the restaurant. She was laughing at me. I want to laugh back.

[RallyKeith]

Was there a smell of raw gas at all? A common failure is the coolant temperature sensor. There is one physical piece that bolts into the coolant crossover pipe but it has two sensors in it. One for the dash gauge and one for the ECU. If the one for the ECU goes bad the ECU can think the engine is cold when it's really hot and it adds extra gas and can flood the engine. You can typically smell raw gas from the exhaust when this happens though.

 

Keith

[mr.radon]

Yes I did smell a little gas. Did not do it this morning. So maybe when it is cold it doen't do it but if I start up after it is warm it does hummm...

Sounds like a coolant sensor.

[BluetoE]

When the Coolant Temp Sensor goes out, the default reading is like -40 degrees. Once your engine warms up the ECU still thinks it's ice cold and it floods out. Mine did the exact same thing.

[Setright]

Good advice in this thread.

 

I LOVE this website

[mr.radon]

Hooked up my scanner, well sure enough after like three trips it finally went to -25F. Then 178F then -30F. Replaced the sensor, works well now.

 

 

Woo Hooo.:banana:

[pearlm30]

Nice Job:banana::banana:

BTW, what type of scanner did you use to read the engine coolant temp?

 

 

 

Hooked up my scanner, well sure enough after like three trips it finally went to -25F. Then 178F then -30F. Replaced the sensor, works well now.

 

 

Woo Hooo.:banana:

[mr.radon]

Nice Job:banana::banana:

BTW, what type of scanner did you use to read the engine coolant temp?

 

Innova 3130

[97ej22]

could the idel air control have a afect on daly drivein... like the motor trying to limit at 2500 rpms

[Fairtax4me]

Innova 3130

 

Very nice scanners. I tried a 3160 for a few days but just didn't want to pony up the $$$$ that the Snap On rep wanted for it. Found one on Amazon for about half the price but just haven't had the money to get it now because of other projects.

 

could the idel air control have a afect on daly drivein... like the motor trying to limit at 2500 rpms

Probably not. That sounds more like a plugged cat or fuel starvation. Edited April 13, 2010 by Fairtax4me

[mr.radon]

All right, enough time has gone by I can tell this story. I went to put in the new sensor. but the wife was parked in the garage and as I figured out how to get to the sensor it started to rain. I forgot and left the new sensor on TOP of the throttle body. I drive to work the next day, still have the scanner hooked up and my throttle input is no more then 50% and the pedal is stiff.

QARGGGHHH I yell, not a throttle position sensor too!!!!

 

I park in the garage and lift the hood, mouth hits the floor as I see the new water temp sensor and it is preventing the throttle from moving more then 50% of travel....

 

I managed to get the new sensor in even though the car was still real warm.