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Strange Engine Failure in '98 Legacy


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2.2, auto trans, 220K. Wife is driving at highway speed (65mph), and engine stops running. Power is on. She coasts to a stop on the side of the road and tries to start it -- power is there, but car does not turn over. Puzzled, she sits there for 5 minutes, and then tries again, and it fires up.

 

Since she is in Denver and I in the hills, I advised her to take it in for a look. She got it to the mechanic fine and he could not replicate the issue on three separate test drives. On the fourth, it occurred again.

 

They have checked: MAF sensor, alternator, plugs and wires. Codes thrown for a vacuum pressure leak. Gas cap was replaced in an effort to remedy that. I also checked the fuel filler pipe and while it has rust on it, it didn't look like it was rusted through.

 

The car does not stall, per se, like it is starved for fuel -- it just stops. Any ideas?

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Could be-

Alarm

Main relay

Ignition switch.

Bad battery cable

Bad ground(s)

 

Next time it happens (amuse me) put the car in neutral and try to start it.

 

There is not much bewtween the battery and the starter on this car hence why I am leaning towards a cable ground or ignition switch or main relay. Also those would kill the car.

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The mystery continues. Mancinelli's has given up. They were only able to duplicate the problem once. Did a full diagnostic of the vehicle and couldn't find any issues except the aforementioned P0440 CEL, which they don't believe is the source of the problem. Got the car to "shudder" once this morning while hooked up to computer, but nothing registered.

 

A couple more details from the wife -- she was going 30mph under light acceleration when it occurred. No sputtering or stalling, just off.

 

She is on her way back up I-70 so I hope it doesn't happen again today. If it continues I guess I will print this thread out and take it somewhere locally. Thank you for the suggestions and I will post an update if/when we identify the source.

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She made it back without issue. I'll try to take a look at some of the other things mentioned over the weekend.

 

Shawn - does your shop do straight up repair work as well, or are you focused solely on restorations? I'd love to bring our vehicles to you in the future.

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She made it back without issue. I'll try to take a look at some of the other things mentioned over the weekend.

 

Shawn - does your shop do straight up repair work as well, or are you focused solely on restorations? I'd love to bring our vehicles to you in the future.

 

Yes. Mostly straight repair work in fact.

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