1988 GL SPFI refusing to start once warm

[zap1270]

Hello all, my wife is on the road in Southern Arizona at the moment (we're out of Portland, OR) and is experiencing a frustrating issue. The car starts fine in the morning and runs fine, but once warmed up, say after filling up at a gas station or going grocery shopping, it has extreme difficulty re-starting.... It always runs fine though once started. The car cranks just fine, but won't seem to fire. Then after a short while, the starter starts to skip a little bit as if to start, and if she pushed the gas pedal then, it will start. Odd.....

 

Have replaced/rebuilt the motor (Ea82 SPFI), spark plugs, plug wires, ignition coil, fuel filter. Fuel pressure is within spec.

 

 

Also, strangely, wires along the ignition circuit appear to be becoming really brittle and cracking off. Once of the 1-year-old spark plug wires did this when she tried to ensure it was on tight, and then when she went to unhook the old igntion coil, one of two the smaller wires simply cracked off... I've never seen this happen on a car before.

 

Any suggestions on what else she can look at? It seems as if something might be warming up and then failing to do it's job...

 

Also, she's in the Tucson, AZ area - anyone out that way that could recommend a good shop that knows old Subaru's to go to?

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions,

 

Steve

[86 Wonder Wedge]

Could be a lying Coolant temp sensor. How's the gas mileage?

 

Also just have her try and hold the throttle 50% and try to start. An idle air control valve can do that too (failure to open, stuck, ect) so an open throttle can "mimic" and idle air valve allowing enough air to get in to start.

 

Also tell her to keep an eye on the water temp. My 86 EA82T was doing the "refusal to start/idle" when warm just before the headgaskets when.. but that's the extreme end for the SPFI...

[naru]

Try starting w/100% throttle on the 2nd attempt.