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98 OBW won't start when warm


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I have a 1998 Subaru Legacy OBW.  I did the EJ25 to EJ22 swap years ago.  

 

Recently, the car started having problems starting when warm.  It started when cold no problem, but if I turned it off and left it for a few minutes, then came back it wouldnt start until I waited a few more minutes.  One day it just never started again... I took the fuel line off the filter and there was no fuel coming out at all, so I decided it was a fuel pump issue... I replaced the fuel pump and the car ran great for a couple weeks, getting the best gas mileage it had for awhile.... It has CEL through this all but I "smartly" :wacko:  did not take it to have them checked as I thought i had resolved the problem and they would go away soon.  

 

After a couple weeks it started having the same problem of not starting when warm again.  I cleaned the MAF for good measure and noticed that when the car was warm and would not start, I could remove the MAF sensor connection and the car would start with no problems... Then I shut it off, connect the MAF sensor and again it would start normally.... So I used this workaround for a couple days until I took it to have the codes read and their are several pointing to the MAF sensor, the Fuel Temp sensor and the CAM sensor.  The guy at Advanced was kind of rude so I dont have the exact codes, but I can go to Autozone and get the exact codes if that helps.

 

But I was hoping if I have CEL for at least those three sensors that not all are bad?  Could one cause the other to code?  Where would I start?  

 

Thanks!

 

 

Edited by ryanw
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You can also try the coolant temperature sensor. These can fail and cause that sort of problem. I keep a couple junk yard ones on hand just in case. I think it's on the passenger side rear of the intake manifold.

 

Whatever it is, should be a simple fix. Just a pain sometimes figuring it out. The actual code may help. Autozone has been good to me in printing them out after a scan.

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Trying to get repair advice from Autozone worker is like asking the McDonald's cashier for culinary advice.

 

They hire from the same labor pool.

 

Buy your own scanner or get an app for your smartphone.  You'll thank yourself the first time you don't have to deal with Auto Zoned-out staff.

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Trying to get repair advice from Autozone worker is like asking the McDonald's cashier for culinary advice.

 

They hire from the same labor pool.

 

Buy your own scanner or get an app for your smartphone.  You'll thank yourself the first time you don't have to deal with Auto Zoned-out staff.

 

 

lmao...yea, I just bought a cheap one so can at least grab and clear codes.  Should be here in a couple days.  I have a spare MAF laying around so I threw that on for giggles and am now just checking/cleaning the wiring to all these sensors.  After that I will go get the actual codes printed out.

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Try checking or replacing the Engine Coolant Temp. Sensor--as mentioned above by Adventure Subaru.  It's on the coolant crossover pipe under the intake maniforld, passenger side.  The one with the brick-red plastic top IIRC.

 

If it has failed it can really mess up engine operation by feeding bad info to the the ECU.  Good luck.

Edited by Olnick
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If temp senser is bad fans will not shut off and will run ritch

 

Thanks... fans were not running....  

 

When this started I found out I have a coolant leak (for unkown amount of time as it is a small one).  And it was almost 2 quarts low, so I hoped topping it off would help, but it did not.  After I put on the spare MAF and cleaned and removed/reattached cables to all the sensors mentioned the codes have cleared and everything has been working fine.  Does unhooking the battery clear the codes?  I unhooked the negative side for about 12 hours two nights ago and the codes were still there... I had the positive side unhooked this time (cleaning it off) while I was working on the sensors and the codes were clear when I started it back up.  I didnt think unhooking the battery would clear the codes (since it didnt the first time) which leads me to believe I might have fixed something, lol. 

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