2005 Subaru Baja turbo, strong smelling gas, used 1/4 tank to go 54 miles, HELP HELP HELP

[rtsuneyoshi]

Baja was bought in July in Arizona, drove to San Diego, no problem, Prior to shipping to Hawaii, had timing belt changed and $2700 worth of parts and labor by San Diego mechanic (previously 35 years with Subaru). Drove Baja from San Diego to Long Beach Port, check engine light came on, cruise light flashing, strong gas smell in starting up, died about ten times in traffic but started again.  Felt like gas was not flowing. Dropped car off and shipped to Hawaii.  Picked up in Hawaii, filled gas, hard starting, strong smelling gas, check engine light on, cruise light on, car kept dying so took to new shop in Hawaii.  Left car for two weeks, ASC mechanic said timing belt was installed four knobs off, had to change spark plugs, another $672. Car was left in garage and started occasionally but strong gas smell ands white smoke. Filled gas twice and got about 58 miles for 1/2 tank super gas. Today, took back to mechanic, strong gas smell, kept dying on freeway.  Strong gas smell, used top 1/3 tank gas to go 15 miles. I have Car Med and it said change sparkplugs and oxygen sensor so bought Denso iridium spark plugs and denso oxygen sensor and took to mechanic and left the car to repair. Problems: check engine light on, cruise light on, very strong gas smell in garage, uses too much gas when driving short distance, very bad idle, sounds like gas is not flowing, sometimes turbo does not kick in, engine dies often,  had one incident of complete shutdown of system driving to repair shop.  Should I take to Subaru dealer and really get cleaned out?  HELP   HELP  HELP.

Elite vs Cesars Repair.pdf

[john in KY]

Sounds like part of the problem could be from a ruptured fuel pressure regulator or leaking injectors. Do a fuel pressure test to verify if pressure is within specs with engine running and after shut down. Pressure should remain steady after the engine is turned off. If the needle slowly drops over time then there is a leak somewhere. An easy way to check for a ruptured FPR is to just pull its vacuum line. If fuel squirts out, engine running, then the FPR has failed.  

 

Since you don't know the history of the car, previous owner could have replaced the stock injectors with much larger ones which would compound the problem. 

[idosubaru]

someone needs to look at the fuel system.  it's puking fuel into the engine.

you don't need more parts thrown at it - you need a proper diagnosis:

check the fuel system pressure and find out where the fuel is going wonky.

 

$2,700....that's a horrific maintenance/repair bill.

and then $672 of more work that didn't fix the fuel issue.

[idosubaru]

once you get this fixed properly - you should change the oil since it's probably saturated with gas.

[spazomatic]

I seem to remember reading of a factory recall, related to the fuel lines toward the rear...

[belacane]

On the 2005 Baja, the recall was on the fuel pump (outlet pressure hose was liable to crack).

 

Your cruise is probably fine. It disables itself whenever a check engine light comes on in early to mid 2000's Subarus.

Edited October 2, 2014 by belacane

[Caboobaroo]

The one question I have, what code(s) have prompted the check engine light to come on?

 

Edit, I finally got your PDF file loaded.

 

I would have the freeze frame data looked at to see if all these codes came on at once or are they separate. If nothing is found to be out of the ordinary, have the ECU memory cleared and drive it until the light comes back on. Then start diagnosing...

Edited October 3, 2014 by Caboobaroo

[ocei77]

Any misfire codes?

My daughter's 98 IOB used 2 tanks of gas to drive the 250 to visit.

Pulled wires while changing plugs and 2 were barely attached at the electrodes and separated on pulling them out.

Changing wires along with plugs fixed her problem.

 

O.