1997 Legacy intermittent stalling while driving

[rldhschwanz]

MN newbie here.  First time posting.  Thanks in advance for any advise you folks can offer. 

 

Wife had incident with her 1997 Legacy sedan (57,490 low miles) this past weekend.  Vehicle stalled while making right hand turn from one side street to another.  (Fortunately the vehicle following her into the turn managed to swerve around her.)  Wife claims engine just stopped like someone had turned off the ignition key.  The engine was running fine...no stumbling, coughing, bucking...just stopped dead.  No instrument panel alarm lights illuminated other than those that typically illuminate with the ignition key on but the engine not running.  Vehicle immediately restarted after cycling the ignition key. 

 

Several weeks earlier, when trying to start this vehicle in a store parking lot, wife's turning the ignition key did nothing.  No clicks, no cranking.  I grabbed some jumper cables thinking she had a dead battery.  While in route, wife called again and said engine had started after cycling the shift lever, steering wheel and ignition key several times.  No problems subsequently...until stall this weekend.  Wife now refusing to drive this vehicle by herself for fear of being stranded...or, worse, being involved in an accident.

 

Subaru Customer Service said to go to a dealer.  The dealer said bring it in, we'll look at it...but don't expect a fix...unless we can duplicate the problem.  Dealer claims there are no Technical Service Bulletins for this problem.  I've driven the vehicle on various trips over the past several days with no problems.

 

Anyone else had this problem?  How did you fix it?

[Fairtax4me]

You probably have two problems.

First check the battery cables. Make sure the battery posts are clean and tight. That could cause your no-click no-nothing no-start.

That could also be because of worn electrical contacts in the starter, which is fairly common.

 

The random stall is likely to be a faulty solder joint in the MAF sensor. The MAF sensor voltage signal drops out intermittently and when the happens the ECU cuts fuel to the engine. It will stall with no warning and will start right back up again after cycling the key, or if you're rolling fast enough it will resume fuel delivery after 3-4 seconds and it'll re-fire and drive just fine like nothing happened. Often this does not set a code until it has happened several times. This has become an increasingly common issue in the 95 and 96 model years. 97 uses the same MAF design, so this will probably affect the 97 MY as well.