problem with power in low gears

[jamiew]

Hi Guys, having a problem with my 1999 legacy (30th anniversay edition) 2.5l auto.  I've had a search through the forums but not seen anything that matches, hopefully someone has had a similar issue!

Since I bought it 2 years ago, there's been an intermittent issue with power in the low gears where occasionally i'll go to put my foot down from stopped or from low speed and nothing happens!  The car rolls forward but only at <5mph. Theres engine pitch drops which I can only compare to when I accidentally try to pull away on my old bike with the choke still on.  2-3 seconds later the power kicks in and all is well! This happens 1 or 2 days a week and the rest of the time its fine. 

More recently (3 weeks) I've been getting a short judder when idling, which is worse on a cold startup.  This is followed by what feels like slipping when pulling away.  Generally fine once into 2nd and above. 

I've did think it might be the transmission starting to go, but no problems in the higher gears, no slipping going up steep hills/under load (other than when pulling away on a cold start) and gear changes are mostly smooth.  ATF is at the correct level and still looks to be in good condition too. Spark plugs are about 10,000m old, air filter was changed 6 months ago.  Next step was going to be changing the fuel filter, but by the looks of things I only have an in-tank filter, not one under the hood so I was wondering if anyone here has any ideas of what to try first before I go fiddling around in there!  TIA

[montana tom]

From your description I would say that your power loss is not related to any possible transmission issues you may have. 

Have you checked for any codes ? Fuel filter wouldn't act that way but its  Interesting that on a 99 the fuel filter is in-tank,  they did not do that here until 2005. 

I would suspect a MAF if your car has one.  The throttle position switch could be acting up. Coil shorting ?  

As you can tell I'm thinking its an electrical issue.  Do you have another vehicle you can "borrow" parts from to try ?    

[jamiew]

On 7/8/2018 at 2:10 AM, montana tom said:

From your description I would say that your power loss is not related to any possible transmission issues you may have. 

Have you checked for any codes ? Fuel filter wouldn't act that way but its  Interesting that on a 99 the fuel filter is in-tank,  they did not do that here until 2005. 

I would suspect a MAF if your car has one.  The throttle position switch could be acting up. Coil shorting ?  

As you can tell I'm thinking its an electrical issue.  Do you have another vehicle you can "borrow" parts from to try ?    

Thanks Tom, I was surprised not to find the fuel filter under the hood too! But where it should be there is instead what looks like 2 small fuel regulators? I'm in New Zealand and I think it's a Jap import so I guess it could be different over here... It also doesn't look like it has a MAF sensor either.   A lot of parts for this car have been more similar to 2000 models so i guess it just uses MAP sensor?  

I don't have a a donor car for parts, but there are plenty of scoobies broken for parts around here so I could get my hands on them fairly cheap if need be.  First up I'll read the codes and see what comes up.