98' Subaru legacy outback, intermittent stalling issue

[subuwu]

My car is a 98 outback with around 120k miles on it.

 

PROBLEM HISTORY:

This problem started happening last week, I drove my car across town about 8 miles, then some hours later when I wanted to go home, I started the car, put it into drive, inched forward a bit then the car stalled, the engine just cut out with no drama, all the lights in the dash came on. I was able to start it again fine, then it stalled a couple seconds later after putting some gas on it. Tried this same thing a couple more times, then decided to just let it idle a bit.

The idle was smooth, no problems there, after waiting for about 5 minutes I tried driving it again, and was able to go about a mile before it stalled again in the same manner. I was near a mechanic at this point, so I inched my way to the mechanic by starting and going about 100 feet at a time before it stalls again, left the car near the mechanic and took an uber home.

The mechanic wasn't a great help, he didn't really know what was going on, was pretty busy so I think he wanted to get me out the door. He couldn't get it to stall consistently, so he just replaced the crankshaft sensor and cleaned the throttlebody. I was able to drive it home about 8 miles fine. The next day, I get stalling issues again. It seems that I'm able to drive for quite some time before the issue starts, it usually happens while driving home after driving it for some time then parking.
 

STALLING DETAILS:

when the car stalls, it is usually a clean cut, sometimes I can feel the engine putter once or twice before it stops. The stalling seems to happen usually when I've given it a bit of gas after being at a stoplight/stopsign, but also happens sometimes when coasting. Once the car stalls, it will usually stall again quite soon after if you start driving it again, but after idling for a couple minutes I can get it to go several miles again. One curious thing that happened is once when I started the car right after a stall, it was idling very rough, rpms going up and down very sporatically, but restarting the car resolved that and it hasnt happened again. 

 

WHAT IM THINKING:

I'm sort of a novice when it comes to car repair and usually just go to a mechanic, but I want to see if I can figure this out myself before going back. I'm going to replace the MAF sensor to see if thats it, then clean the throttlebody again with an intake cleaner. if that doesn't work, i'll try taking the IACV off and cleaning it better. The vacuum hoses _seem_ ok, cant really tell if they're no good, they're certainly old but seem intact. maybe I should just replace them in case? I'm getting a bluetooth odb scanner so I can monitor live what happens when it stalls, however I'm not really sure what to be looking for.

 

Any advice would be much appreciated, thank you.

 

[88SubGL]

If this car wasn’t fuel injected, I would say that the float bowl was running dry. I’m thinking that this is a fuel delivery issue, unfortunately on this vehicle I’m not sure how to prove my theory. You might research how to test the fuel pump. Changing the fuel filter might be a good first step, it’s a lot cheaper than a maf sensor.

[ocei77]

When was the timing belt last changed?

I assume this a two piece tensioner. Still has tension?

Any codes?

[lmdew]

Subaru Parts only!  Used Subaru are better than aftermarket new IMHO.

Hit the yard and pull what you need.  You get a little experience with removal and if something breaks, just go to the next Subaru.

The check engine light is on?  Could be a fuel pump going out.