Flashing Check Engine Light

[ltk]

I have a 2002 2.5 TS Sport Impreza wagon, auto trans with app. 45,000 miles.

This past April the check engine light came on when I was driving about

55-60 mph. The car wasn't running so smoothly when the light came on. However the check engine light went off, the car drove fine, took it in to the Subaru service the next day and they said there were no codes and that everything looked OK.

And it was, until today, about 1100 miles later. The check engine light

started flashing and the car was "jumping"--not really "bucking". Just before the light came on I noticed the car didn't want to accelerate fast enough. I had it towed to the service but won't know anything until Monday. Any ideas??

Thanks!

[zstalker]

if at all possible DO NOT DRIVE the car when the check engine light is blinking. blinking MIL means the ECM has detected a misfire bad enough to damage the catalyst

[EVOthis]

^ what he said......hopefully it is something simple.......keep us informed.....

[ltk]

The Subaru service station informed me today that cyl 1 and 2 misfired.

They found the problem to be the engine valve guides. Mechanic said they

"walked out"(?). Whatever that means. My concern is that this car has

been giving me problems lately and its not even at 50000 miles. I have

no choice but to get this fixed. How common is this problem and why would it happen?

[nipper]

A few things here. This car has very low miles on it. Its 6 years old, so it should have 72,000 miles. You need to use the 1 month = 1000 miles for the maint scheduale.

 

The valve guides walking out is rare, but it happens on engines. I havent heard of it happening on a sooby before. The Valve guide is the sleeve that the valve stem fits in and slides up and down very very fast many times a minute. The stem walking out will keep the vlave from closing, causing a miss fire.

 

Chat kind of oil do you use, and how often do you change it?

 

What are they saying they are going to do to fix it?

 

nipper

[McDave]

You might drop by the shop and have them show you the guides. They should have the exhaust dropped off the heads and the offending cylinder's valves open.

 

I would be more inclined to believe the exhaust valves are too tight as the valves could have sunk in the head a bit and need adjusted. But guides do slip too and that would account for the intermittent nature of your problem.