RX having some issues. help harpua find the gremlin

[harpua]

So here is a recent back story of what the RX has been through. About 2 years ago i was letting my little sister use my car to get around. She dodged a dog and ended up ripping the front passenger wheel off and breaking a few bits. I finally got around to fixing it up these last few weeks. Got the wheel/brake/axle issues sorted out and went to fire her up.....nothing.

 

She would turn over fine and dandy, but no fire. I couldn't hear my fuel pump coming on, so i pulled it and found out it was dead. Got a new one installed and it fired up pretty quick. I took it out for a quick drive and it did fine(1 mile). The next day i drove it to town and filled up the gas(2 miles). I drove it around town and then picked up my buddy(2 miles). Drove up the canyon a bit (2 miles) and she started acting up. The first thing i noticed was the fuel pump making a whirring noise that would speed up and slow down a bit at idle. When trying to accelerate, the car would give out and start bucking at between 2500 and 3500 rpm. I could shift up and get power back if i did it just right, but speed would max out at about 40 mph using all my gears (yea, i had to limp it home)

:note: car ran good for 7 miles warmed up before issue.

 

I figured i got a junk fuel pump and brought it back to the parts house in exchange for another fuel pump. Put in the new pump. drove it for roughly 5 miles after i warmed it up only to get the same result.

 

Anyone got a suggestion?

[TheSubaruJunkie]

Clogged catalytic converter or fuel filter.

[Caboobaroo]

check the fuel filter, you could also be getting a clog inside the tank where the line comes out. Start there and see if that helps.

[Durania]

Clogged catalytic converter or fuel filter.

 

I agree.

 

I think your car will have a filter next to gas tank and one under the hood.

[Snowman]

Car that sat for a while having stumbling/power problems? Nasty fuel and/or debris is clogging your fuel system and probably trying to kill the fuel pump. Change the fuel filter and cut the old one open to have a look in there. It's possible that all the crud is caught in the filter and your good to go, but you should check further by draining some fuel from between the tank and the pump and see what it looks like there. If you're still getting nasty fuel out of the tank, flush it with a few gallons then refill with good gas. Once it's sorted out, it wouldn't hurt to change the filter again after a few hundred miles. A partially clogged filter is really hard on the fuel pump.

[subyrally]

 

I think your car will have a filter next to gas tank

 

 

not on the rx. that i think is only on ea81 cars or carb'ed models.

 

the rx just has the large metal filter under the hood.

[harpua]

Thanks for the replies. I have been busy for the last couple of days, and finally got to tinker on the RX. I changed the filter. The old one drained out some pretty nasty, rusty looking fuel. I know the tank is pushing clean fuel into the fuel pump as i checked that when swapping in the new fuel pump. I went for a drive with the new filter and had the same result. Runs great before it warms up, but when it gets to running temp, she starts having issues. The new filter helps it run just a bit better. Didn't fix the problem.

 

So what other ideas do you kids have? It isn't a clogged cat because i gutted that thing long ago. What tells the fuel pump how much fuel to pump and when to pump it? The ECU? I get the hunch that whatever controls the fuel pump is at fault somehow.

[Turbone]

Run some Seafoam thru the fuel system, the injectors could still be gummed up.