left me stranded again...

[greenspeed]

I've been having this starting issue many may have read about. Well tonight everything went worse. I was driving back from a friends place about 45 mins away. I got 1 mile out of the first exit to anchorage. All of a sudden my engine began to studder, I was watching my gauges and she went from 14.7 on the wideband down to 17.2/16.0 and my boost was fluttering around -1 to 0 when it's usually at -20. I wanted to try to make it to the exit so my car wasn't left on the hwy when I went to look at it. However about 100 ft after this all started I got a flashing CEL for a type A misfire. Pulled off in almost instantly. I let it idle down and the miss was awful the car was shaking violently and I had no Idea what was going on. shut it off and started looking around to see what I could do in -10 degree weather on the side of the hwy.

I got back in to see if I could start it up and get a better listen to see if I blew a rod or had catastrophic failure. The car wouldn't start, turn the key and nothing happened, my lights were all on and my battery light never came on.

I'm crossing my fingers on it being an alternator, but it's really too hard to tell and I may never know. I can't afford to put another engine in it and as I sit here typing this, the only thing going through my head is how I'm going to get to work the next 5 days and when will I have time or money to get it off the highway. It cost me $25 from a cab to get home and I walked 2 miles in this sweet alaskan cold. I can't feel my legs or toes still. It's ganna be a long night.

[Mikey97D]

Wow, glad your okay and made it to a phone. Hard to believe your already at so low of temperatures.

[Huffer]

Compression test on all cylinders.
Violent shaking isn't usually associated with a failing alternator.

[Sarra]

If compression looks good, do an injector balance test, and a fuel pressure test. Sounds like it might be a fuel issue as well.

[chuckthefuk]

quick alternator test:
turn the car on.
let it idle.
unplug the negative terminal on your battery
rev your car for a bit.
..
if it dies.. then your alternator is toast. if its fine then move on to your next issue.

or you can take a multimeter and check if its putting out around 13-ish volt .. 12 is to low and 14 is kind of high.

-Chuck

[nipper]

quick alternator test:
turn the car on.
let it idle.
unplug the negative terminal on your battery
rev your car for a bit.
..
if it dies.. then your alternator is toast. if its fine then move on to your next issue.

or you can take a multimeter and check if its putting out around 13-ish volt .. 12 is to low and 14 is kind of high.

-Chuck


Faster test.

Turn everything on
Rev engine to 2000 rpm
check voltage output.

14 volts is the max high side you want 13ish.


nipper

[Reason]

Why do you live in Alaska again? :smt017

[Sarra]

quick alternator test:
turn the car on.
let it idle.
unplug the negative terminal on your battery
rev your car for a bit.
..
if it dies.. then your alternator is toast. if its fine then move on to your next issue.

or you can take a multimeter and check if its putting out around 13-ish volt .. 12 is to low and 14 is kind of high.

-Chuck

Not sure if this applies to Subies as much, but you can pop important things doing this on some modern cars, including computers. We did that at school just last year no less than twice. I'd strongly suggest not pulling the battery off a running engine...

[ouch1011]

quick alternator test:
turn the car on.
let it idle.
unplug the negative terminal on your battery
rev your car for a bit.
..
if it dies.. then your alternator is toast. if its fine then move on to your next issue.

or you can take a multimeter and check if its putting out around 13-ish volt .. 12 is to low and 14 is kind of high.

-Chuck

Not sure if this applies to Subies as much, but you can pop important things doing this on some modern cars, including computers. We did that at school just last year no less than twice. I'd strongly suggest not pulling the battery off a running engine...

That applies to any car that uses solid state electronics, which is pretty much any car since the 80s. Alternators don't generate constant voltage, even a slight change in electrical load or engine speed can cause a huge voltage spike. The battery acts as a capacitor and smooths over the spikes. Its really easy to fry solid state electronics if you go outside of their rated voltage, and it can get really freaking expensive, so yeah, don't do that.

Also, a failing alternator could cause the engine to misfire but I wouldn't expect the PCM to log a misfire code if the voltage is that low. Typically the misfire monitors only runs within a certain voltage range. Guess it depends on if the car will jump start or not.

[greenspeed]

Wel I went today and tried to jump it off a friends. No go.

I'll see how it goes on Thursday when the dealer looks at it. It's just too cold to try and do anything myself and I don't have any tools in ak.

The violent shaking has me thinking engine 3 is gone.

[j_saffron]

The battery acts as a capacitor and smooths over the spikes.

the opposite of a "flux capacitor" fyi :lol:


cheers to hoping engine 3 is still alive

[greenspeed]

If it's blown I'm buying an a4.

I should just buy a dsm so I charish how much of a pleasure my legacy was to own.

[greenspeed]

I just had a revolation. I am going for frozen fuel system. only had a 1/4 tank and it was -15 out. :smt023

find out this afternoon, have to stay positive. otherwise I'll have to part the car out to huffer

[Huffer]

Frozen fuel system doesn't make sense, as you were already on the highway and cruising - so the tank would have been warm from the exhaust system sitting right next to it.

Freezing point for gasoline is around -40 °C to -60 °C
[°F] = [°C] × 9?5 + 32
-40C = -40F

Gasoline is a cocktail of various hydrocarbons with different freezing temperatures.

[Mikey97D]

Frozen fuel system doesn't make sense, as you were already on the highway and cruising - so the tank would have been warm from the exhaust system sitting right next to it.

Freezing point for gasoline is around -40 °C to -60 °C
[°F] = [°C] × 9?5 + 32
-40C = -40F

Gasoline is a cocktail of various hydrocarbons with different freezing temperatures.
Your missing one element in your calculations, water. I've seen cars have their fuel lines freeze as their going down the highway. Nissan's are famous for it.

[Huffer]

^^ you are right! I'm a chemistry dropout... :lol:

[Mikey97D]

^^ you are right! I'm a chemistry dropout... :lol:

me too, I liked physics waaaayyy better than chemistry! :lol:

[greenspeed]

And if you factor in condensation to the mix with low fuel and changing engine bay temps from starting and stopping it makes more sense. If the filter keeps warming up and cooling down it is a perfect canidate.

I have a friend going over in an hour to test the theory by putting some heet in the tank and seeing if that does anything for it.

I can't wait 2 more days for them to look at it, I work 2 jobs and having friends constantly giving me rides is not my style.

Let's just pray it helps. If it was warmer day I wouldn't have even considered this a possible problem.

[greenspeed]

Heet didn't work. I'll find out tomorrow when it gets looked at.

[greenspeed]

still nothing. I am on pins and needles today. It should be going in this afternoon to be looked at...anyone else got any idea? I wanna see who's right... lol :-?

[zeus]

whats the verdict?

[greenspeed]

It's still outside waiting. Pretty sure everyone there hates me now. I've called the service department 5 times in 2 days. And now I'm calling parts guy for the status on my car.

[ouch1011]

Is the engine cranking but not starting, or not cranking at all?

[greenspeed]

Well it's in the shop and they are letting it thaw out over night. My brand new battery was frozen and was my starting problem basically. So I am going to take that back or get a blanket.

No clear what really is going on just kinda hoping the thaw out will fix it all.

[greenspeed]

they finally got to it today.

They called me in the morning and said they thought there was a massive engine failure and that it sounded like there was a considerable lose of compression and that a piston possibly failed. I opted to have them not tear it down. I am towing it to a friends place and I'm going to tear it down myself.

I am first going to do a compression check and a flow test to make sure that an injector hadn't failed or the car jumped timing. I had a funny bearing noise that i thought was the alternator, but it could possibly be an ideler that failed causing the timing belt to actually jump timing. If the ideler feel off or skipped per say it could have cause the belt teeth to either break or something move. So I am convinced that I am not going to just give up on it until I know for sure what it is and what caused it.

102% Idc is never health for injectors and the thought of one failing is prominent in my mind. Come wednesday I will have a better understanding as to what offically happened. wise my luck sl-i

[zeus]

good luck dude!

[greenspeed]

yeah i need it... :-(

can't sleep tonight so i made a built motor thread...in the forced induction sub thread

[98outbackpdx]

for 98 legacy
just an FYI the government has some recalls out for your car, including the alternator

Make: SUBARU Model: LEGACY
Model Year: 1998
Manufacturer: SUBARU OF AMERICA, INC. Mfr's Report Date: MAY 12, 2000
NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID Number: 00I002000 NHTSA Action Number: PE99067
Component: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:ALTERNATOR/GENERATOR/REGULATOR
Potential Number of Units Affected: 223520

Check to Request Research. Submit below. Get Summary
Make: SUBARU Model: LEGACY
Model Year: 1998
Manufacturer: SUBARU OF AMERICA, INC. Mfr's Report Date: JUN 25, 2001
NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID Number: 01V216000 NHTSA Action Number: N/A
Component: SUSPENSION:FRONT:SPRINGS:COIL SPRINGS
Potential Number of Units Affected: 180000

Check to Request Research. Submit below. Get Summary
Make: SUBARU Model: LEGACY
Model Year: 1998
Manufacturer: SUBARU OF AMERICA, INC. Mfr's Report Date: FEB 17, 1998
NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID Number: 98V042000 NHTSA Action Number: N/A
Component: POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION:GEAR POSITION INDICATION (PRNDL)
Potential Number of Units Affected: 19386

Check to Request Research. Submit below. Get Summary
Make: SUBARU Model: LEGACY
Model Year: 1998
Manufacturer: SUBARU OF AMERICA, INC. Mfr's Report Date: JUN 08, 1998
NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID Number: 98V127000 NHTSA Action Number: N/A
Component: ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE
Potential Number of Units Affected: 20306

Check to Request Research. Submit below. Get Summary
Make: SUBARU Model: LEGACY
Model Year: 1998
Manufacturer: SUBARU OF AMERICA, INC. Mfr's Report Date: MAR 03, 1999
NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID Number: 99V040000 NHTSA Action Number: N/A
Component: SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:FOUNDATION COMPONENTS:MASTER CYLINDER
Potential Number of Units Affected: 221987

[greenspeed]

Well it spun an idler bearing, jumped timing, and took at the valves on one side.

Anyone got some ej205 heads?

[Sarra]

Looking for some myself. Also looking for some OEM Subaru cams that have a little more kick to them than stock cams. ;)

[greenspeed]

I was going to go with the sti retro fit, but just lost the ambition to do it. I don't think I'd get them done before we'd have to put the heads back on the car.

Pulled the engine today in 1 hour and 45 mins. It was epic. Tore the heads off, and I was right. Took all 4 exhaust valves on the passenger side head. Luckily my friend had 4 brand new subaru exhaust valves just laying in his garage. Put them in and got the head finished.

Just need to figure out how those stupid cap things get gapped so I have the right cam clearance.

I got till thursday to figure it out. And since I have a set of sti cams I can use, I really should do the read up on it. Anyone got a link?

[greenspeed]

Well she's up and running again. Had a mishap with the power steering line and spraying power steering fluid everywhere.

Just glad she is rolling.

Also my buddy routed the throttle cable the way it looked would be right, but cause of it being swapped and having to be routed a special way it was causing the throttle plate to be slightly open, leaving me with a weird idle and only being able to hit 10lbs of boost.

It's good to have my car back after 3 weeks.

Also got my block heater in, just didn't put the plug in cause I can't find a way to route the wire so it's not touching the manifold. Anyone have any ideas there?