Hesitation when cold

[Eken]

Hi.

I have a 1995 subaru legacy 2.2 GX, no fancy turbo, just N/A.
First of all, i have a CEL for the knock sensor and i am waiting for the guy i bought the car from to send me one.

Yesterday when i took it for a spin it ran really bad when it was cold, spluttering and hesitated when i gave it throttle, when it got warm the problem dissappeared and the car ran perfectly fine.

Today i had to get out to the bank, so i took the scoob, fired her up and backed her out of the garage, and same problem today, hesitation and spluttering.
I drove a little bit so it'd warm up to see if the problem went away this time too, but no, i stopped at a large parking space, to see if the CEL wold shut off, since it had been light up since i left home, sat on idle for maybe 30 seconds, then it was dark, tried again, and the car ran good again.

I had this problem once before, like 2 days after i did an engine wash, but i ran the car warm, and the bay was dry when i parked it, next time i took it, it ran this bad, after that day i didnt have this problem until yesterday...

could this be because of the Knock sensor, or is something fucked up in the ignition system?

[Huffer]

Knock sensor.

[Eken]

Thanks Huffer, guess i'll just have to wait for the slow ass to send me the stuff... -.-

[ouch1011]

I disagree. The knock sensor won't cause the car to misfire, it will just make it feel very sluggish at lower RPM. And it should have even less of an effect when cold. If there is any place where you are who will scan for troble codes for free, check and see if there are any codes other than the knock sensor code. you might also want to pull a spark plug and see how worn it is.

[Eken]

Well.
I have driven the car a few times after that last time it was having troubles, and since then it has ran as it should. I notice a lack of power when CEL lights up, because of the knock, but as soon as it fades away the car runs good again.
I also checked the error codes and only 22 (knock sensor) was shown this time too.

I removed all four spark plugs like a week ago, all of them were white, but seemed to be in good condition, the ones on the passengers side (near servopump) was oily on the isolator due to a leak i've had in the pump, cleaned them all of, gave the cables a squish with 5-56 in both ends, and ever since that i havent noticed anything again.