Starting/lugging issues

[Spilk188]

Hey,

I have a 1993 Legacy, and I am having a problem with my car when i start it.

It wont start a lot of the time and when I pump the gas while cranking it sometimes I can get it to start.

Also, when I drive it, it lugs sometimes in 1st gear and other times it will do it 1-3 gears. Kind of like if i were to push on and off the gas, so it bounces sort of.

It is the 1993 Legacy with the turbo.


I was thinking maybe the fuel filter might be needing a change, or perhaps its the injectors or fuel pump. Im not sure its the injectors because i ran some cleaner through the tank... but I'm not sure.

I'm wondering if there are any known problems/issues with this particular year/generation of Legacy because it is the first year of its generation correct?

Any help would be most appreciated.

Regards,
-Tyler

[scottzg]

3rd year of its generation.

There is no common problem like this, id say you're on the right track.

Something worth trying is setting the car to 'on' a moment before starting and seeing if this makes it go away.

[Tokio]

could be the fuel injectors (try sticking the end of a long screw driver on top of them while the car is running, listening for the electronic "open/close" clicks)

could be the fuel filter (when was the last time you replaced it?)

could be the fuel pump (listen for it)

could be bad plugs/plug gaps/plug wires/coils (again, when did you last change them)

could be bad gas (pay attention to where you get it)

could be a lack of oil (although this is not a common scenario)

[citizensirhc]

Sounds an aweful lot like the fuel pump. I just had one go bad on my wife's Impreza. It's an automatic and it would start loosing power at higher RPMs and if I pushed it, it would act like I was pumping the gas repeatedly. I went down that same track too. Replaced the fuel filter, checked the plugs...

We also tried STP fuel conditioner to make sure it wasn't like water in the line or something.

A symptom I also had was if I filled the gas tank all the way, the problem would be drastically less noticeable. It almost went away. I'm guessing that was the added pressure of a full tank helping the pump.

I hope that's not your problem though. It wasn't a cheap fix for me.

[Spilk188]

What should the plugs be gapped at for this car?

Also, I recently purchased it (last 6 months or so) so I havnt changed anything, oil (i know...), filters, plugs, wires, dist. ect.

Im going to figure this out!! Thanks for all of your help

[belladonna]

my advice to you would be to start doing the basic maintenance on this car...replace oil, plugs, plug wires, fuel fileter, air filter, etc...probably just needs some TLC....

your spark plug gap should be at .044