The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

Hi, I have a Subaru, L Series, sports wagon, 1.8L, 89 model

Today when driving home, I noticed my engine was loosing power when taking off from a slow speed, through 3rd 4th and 5th gear. When getting into higher revs, the car had no power and was kind of spluttering, and then i was struggling to get up to 80kmP/h

This would proceed for a few km, then the engine would come right again. This only seemed to occur when I proceeded to gain speed after driving at a slower speed (50 - 60km zone)

Has any one got any idea what's wrong and how it could be fixed??

Cheers

Have you checked the dizzy/timing related area?
Cheers
AP

Sorry, I'm un shore what the dizzy/timing is??

dissy/dizzy= distributor timing. A basic slang. You are in for some learning if you are starting from here!
Not being critical, just commenting, happy to help.
Suggest you replace the fuel filter or filters, there is a factory one under the fuel tank I think on the left hand side near the rear wheel, if not there trace the fuel line back, also there may be a filter in the engine bay, I always put one in.
Filters are pretty cheap and easy to replace.
Do this before you start playing with anything else.

Cheers tony,
Yep, your deff right about that, I am learning, slowly, but its great and i appreciate the help. cheers for the info

mate, yeah that is good you're learning there, I've been thru that when i was a kid, if you're not very sure, just ask, no need to be scared, if you want to be shown "how" find another Tassie Subaru member that knows how, get them show you how to do that kind of task, or a mechanic that is kind enough to show you how to do that as well. That is how you learn from there, even books (books doesn;t work (75% of the time) for me as I'd rather be shown in my own eyes)

With distributor - you can change the setting to retard or advance the timing of the engine. You might need to use timing light to do that, with it it can be used at the back of the engine or crankshaft, normally with EFI models can be automatically adjusted. Check this site - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignition_timing

Any other questions - just ask us!
Cheers
AP

Just a tip, if you are replacing the rear fuel filter it will leak petrol everywhere when the lines are disconnected, so have a couple of pencils handy, unhook the hose on inlet side and block the hose with one pencil, then do the outlet size. if you have a couple of mole grips you can try clamping the hoses with that.
And keep your face out of the way petrol in the face is not fun.

the FL's


fusible links in the brown plastic box near the battery, loops of fuse wire in coloured fabric sheaths. two gren one black. Just had my second main (black) go on me more corrosion breaking it than burning out.

Well, I'm taking my car into mechanic Wednesday next week, to get a fair bit of stuff fixed, full service and safety check, clutch fixed (as its real tight) , Break fixed (as it's got to much give), auto choke fixed, timing belt changed, lifters fixed and to have a general look over to suss out why it was losing power, so soon as I get a report, I’ll let you's know what was wrong with it, the mechanic thinks it could be something just as a simple fuel filter as you guys where saying. So it will just be fixed under the service.

I reckon the electronics in the dizzy are breaking down - I don't know the names of the bits in there but I've had a mate with a brumby that also runs an electronic dizzy and had the same sort of problem that caused the brumby to be too difficult to drive until it was fixed...

Get it all checked out before you go replacing/rebuilding the dizzy as that's an expensive exercise!

All the best with it.

Cheers

Bennie