The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

Hi folks.

I have added a forester to the garage recently.
2003 MY04 XS. 230,000km and most big jobs done by Subaru including a recent clutch and the 200,000km service.
Lots of kilometres but the price was right and the idle is smooth as butter, you can't tell it is even running!

This morning I went to start. Cranked as normal, tried to catch but only fired for the briefest of moments. I would best describe it as sounding flooded, but it has no carburettor.
Multiple attempts yielded nothing but empty cranking.

Disconnected the battery for half hour and it stated perfectly once reconnected.

What the brains trust think? The fact that it was once only makes me think some sort of sensor- maybe a crank angle?

I remembered my OBDII unit after I reconnected the battery, but no faults were logged.

I'm sure subarus get together and do this via bluetooth

I'm having a similar problem with my EJ22

see here

showthread.php?p=235164#post235164

Not sure if this helps you but it may give you a starting point


TOONGA

If a fuel injected car does act flooded, there is a technique that goes something like this...
turn ignition to ON
depress accelerator to floor and then release it to halfway
crank the engine

This tells the ecu its flooded and it will compensate to start the engine
I think its in the user manual actually

a 'cranks, but no start' leads one to suspect the two old school basics are not happy - spark or fuel. Easiest is to pull a plug lead so long as you have one, get a spare spark plug you can fix the main body to the earth of car, attach lead and crank over to see if got spark. Maybe easiest is to spray a flammable stuff into an air intake and crank to see if it engine then fires. Safest would be the products made for this purpose such as aerostart. Read elsewhere that some have even used deodorant sprays, probably for their propellant. Go on from what you find from these two tests

Gannon, great tip thanks.

Nubaru I'm not sure I'm with you on the spark or fuel thing. The fact that this occurred with no warning and then resolved without problem makes me very suspect of some electronic part that can fall intermittently in an all or nothing kind of way, such as a sensor.

TOONGA, you might be right, my MY03 Lib RX 2.5 has developed a funny start in the last week too!
I suspect the ECU may not be priming for start properly...it will start after about 7-10 sec cranking, or ALWAYS within a second if i turn the key back to acc then try again.
Why? no idea, but it's not a big issue for me.

julian, if you get any answers, I'd be keen to hear them so i can check mine!

Yep they are buggers

First thing to do is change the coolant temp sender (the one that the computer uses)

Then check the continuity of your cam sensor and crank sensor

turns out my timing belt has slipped

TOONGA

I used to have an issue like this and turns out it was air getting into the fuel lines due to an incorrectly fitted seal on the fuel filter. Just another option to consider if you come up short.

Hmm a week of perfect running. This afternoon did it again- crank no start...
OBD found no faults.
Temperature sensor was reading appropriately for conditions.

Crank or cam angle sensor fault is looking more likely.

Try cleaning them

The temp sender on the dash or the one the computer reads as they might be the same sender on your car but the ECU reads a different pin on the sender.

Do you have a 2 pin sender with a seperate sensor for the dash, or a 3 pin sender thats all in one?

TOONGA

Hmmmm. Been very distracted this week, but no faults to speak of except for a sunroof issue that I might raise in another thread next week.
I pulled a bunch of sensor units off a wrecked EJ25 locally and will keep them handy.
New front and rear sway bar end links have changed the handling and drive to a staggering degree. Tight and quiet has replaced clunky and clattery.
Beautiful!