Now and then my Impreza stalls at stoplights. Then it turns over again and again and finally starts after a few tries of turning the key all the way off and back on. No idea whether that is the trick or not. Also, it does the same occasionally on warm starts. The temps have been dropping after a really warm November…-40 supposed to finally arrive this week… so I thought maybe some ice in the fuel…so threw in some isopropyl, but that didn’t help.
I thought to change the distributer cap and rotor, but upon investigation saw what must be an ignition coil instead. Do I need to bring this thing to the shop to get computer diagnosed? Bad time of the year to get stranded.
Have you tried restarting it with the accelerator pedal depressed? If the car will restart with the pedal depressed then you may have a dirty or faulty Idle Air Valve.
If it will not start with the pedal depressed then it’s going to get dicier since we do not know if the problem is fuel or spark related.
With the lack of info on this, my guesses would be either a failing fuel pump or the elec. part of the ignition switch is failing, and I’m kind of leaning towards the former.
When the engine stalls the pump could be getting a breather if you want to call it that. How long has it been since the fuel filter was changed?
If the plugs are getting old then replacing them would be a good idea. I recommend you use NGK’s if you do that. Replacing the fuel filter and cleaning the EGR valve may help also along with cleaning the MAF sensor.
This engine may be fuel injected. The easy stuff first: Use a MAF spray cleaner, and change the air cleaner while you’re there. A carbureted engine has the fuel filter in the engine compartment. On the fuel injected engines, the fuel filter is underneath the car. When the engine doesn’t start, turn the ignition switch to ON and listen for the fuel pump to run for two seconds in the fuel tank (each time the key is turned to ON, or RUN).