We have a 1998 forester and it has been a great car thus far. About 8 months ago it started to randomly die as we were driving down the street.
-When the car is cold I can usually drive for 10-15 minutes before it dies
-When it is warm, I often can’t even back out of a parking space.
-Idle randomly becomes erratic jumping all over the place, up, down, and then dead
-When it dies it is as if it no longer is getting fuel or air
-The less gas in the tank the more often it dies, at about 1/2 tank it dies every 2-3 blocks at best, on a full tank I may get a full mile before it dies
-If I unplug the mass air flow sensor the problem continues to persist, no change
-I have added fuel system cleaner, but no improvement
-Stop and go traffic is the worst
This problem is really annoying and preventing us from using or selling our car. We have taken it to the shop and they haven’t been able to figure out the problem, yet they do still charge us for ‘troubleshooting’… any help from you would greatly serve my family!