WE bought a used 2004 suberu sport outback in 2005. It was running well until this past year when it would occasionally not start. The engine would try to turnover but it seemed that no gas was getting into the engine. The car would usually start after a few minutes. THis happened 3 times, the last time it occurred, the car needed to be towed to a shop. The guys there, thought it might be the fuel pump. They checked that, it was O.K. and the car still wouldn’t start. We had the car towed to a suburu dealer and since they’ve had it, the car hasn’t had the problem. It starts everytime, but they didn’t do anything and we are afraid that it will happen again. Any ideas?
Thank you.
When this kind of thing happens it really helps to know if the fuel and ignition systems are working as they should be. One easy thing you can do to check for a fuel delivery problem is to spray a small amount of starter fluid into the intake. If that makes the engine fire then you know you need to look at the fuel system. To see if the ignition is working it is easy to carry a spare sparkplug and wire to swap with one of the engine wires. Then you can look at the spare one to check for spark to the plug. Since the problem was intermittent I would suspect a problem in the ignition system first, possibly with the power to it.