I am working on a car my roomate picked up along the way, a 1997 Subaru outback, that apparently had its turn in the drink (ie, flood recover). The car runs, but it definately has a bunch of electrical problems I’m fixing over time.
Lately, it’s been behaving poorly, in that after running at highway speed for a while, if you come to an intersection, suddenly the vehicle starts running extremely rough (as though the cylinders aren’t firing in the right order), flooring the gas doesn’t provide (any) power, and the automatic gearbox decides not to shift until the 5000-6000 area.
In my mind I was narrowing down the causes:
- Bad ECU / TCM
- Bad ignition pack
- Bad censors
After stopping the car, and restarting it, the problem invariably goes away, which then makes me think its definately the ECU or ignition pack.
What do you guys think?
Not sure what the policy is on this board, but I’m going to bump this thread, we’re still having issues with this Subaru
You could open up the ECU and check for water damage inside it. If you see any signs it would be a good idea to get a used one since they are fairly cheap. I assume you aren’t getting any trouble codes when the trouble occurs that would provide some clues to the trouble. Possible sensors for this trouble may be the O2, MAF, TPS, or CAS.
I’ll have to ask the lass what the trouble codes were again, she had it in once and got the codes, I just can’t remember them off the top of my head.
Unless there’s a Key-dance to get the codes without an ODB tool (I know on my dakota, its turn the key on and off 3 times under the P-codes appear…not sure this subaru does that, any idea?)