Last night, my Subaru completely stopped accelerating. My son was driving, we were going up a moderate hill from a stop, a/c running. The car was slowing, and my son was complaining that he couldn’t get the car to accelerate. It was obvious to me that there was a problem, so I directed him to move to the center lane out of traffic - we couldn’t get the car to accelerate enough to even move to the center. He was pressing the pedal down to the floor but the engine was not responding - no revving noises.
Had him put the car in park, (he did not shut off the engine) apply handbrake, and then I got in driver’s side. I shut off the car, re-started it, pressed the accelerator pedal, and heard the engine rev. Put the car in gear, and drove off. There have been NO further problems either last night or this morning.
He said that he felt like the accelerator pedal was doing something weird - he had it pressed almost all the way to the floor, but when he took his foot off, it didn’t really come back up.
Only thing that’s been done to it lately was a repair to the a/c - the hose from the compressor to the condensor was replaced last week. A/C has been working fine since. Went on a trip last weekend, approx. 400 miles round trip - no problems.
Have you ever heard of anything like this?
We need to know some important details, such as:
Odometer mileage?
Is/was the Check Engine Light illuminated?
When were spark plugs, plug wires, air filter, and fuel filter last replaced?
Hmmm…mileage is about 110K, check engine light was not illuminated (nor any other lights), I will have to check maintenance records for the other information - I don’t remember. The headlights didn’t go off, nor did the a/c until I turned it off.
While you are at it, also check your maintenance records to see when you replaced the timing belt.
If your Legacy has the 4-cylinder engine, it is now overdue for that maintenance, so I hope that you have already had it changed. When that belt snaps, you will wish that you only had intermittent acceleration problems to worry about!
My 2001 Legacy, standard 5-speed transmission, started doing something similar at about 35,000 miles. Occasionally, I’d come to a stop or yield sign, then put it into 1st or 2nd gear, press the accelerator – car moves about 10 feet then loses power, no revving, no stalling, no check engine light. Shift to neutral then 1st, and the car moves like it should. (Once or twice it completely stalled, but mostly car just lost power without stalling.) Keeping the gas tank full has prevented this from happening. A number of mechanics could find nothing wrong.
bump