MY99 Liberty RX 2.5 Wagon - help - CEL/electrical issue

[cheddle]

Following on from http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/66- ... -help.html

Apparently I have a Hitachi ECU - I bought a Vag-com 409.1 cable (awaiting postage) - I would like know what software is best to use to communicate with the ECU to find out what the sensors are seeing and pin point the fault...

Rather than read the below its best to go to the original thread as linked above

Here is a rather large amount of dribble that might help in diagnosing my problem:

"Have owned my MY99 Gen3 Subaru Liberty Wagon RX 2.5 Manual (300,000 kms) for about 18 months now and for the last year or so I have experienced a really annoying intermittent problem!!! Time to track down the cause!

the issue sometimes preceeds a CEL and sometimes it wont become apparent untill after the CEL is on.

the CEL is on for a period of time ranging from 1 second to 10 seconds. The time between CEL's is random, sometimes its 2 months sometimes its 5 seconds

Jumping the dignostic jumper results in the engine light flashing 22 at me, this corolates to "knock sensor" I have replaced the knock sensor with a genuine part with no change in behavior

the problem is what I would losley describe as a hesitation / surge / drop in power that is random and unrelated to throttle position, load, rpm or anything else. More specifically It feels to me like it looses 5-15 degrees of ignition timing. and once the drop takes place it becomes much more apparent under higher loads to such an extent that I have more power under light throttle than heavy throttle, particiularly at higher rpm.

The problem appears to be exacerbated by low octane fuel, I run 98 octane (RON) in it every day.

The problem appears to be worse when cold and happens at roughly the same places on my commute, at the end of 3km highway approx 5 mins into my drive. (100kmh down to 30kmh for a roundabout, when leaving the roundabout the problem is 99% of the time present for 30 seconds)

occasionally the car will feel lethargic to free rev in neutral but usually is fairly responsive. the car idles correctly when cold and warm.

I have replaced plugs, leads, knock sensor and fuel filter. I have cleaned up the earth contact points on the chassis and engine

When the car is operating correctly it drives fantastically and makes good smooth power, economically. When this problem is at it runs poorly and gets 50 kms less per tank.

Any thoughts on what exactly could cause the car to behave like this please let me know.

I do not think its pinging or actually knocking, I am familiar with the sound an engine makes whilst pinging and I cannot hear it when running 98 octane (i can when running 91 octane)

I should add that this engine is the EJ25 SOHC variant"

"Battery was replaced about 2 months ago - unsure on altenator... tested 05/01 at 350CCA 13.1v"

"i have only cleaned up the terminals on the battery"

"I checked the various chassis and engine earth points for high resistance and voltage difference.

All earth points show exactly the same very slight resistance, various points (manifold, fuel rail etc) on the engine show slightly higher

All chassis earth points show 0.002 volts difference and engine earth points show 0.005 volts difference when compared to the battery lead

I have not striped back the battery leads however they do not feel overly hot. I would imagine that cranking an engine from a badly corroded lead would result in a hot lead?

I used some upper engine cleaner a few months ago and took off the IACV and gave it a good clean"

I did in the past attempt to use a bluetooth OBD-II reader however apparenty my december 1998 built subaru uses SSC protocol... are we sure that this is the correct cable to use?

I am not sure that the altenator is working correctly, im assuming that it is based on my battery still working... it is a 330 CCA battery, the 410 CCA I removed was tested at only 250CCA so I replaced it.

I did disconnect the battery last night to try and clear any error codes. Within 30 seconds of driving the CEL came on.

I notice that when cold the car does take about 8-12 cranks over to start, roughly 3 seconds (when I got it about 4-6 would fire it up) when warm it takes 4-6 cranks.

The idle is at 1500-1800 rpm for about 20 seconds and then drops steadily to 1000 rpm.

When cold I alos notice that the RPM "hangs" between gears, if I shift at 3,000 rpm from second into third the revs litterally stay at 3,000 rpm for about 3 seconds and gradually fall, I generally ease the clutch out to smothly lower the rpm. This is accompanied by unresponsive engine performance...

Could it be that the first o2 sensor (assuming its a wide-band that requires a high temp to operate) has a broken heating element? I am familiar with Nissans and as far as I know a wide band o2 has a heating element in it to help it to function when cold. How relevant is this with Subaru? Would this give an error code?

fuel level appears to have no effect, I filled up from empty last night and there was no change.

[JC_heritage2.5]

My 99 Heritage Wagon has almost the exact same symptoms, did you find an answer? I haven't got around to finding a place to read the codes.