Engine stalling/won't start - NOT battery.

[cooki_monsta]

Good evening guys,

Last Saturday I just did the 125,000 km oil service and replaced the filter and plug with GReddy components. I topped up with 4L Penrite HPR5 and the car was a pleasure drive on Saturday night.

Come Sunday it was fine as well until after brunch when it stalled turning left in 2nd gear. I was rather embarrassed as I had just picked up the car a few weeks back and the birdie in the passenger seat was a pick up as well (-.-)

Anyways, I tried starting the car up again and on occasions it would actually run for a 10 seconds or so before stalling. Paranoid, I popped the bonnet up to see if I had any vacuum leaks etc. as I thought the battery was providing enough crank juice. I then decided to try give the car some throttle to see if it would stop it from stalling. Maintaining the engine at 2,000 RPM allowed me to drive back to her place where I left it there for a few hours. Interestingly, when I did come back to it, it ran fine. Paranoid, I did warm it up at 2,000 RPM though.

Since then, I have driven to work and construction sites across the city (South East Melbourne to West Melbourne - over 120 km to and fro) and it has been a smooth drive; I've had no power delivery issues whatsoever. However, this morning the car stalled on me again within 10 seconds of having the engine run. After that, I couldn't even get the engine running.

Eventually, I had RACV come over and inspect the vehicle. The fella agreed that the car needed to be towed for some repairs. Funnily enough, I managed to start the car and I probably would have been able to drive the car down to Glen Waverly Subaru myself but RACV already covered the costs so why risk stalling in peak traffic?

Anyone ever experienced similar issues? I really doubt that it is the fuel pump as the RACV fella suggested.

I doubt it is the alternator too as the Subaru Service Adviser pondered.

[turner_822]

Hey, when you did your service, did u follow the log book? Ie air filter, spark plugs, etc? Couldnt hurt to check. I'm assuming u've re-checked engine oil level. Also check connection to spark plugs/leads are clean? Also running an injector cleaner in ur fuel couldn't hurt. I know a few battery places offer free tests? That could at least rule out alternator. I'd just go through all the basics u can before seeing a mechanic. I had a rough idle which I just thought was the tuning process I'm undergoing but I had a look and found FILTHY spark plugs/leads which made a huge improvement toward a smooth idle.
Hope it helped in some way, I just saw no replies and thought I'd share

[HyRax]

My old Gen3 Liberty had an issue with rough idling (no stalling, though) and it turned out to be a bad coil pack and a rusted up spark plug lead not igniting the spark plugs at regular intervals (and not at all for one spark plug). Replaced all leads and the coilpack with a new one and it was good as new.

When you start the car, as you turn the ignition to ACC just before you turn to START, do you hear the fuel pump prime the lines before you attempt to start?

[Dropz]

Spark plugs/leads.

coilpacks/plugs

fuel filter/ dirty fuel

air cleaner

dirty throttle body

sensor on its way out - could be a vast majority

depending on what year lib IACV could be dirty

MAF/AFM sensor dirty/loose plug

wet electrical connectors (wet conditions? cold/condensation)

get Subaru to get the scan tool on it and have a suss

[cooki_monsta]

Hey, when you did your service, did u follow the log book? Ie air filter, spark plugs, etc? Couldnt hurt to check. I'm assuming u've re-checked engine oil level. Also check connection to spark plugs/leads are clean? Also running an injector cleaner in ur fuel couldn't hurt. I know a few battery places offer free tests? That could at least rule out alternator. I'd just go through all the basics u can before seeing a mechanic. I had a rough idle which I just thought was the tuning process I'm undergoing but I had a look and found FILTHY spark plugs/leads which made a huge improvement toward a smooth idle.
Hope it helped in some way, I just saw no replies and thought I'd share

Thanks for the post mate - much appreciated.

I did check the oil level twice before driving on Saturday night and also the battery voltage as the engine was cranking yesterday and it seemed fine. I haven't checked the spark plugs actually and I do intend to change them soon but it turns out that the fuel pump and fuel sender is faulty. So the Glen Waverly Subaru guys say at least.

$1300 for parts and labour (-.-)

I reckon I could do it for less than 3/4 the costs if only I had time to do it during the week and could get parts on the same day. Sigh.

[Dropz]

Get aftermarket parts an goto a private workshop, it'll be less than half.

[cooki_monsta]

Get aftermarket parts an goto a private workshop, it'll be less than half.

Dad works for Bosch. I probably could have bought a fuel pump for less than $300. And the fuel sender wouldn't be much more. $600 fixed with the cost of one day off from work. Would have saved $700. That's a new pair of speakers and some sound deadening (-.-)

Glen Waverly Subaru won't even have my car fixed by this afternoon. Depressing.

[cooki_monsta]

In the end Subaru subcontracted the shop across the road to do the work. I got charged the markup of the Subaru markup (-.-)

I miss being a uni student. I had all the time in the world to fix things. Anyone know where to source Subaru/Denso parts in Victoria?

[turner_822]

In the end Subaru subcontracted the shop across the road to do the work. I got charged the markup of the Subaru markup (-.-)

I miss being a uni student. I had all the time in the world to fix things. Anyone know where to source Subaru/Denso parts in Victoria?

Ouch...they sure don't miss you do they. My entire history of Subaru service is one quote and I've never been back lol. I have an awesome service shop that uses all the right gear, just not stupidly high labour prices. What parts are you after? I always just order in off the net (know a few good sites with great tech support depending on what parts u want) whenever I look for genuine parts locally I always end up back at Subaru damn it lol

[cooki_monsta]

Ouch...they sure don't miss you do they. My entire history of Subaru service is one quote and I've never been back lol. I have an awesome service shop that uses all the right gear, just not stupidly high labour prices. What parts are you after? I always just order in off the net (know a few good sites with great tech support depending on what parts u want) whenever I look for genuine parts locally I always end up back at Subaru damn it lol

I have a two issues with the final price as well. First of all, the said they'd replace the burnt out wiring and connections to the fuel pump but ended up scribbling that out and wrote, 'repaired'. In addition to this, they didn't carry out the works themselves but sent the car across the road.

I'm going to have to talk to Subaru about this because the fuel pump assembly cannot cost over $1000 alone and this is far from professional service.

I'm not after any parts at the moment but I would like to know where I can get parts within a day or two as I need my car every other day for work. I actually have enough know-how to fix most of the common problems, just not so much the time

At this rate I may as well order JDM parts from Japan and use a taxi until I get the part haha

[mjestyk]

Wow expensive repair! does the libertys have OBD diagnostic ports? Or inboard diagnostics? Could save a lot of money from getting a hand controller and just read off ecu for fault codes later on. Has the problem been fixed after fuel pump change? Or connectors? I'm new to libertys an just incase this happens when I get mine, but most these problems are common in nearly all cars.

[zch91]

Wow expensive repair! does the libertys have OBD diagnostic ports? Or inboard diagnostics? Could save a lot of money from getting a hand controller and just read off ecu for fault codes later on. Has the problem been fixed after fuel pump change? Or connectors? I'm new to libertys an just incase this happens when I get mine, but most these problems are common in nearly all cars.

Yes they have an obd port. Plenty guys use ecudatascan and scanguage.

[cooki_monsta]

Wow expensive repair! does the libertys have OBD diagnostic ports? Or inboard diagnostics? Could save a lot of money from getting a hand controller and just read off ecu for fault codes later on. Has the problem been fixed after fuel pump change? Or connectors? I'm new to libertys an just incase this happens when I get mine, but most these problems are common in nearly all cars.

Yeah the problem is fixed, mate. The engine delivers even under full load. Go aftermarket. Go SARD or something haha