MY05 Liberty Hard to Start

[SHIZNT]

Hey guys, fairly new to the forums. I previously owned a moderately modified MY99 WRX and have recently done the transition to a MY05 Liberty GT Wagon which has been a bit of a nightmare.

When I first purchased the car it had issues where it would constantly stall, idle was erratic and fuel economy was quite poor. I took it back to the dealership and they ultrasonically cleaned the injectors, cleaned the AVCS solenoids, preformed an upper engine clean and found the vacuum hose for the idle step up was not connected.

Car no longer stalls, idle is spot on.... but now there is a new problem The car doesn't like to start when it is warm! The mechanic at the dealership initially thought it was just the upper engine clean causing the start issue and it would clear up after driving it for awhile but its been a month. He has also tried changing the oil, fuel pump and fuel filter but the problem still remains.

Anyone has any ideas or experienced this before?

Car starts fine stone cold, starts fine straight after driving but requires 2-3 cranks if its left to sit for an hour or two.

[dr20t]

Welcome

Try priming the fuel pump before cranking and see what this does.

You prime it by turning the key to accessories (reds) and waiting until you hear the fuel pump prime then stop (1-2 seconds this should take to prime - another good way is to wait for your speedo and tacho needles to sweep, come back then stay on). Then crank and see what happens.

If it does the same thing then report back

Mick

[Sean82]

Welcome

Try priming the fuel pump before cranking and see what this does.

You prime it by turning the key to accessories (reds) and waiting until you hear the fuel pump prime then stop (1-2 seconds this should take to prime - another good way is to wait for your speedo and tacho needles to sweep, come back then stay on). Then crank and see what happens.

If it does the same thing then report back

Mick

This

Mines exactly the same. Fires first time cold or within about 30 mins of being stopped, but that 1-2 hr bracket it takes a few times to kick over.

[SHIZNT]

Welcome

Try priming the fuel pump before cranking and see what this does.

You prime it by turning the key to accessories (reds) and waiting until you hear the fuel pump prime then stop (1-2 seconds this should take to prime - another good way is to wait for your speedo and tacho needles to sweep, come back then stay on). Then crank and see what happens.

If it does the same thing then report back

Mick

I'm in the habit of waiting for the fuel pump to stop priming before starting the car. Would always wait for the Walbro to stop whining in my old WRX before I cranked it over.

Here a video of the issue.

[norbs]

Has the ECU been flashed?? Maybe worth comparing your ROM with a stock one just in case someone's been fiddling.

[SHIZNT]

Car has only had one previous owner whom probably traded it in because he was to old to drive it anymore and it has a full service history from Subaru Docklands. I don't think the tune has been played with.

I do have VAG COM cable and RomRaider for monitoring.

[norbs]

Car has only had one previous owner whom probably traded it in because he was to old to drive it anymore and it has a full service history from Subaru Docklands. I don't think the tune has been played with.

I do have VAG COM cable and RomRaider for monitoring.

Hi, only reason I suspected that because it seems temperature related and there are many temp. comp tables in the ECU (particularly cold start) that if fiddled with could cause this perhaps?? Does it occur in the same temp zone? RR will be able to tell you both coolant and intake temp prior to starting. Not sure if you can log things whilst cranking?? Could be handy.

[dr20t]

Would need to pull the rom to see the timing and fuel temp compensations

But definitely makes sense if tune has been played with

Sticky injector always is a suspect too

[SHIZNT]

I'm going to have a tinker with it tomorrow. I'm leaning more towards a possible bad coolant temp sensor as it only seems to happen when the car is warm.

Injectors were removed and cleaned so I don't thing its going to be a sticky injector, though I could be wrong. I might remove the Cam position sensors tomorrow and give them a clean as well and see if it makes any difference.