96 Outback--slow to start & now Check engine light...

[luvlu]

Howdy folks, this is my first post...the Subee's been good to us so far, but it's at 166K miles and starting to have some new clicks and pops and such...and I'm far from a mechanic! The new issue...several times within the last few weeks it has been slow to start...it turns fine but never "ignites" (for lack of a better term), almost seems like it's not getting fuel. When this happens, I can simply pump the gas pedal and it will start. Not a big deal I guess (??), but reminiscent of my old '77 Olds that wasn't fuel injected. Then today after another occurrance of this, the "Check Engine" light came on.

 

I haven't taken it to a diagnostic place yet, hoping that this may be a common thing as Subee's get miles on them...better yet hoping someone here can give me a heads-up on what may be going on a quick/inexpensive repair :-)

 

Thanks for any help you can give!

 

Chris

[lmdew]

Have you replaced the fuel filter lately, if not start there.

 

You may have a weak fuel pump. The best thing to do is get the codes read. Autozone and many other parts places will read them for Free.

 

Once you have the code, you can start fixing the car.

[frag]

Like Imdew wrote the surest way is to get the code read. But waiting for that, i might point out that on a fuel injected car, «pumping the gas pedal» does'nt send more gas to the engine but more AIR. I would then assume that maybe the mixture is too rich and that this is due to a failing coolant temp sensor. But this is only a guess, so have the code read before doing anything else.

[luvlu]

Excellent, thanks for the feedback...I didn't realize pumping the gas pedal on a fuel injected car sends more air...who'd a thunk it? Obviously not me...going to get the codes read tomorrow.

 

Thanks again.