Flopka

I promised if it was a stupid answer I would come back and admit it... Yes, the solution was very simple: turn off the damn defroster blower. My previous car did not activate the A/C when you had the blower position set to defrost or even partial defrost. So, I thought there would only be an issue if the defroster button was pushed in. Wrong. Having the blower switch set even to partial defrost (even if the defroster button is not pushed) will make the A/C kick in, to dry out the air being sent to the windshield. (Actually, the A/C in my old car was broken and I never had it fixed, so it very well might have been part of that car's design too.) The switchy noise also went away, so, there's the answer. DUH.

I've absolutely confirmed I have not left anything on - the A/C is off, the rear defroster is off, the heated seats are off. But while I had my rear defroster off, it appears I left the blower in the half-and-half defrost position. I'm home now, so tomorrow I'll see if shutting that off does the trick. It reminds me somewhat of the A/C compressor kicking in, but is much less pronounced.

No, neither. Although that's what it sort of feels like. Something else that I keep hearing now also, is a sort of soft click/vibration beneath the car on occasion - almost as if some sort of switch is coming on periodically. I don't know what that is either, and while it doesn't seem directly correlated to the idling issue, I also noticed it starting at around the same time. I will doubled check to see if I have left something on. The A/C is definitely off, and I don't THINK I have the defroster on but I will check again. If it's something embarassingly stupidly simple I will let everybody know. :-)

I have a new 2012 Impreza Premium with only about 500 miles on it. It's been unfortunately subjected to a lot of stop-and-start city traffic in its young life. For the last few days, I've noticed a change in its idling behavior. It will go down to about 700 rpm on idle (as usual) but then sometimes after 20-25 seconds, the engine seems to come back to life and it goes up to 800-900 rpm for a few seconds, then dies back down again. Depending on how long I'm at the light, it may go through this cycle multiple times. I'm not sure why it is now showing this behavior, after a month of never doing that. Anyone know what's going on? The only unusual thing that the car went through, prior to this behavior starting, was that I was stuck in a very long dead-stop traffic jam (~10 minutes) one morning.

It's going up to the mid-60's here by the weekend (unseasonably warm), so there will be an opportunity to see if this is a function of temperature, or of (fuel pressurization) time. (or something else) This morning, it was 30 degrees, I held "ON" for at least 10 seconds, and it started up immediately.

True, but I wonder if this is an issue with the fuel pump being slow to "wake up" when you turn the key to ON. Maybe it needs 5-10 seconds for some reason. Even in 30 degrees (which is not particularly cold weather), that doesn't seem quite right. I've never had another car that acted like this at 30 degrees. I'm also still on my first tank of gas, so I don't want the dealer to just brush me off with "it's bad gas."

Yes, the first time it happened, the engine tried to start up for 5 seconds or so before it got running. But that time, I had rushed right through to START and never paused at ON. Over the weekend, the car didn't have any startup issues at all -- but then again, I made sure to hold "ON" for a good while each time. The temperature was all the same each day (25-30 degrees) so that was encouraging. I never hear any sound of a fuel pump when I hold "ON" though (even when the car goes on to start with no hesitation), which makes me wonder if that's normal or not. Yet, I could swear when I was driving the car around this weekend, I would occasionally hear a buzz shortly after startup from the general direction of the fuel pump. So... I'm a bit confused. What does the fuel pump sound like in a Subaru? When is the fuel pump supposed to come on, exactly? I have absolutely no other issues with the car's performance - there doesn't seem to be a fuel supply problem while driving. I was going to come on here and say "all clear" this morning, but then this morning the car hesitated again starting up - for about 3 seconds this time, so that's better - although it seemed to want to die before it recovered and started up. I had gotten a little overconfident, so I had held ON only about 5 seconds instead of the 10 seconds I did in the mornings over the weekend. So far, the common denominators in the rough starts have been: Cold temperature Sitting more than 12 hours Not holding "ON" for longer than 5 seconds And yes, it is being kept outdoors.

Yes. It starts starting (making noises), but doesn't "get going" (the part when you normally let go of the starter) for 5-6 seconds. The car has 26 miles on it. It was 30 degrees at the coldest last night... does that really count as "frozen" though? That's a normal winter day around here... no other car I've ever owned has had trouble starting at such a temp, on a presumably new battery... I realize this is a very new car and perhaps premature to post about the problem, but I thought I'd get started on my worrying early :-) One thing I did not do, however, was to leave the key in "ON" for a few seconds more before doing "START." I will try that tomorrow morning.

Before I freak out and take it in to the dealer... I've had this car for less than 24 hours. Drove it several times yesterday and encountered no starting problems. Came out this morning (not a particularly cold morning, about 30 degrees) and it took 5-6 seconds for the engine to turn over, as if it were a super frigid day with an old battery. After driving it to work with no issues, I started it again a few minutes after shutdown, and there was no problem starting. Fuel injection problem? Battery drain? Why would a brand new car act like this on a not-that-cold morning? Thanks for any insight you can provide... It's a 2012 Impreza 2.0i Premium.