mrbalihai

What was the source for the new IAC? Used? Subaru? Aftermarket? It's Subaru, direct from the dealership. It's been over a year since it was replaced, so it's out of warranty. Haven't had a chance to check the neutral position sensor, but will take a look this weekend.

I figured it wasn't going to be that simple. It didn't go into limp mode or stall, so something is definitely sending a bad signal to the ECU. I've had both the IACV and TPS replaced within the past 3 years, and find it hard to believe that they'd have gone bad again this soon. Any ideas on how to test the neutral sensor?

I got a CEL while taking a long trip yesterday in my 2003 Baja. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary with the way the car was driving, but I decided to drive to nearby Subaru dealer and have them pull the code just in case it was something serious. The CEL went out on my way to the dealership, so I skipped it and just drove the car home w/no incident. This morning, I read the code and it turned out to be a P0519 - IDLE CONTROL SYSTEM MALFUNCTION (FAIL-SAFE). I'd gotten this code about 2 years ago, and when the Baja went into limp mode a couple of times, I had the IACV replaced. No problems since. I did some googling, and came across a suggestion to check the air filter cover to see if it was seated correctly. When I did, I noticed that the connection between the air-intake duct and resonator chamber was not mated up properly, so I snapped it into place. Could this have caused the CEL by disrupting the flow of air into the intake manifold?

I wonder what effect that could have on other electrical systems besides the turn signals, flashers, and clock? Yup, I already had the right tool for this job. The positive cable/post looked like it had been cleaned and greased the last time I had the Baja in the shop, so I just did the negative. It's been 5 days w/no problems, so I'm about ready to close the case.

Cleaning the ground connection on the battery with baking soda and a wire brush did the trick. Even though it looked pretty good before I cleaned it, there must've been enough corrosion to create a high-resistance/voltage-drop in the flasher circuit.

I just checked the dashboard clock, and it changed by 3 hours when the car was sitting in the garage with the engine off, so I think it's more likely to be an intermittent battery connection. I'm going to clean and retighten the ground connection to the battery first. If that doesn't do anything, I'll get the alternator checked out.

Yeah, that thought had crossed my mind also. I was wondering if I could possibly have an intermittent connection to the battery or alternator. The high-pitched whine could be coming from the alternator. I also noticed today that the electronic clock on the dash was off by several hours and I had just set it a few weeks ago, which seemed suspicious.

A couple of days ago, the turn signals on my 2003 Baja starting blinking faster when I accelerated, and slowing down when I took my foot off the gas pedal. I also noticed a faint high-pitched whine coming from somewhere in the car when it was doing this, but couldn't isolate it. I checked all of the bulbs, and none were burned out, so I took apart the head- and tail-light assemblies and checked everything with an ohmmeter for high-resistance to ground. All looked good, and there was no visible corrosion or abraded wires. I also checked the connections to the relay under the dash and followed the wiring harnesses as far as I could. After I got everything back together, the problem went away for a day or two, but now it's back, and I'm looking for ideas on anything else I can try before biting the bullet and taking it in to the shop. All suggestions gratefully accepted!

Thought I'd come back and update this thread. I've been driving the Baja for several weeks with outside temps in the 90s, and the problem seems to have gone away entirely. All that I can think of is that putting the ECU into test mode a couple of times may have unstuck a sticky valve or solenoid in the purge system. Now the Baja's got another weird problem going on, but that's a topic for a different thread....;-)

I used your procedure to test the purge solenoid this morning, and it appears to be operating correctly, but since the engine was cold, and high temps bring out this problem, I should probably try it again when the engine gets hot. We're supposed to be back into the 90s next week, so I'll retest then.

Thanks! I will definitely give this a try. I had also considered the possibility of liquid fuel being pulled into the canister, but thought it might have been caused by me overfilling the tank at some point, not vacuum due to the open solenoid.

Thanks for the suggestions, but I've tried premium and Sea Foam already...no help. Throttle body was replaced last year because the Baja was going into idle failsafe. Since this is only happening when it's hot out, I'd been wondering about fuel pump problems like vapor lock.

Should also mention that I've had no CEL codes related to purge/evap system since this started.

Hi All, My 2003 Baja is having some bizarre purge issues when the temps outside go above 90 degrees. The Subaru mechanics at my dealership have identified the problem, but haven't been able to fix it, so I'd like to get some ideas as to what my next steps should be About a year ago, my Baja started "bucking" in hot weather. This happened most frequently when I would get off the freeway after about 15-20 minutes of driving, or for a mile or two after filling the gas tank. I got the mechanic to take a drive with his laptop diagnostics hooked up, and he found that the A/F sensor was swinging between a rich and lean mix when the bucking was occurring, so I had them replace it. Things seemed to improve after that, but the weather had cooled down, and car was still bucking after filling the gas tank. This summer, it started doing it again, so I went for another drive with the mechanic, and this time he noticed that the purge solenoid was opening up all the way when the car was bucking. The A/F sensor was acting up again too. He thought the purge behavior was not normal, so he bypassed the solenoid by plugging the manifold inlets and unscrewing the gas cap, and had me drive it over the weekend. It drove beautifully...no chugging at all...but I noticed is that I never got a warning due to the loose gas cap, which seemed odd. I brought it back to the shop on Monday, but when I picked it up again in the afternoon, the mechanic told me he had changed the A/F sensor again, but had done nothing to the purge system. I was not too happy about this, but he said he'd test driven the car with the solenoid bypassed and could still see the A/F sensor hunting between rich and lean. He also said he talked to Subaru tech support, and they were unable to tell him what inputs controlled the purge solenoid. I found that a bit hard to believe, as I could find that information easily enough off the web. When I questioned the shop manager, he said that they had some other ideas, but they were "expensive", so they decided to replace the sensor again because it was still under warranty. Anyway, things again seemed better after the sensor replacement, and the bucking seemed to be much reduced after filling the tank. However, the weather had cooled down, so I really couldn't tell if it was a true fix. Now that the weather has gotten warmer, I definitely notice the car bucking again when coming off the freeway, so I will have to take it in for further work. If anyone has an idea of what's going on here, I'd greatly appreciate some suggestions. I love my Baja, but I've had so many expensive engine problems in this vehicle over the past 5 years, I'm at the point where I'm about ready to cut my losses and sell it if I can't get this fixed. Based on my research, I think the following components could be involved, but I don't know how to rate them in order of how likely they are to be causing it: ECU Purge solenoid Leaky vacuum hoses Charcoal canister Wiring harness All suggestions welcome and greatly appreciated! Mr. Bali Hai