I purchased a 95 right hand drive subaru legacy and i've been having trouble with it shutting off or loosing all throttle temporarly then regaining again. I have changed plugs ,wires ,fuel filter, ignighter, throttle position sensor, idle control, cam sensor, crank sensor, knock sensor, fuel pressure regulator, coil, timing belt, belt tensioner, oxygen sensors, fuel pump, fuel pump relay, mass air flow sensor, and the ecm. If any one has a suggestion to try I am really open.

Do you have a check engine light on?

 

When it shuts off and comes back on, do all the lights on the dash come on? Like they do when you first turn on the car?

 

You've changed a lot of stuff, while you're in there clean up the battery connections, alt connection, and grounds. Bad grounds can cause all sorts of bizarre things to happen.

my 93 legacy had a loose wire somehwere between the firewall and passenger compartment. i grabbed the loom of wiring under the dash and pulled it back and forth. the body plug popped out and the power came back to my system. i just have to be able to reach up in there now and solder the loose wire. it was a yellow wire coming to or from fuse 16. the main power fuse to the spark system of the engine.

Edited June 17, 201114 yr by General chaos

Yes check engine light on code says oxygen sensor and lock up torque converter in trany. I gutted catalytic converter wasn't sure if light would ever stay off now. the lights in dash do not come on when it shuts down and comes back on its own. I thought maybe switch so i wiggled while driving nothing unless you shut it off then lights come on as usual. I have tried wiggling wires under hood not much under dash i'll try that too.

What is specifically shutting off?

 

Is the engine stalling or are you loosing all electrical power?

The problem started with the engine just falling on its face no throttle response at all but the car did not shut clear off after afew seconds it would regain and throw you back in the seat. Now the car is shutting off sometimes when this happens but i still have all electrical power. seems to start right back up.

Possibly ignition relay, cuts power to the engine and then when the relay kicks back on it compression starts?

 

I have a similar issue with my 94, but its not bad enough yet to warrant taking apart the dash to get to the relay.

I think the ignition relay is an excellent suggestion. Going over the engine grounds and cleaning them may be a good idea also.

Sounds electrical for sure. What about battery cables? A loose ground cable can do this kinda thing.

sounds like me when I was in slow moving traffic the car acted like it wanted to go out.. turns out the alt output was shorting to the body of the alt but I think it helped do the alt in quicker.. right before my crash it started to really get bad.

Ignition relay sounds like something worth trying . Where exactly is that relay. I have changed fuel pump relay under dash. Battery cables are clean and I checked grounds under hood the usual ones are there and look clean and tight. I never thought about alternator I might have a used one to try.