My daughter's best friend has a 96 legacy 2.2 and it has one issue that is driving me up a wall.  The engine runs fine, but periodically it will just shut off.  It doesn't sputter and die, it just shuts off.  It will restart immediately.  The car has had the cam and crank sensors and the computer replaced and the coil too.  it is still doing it.  It did have an aftermarket security system in it that I pulled out and today I am going to check all of the connections that were spliced in to see if there is a short somewhere.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions or has had the same problem?  I am going crazy trying to make this car run consistently.

 

Thanks for any and all suggestions

When it shuts off, does all the electronics die or do the dash lights stay on?  You may be on to something with the aftermarket security system.

+1 to legy777 dash lights are a great place to start!

 

was the car ever starved of fuel for a really long time? I have a 15.9 gallon tank in my 96 legoback but when I use 10 of those gallons I hit my Empty line. these cars fuel pumps use the fuel as coolant so if you constantly have only 4-5 gallons in the tank you never stall but your overheating the pump... I drive mine on empty when I have to and have not had a problem but I strive not to.

No codes?

Wiggle the harness for the MAF sensor and see if you can make it stall.

My 96 had a bad solder joint in the MAF sensor that would make the engine stall randomly. If the ECU loses MAF signal while running the engine just quits. Would restart every time but it might be fine for only 30 seconds or it might be fine for 45 minutes.

I too had a similar issue with my MAF sensor.  The engine would lose power and studder sometimes, and sometimes it would just die.

I had a similar issue only most of the time it would not completely shut off just fall on its face like you shut it off and then go again but it would shut off at times and then restart right up ,so after changing all your obvious tune up stuff and no help even checking timing and tensioner etc. still no help , I unplugged the front oxygen sensor and it ran fine for 3 months then did it again so I replaced both upstream sensor and downstream oxygen sensors and the MAF all at the same time and that issue has not occurred for over a year .

Hey guys:  For some reason I was not getting my notifications that you had given me some help.  Anyway, we finally figured out what it was.  The car finally threw a code for the MAF and I replaced it and she hasn't had any problems since.

 

Thank you so very much for all of your help.  I am so glad that she now has a reliable car.  Stalling out randomly is not a good thing for a new driver.

 i just fixed my 1996 legacy with the same issue less than a week ago.  was cutting off...restarting.  MAF code.   wonder what years legacy777 and the other guy had?  more common on 96's?

I've read about this a few times since I had the problem, but I couldn't find anything about it before that.

Thinking it could be a fairly common issue now that these cars are getting older.

The one I had looked like a fatigue break, so I'm thinking vibration is probably the cause, and we'll probably see more of this.

I also had a randum shotdown from the MAF on a 95.  It didn't set a code until it did it 5-6 times.  Replaced MAF from junkyard and no problems since.

My issues were on my 1990 Legacy. 

 

I also recently had poor and random running issues on my 97 Impreza.  It however did throw a code for the MAF sensor.  I swapped it with a spare one I had and it's working fine now.