On 8/18/2019 at 12:42 PM, 1 Lucky Texan said:

bad knock sensor can kill power

The knock sensor can actually shut off the engine and not set a code. It happened to my wife's car 3 times. I found that info on this site years ago. The old sensor had a crack in the plastic. Put on a new knock sensor and no more shut downs.

One question. Do you see any lights flickering on the instrument panel when it is acting up? Like, when you first turn the key on.

no flickering lights  - normal opp. Heck, as best I remember the tach doesn't even flinch

Well that is one thing out of the way.

Years ago the alternator had a broken brush in it and going up hill it would slow down then surge and repeat, then run fine. Never did it on a flat road. My volt meter showed 14-12-14-12 volts and I found the broken brush. First I'd ever seen a broken brush.

ok...finally had time to play with this this am. Installed the CmPS last week and got no codes but problem persisted so starting from there. I had  read on an Outback forum that another poster had a similar issue and he swapped out the upstream O2 sensor and the problem went away. So I installed a Bosch upstream O2 sensor. Still doing the same thing so I kept driving it till it thru a code. P0203 and P0103 - MAF sensor high reading and same for #3 injection circuit. Well, as best I remember a 2000 Subie doesn't have a MAF. Thoughts?

hey....a least it didn't throw a CmPS sensor code!!!

BIll

 

oh...and this time I watched - the tach does "flinch" when it stunbles

Edited September 14, 20196 yr by RMVR53

Sounds like grounding issues to me. Lots of random codes. 

GD

how about a screwy code reader. I picked up a cheap mini reader for the live readings. It gave me the last two codes. Reset it and just ran the 'test' again then read the code with my older INNOVA . Got a code...P341

Thats 3 after market CmPS and 2 Dealer Sensors. So either the reader is wrong or something is taking out or making the cam sensor fail under load. 

 

 

ok - my bad -P341 is a RANGE problem and not a fail. So what am I looking for next? At least it wasn't a fail this time!!

Edited September 15, 20196 yr by RMVR53

ya know... one add'l - I thought. I wet test the wires for arcing and noticed something. The plug wires are Autolite. Think that could be an issue?

you want OEM or from whoever makes them (Denso?)

Edited September 15, 20196 yr by 1 Lucky Texan

NGK for plugs and wires. 

GD

10 hours ago, RMVR53 said:

ya know... one add'l - I thought. I wet test the wires for arcing and noticed something. The plug wires are Autolite. Think that could be an issue?

most definitely

NGK or OEM plug wires only!

 

FIXED!!!

I found another post on the Outback forum from 5 years ago. Reading the post is was as if the guy was me working on my car. His final post is the same as this... 

one tooth off....

Both cams were on time, but the crank was 1 tooth retarded (or you could say the crank was on and both cams were one tooth advanced). Its my fault as I put a new belt on when I did the water pump 6 months ago. Why it took 5-600 miles to trigger I don't really care right now.  In any case, its fixed that and WOW...runs great, no miss and I've replaced a lot of parts that I probably needed to anyway so I'm happy. Thanks to all ya'll for direction, guidance and encouragement. 

Bill 

 

 

Edited September 28, 20196 yr by RMVR53

Great!  I've had that happen a time or 2 over the years.  Off a tooth will cause some issues.

 

Well done! Happened to me once on one of our 2.2s. I swear the crank jumped a tooth when I started it, like maybe the tensioner didn't have the belt tight yet.