Has anybody had this problem and found a solution. My car suddenly died. It wasn't hot, it was sorta rainy and I was going about 40mph when it stopped. It turns over real good, but it won't start. I've check the distributor cap, the plugs. The coil is getting a signal on the + & - side, but I'm not getting juice from the wire that goes to the distributor cap. People have told me it might be one of the many sensors that trigger the coil. Since the engine wasn't too hot (the temp gauge was middle lining), I don't think it's the crankshaft sensor. What other sensors are there?

broken timing belt. pop the distributor cap and watch to see if the rotor turns. when cranking. if not, its broke.

 

the coil is goos f it has power, just the wire to the cap(coil wire) doesnt spark because the dist is not turning.

 

here is some reading. not hard to fix yourself. take the motor oout if you have a crane.

http://www.warpthree.com/milesfox/subaru/service/service.htm

broken timing belt. pop the distributor cap and watch to see if the rotor turns. when cranking. if not, its broke.

 

the coil is goos f it has power, just the wire to the cap(coil wire) doesnt spark because the dist is not turning.

 

here is some reading. not hard to fix yourself. take the motor oout if you have a crane.

http://www.warpthree.com/milesfox/subaru/service/service.htm

Hey thanks alot. I will check this out tomorrow and let you know what I find.

Cold it be the coil itself? He said he wasn't getting a spark on the coil wire, I'm assuming that's what he meant about the wire going to the distributor.

A way to see if your coil wire is sparking is to pull it out of the disty cap and stick it close to a ground and have someone turn the car over, if a spark jumps from the end of wire to the ground source, your coil is fine. WARNING: you yourself can become a ground... for some reason the electricity likes me. How many volts through a coil 40,000? But weak amps (THANK GOD). I have been zapped 3times by plug wires and 2 times from coil wires.. and I am still around to eat sleep and live Subes

A way to see if your coil wire is sparking is to pull it out of the disty cap and stick it close to a ground and have someone turn the car over, if a spark jumps from the end of wire to the ground source, your coil is fine. WARNING: you yourself can become a ground... for some reason the electricity likes me. How many volts through a coil 40,000? But weak amps (THANK GOD). I have been zapped 3times by plug wires and 2 times from coil wires.. and I am still around to eat sleep and live Subes

Hey Hti - that's the first thing my brother did is test the coil spark just like you said and that's why we bought the new coil, but it turns out the it is the timing belt. So..next we pull the engine a bit to if we can get the covers off and the belt changed. I called repair shops and they just want too much money to fix it, all labor I'm sure. The car is worth that. It's pretty rusty and I use it for my paper route at night only, but I LOVE the sunroof and the little gadgets it has inside the dash like the outside temp guage, trip counter, clock. It was quite the car in it's day. I bought it for $200 and have put about $1200 into it in the past year. Can't spend anymore unless I can do the work myself, with my brother's help.

Hey thanks alot. I will check this out tomorrow and let you know what I find.

Well Miles, so far it looks like you're right. We tested the rotor and it doesn't turn. ....sometime soon we'll pull the covers off the front and see what we see.

 

Thanks for the great suggestion.

I know you may be tight for money, but its a good idea to replace the water pump when you do the belts. It saves alot of headaches down the road. Alot of us will do a complete re-seal of the front when the belts are changed. Not necessary tho, unless you have alot of leaks.

read this info if you want to try and fix it yourself. this is how i do it, i invented the subaru:

 

http://www.warpthree.com/milesfox/subaru/service/service.htm