I've had this car since new and it only has 81,000 miles on it. I've taken it in for scheduled maintenance and had the oil changed every 3,000 miles. I'm not happy that I seem to have a major problem.

After the light came on, I took the car to the same dealer where I purchased it and have had the ongoing maintenance.

The code seems to be a 107W? Diagnosed missfire in cylinder #1. coil, plugs, wires fuel delivery all okay. The dealer says it is a sticking valve.

The gave me two options: Continue to drive the car until there is a preformance issue and then replace the valve heads for $3000! (there has been no change in behavior to this point) OR

Trade the car in.....

 

Anyone else encountered this problem? How about fuel additives? Any other suggestions. I'm not very happy with my Subaru now. I have loved this car up until this point.

 

Help!

I had the same situation on my 97 several years ago, misfire on #3, but everything checked out fine. My service manager said nothing about sticking valves, but suggested that we change one thing at a time until we found the problem. The first item changed was the ignition coil and the problem disappeared. Apparently the coil was breaking down intermittently, but not showing up when tested by itself.

I asked my car savvy neighbor about the situation and he suggested trying a fuel additive assuming it really was a stuck valve.

Meanwhile, I had made an appointment with an independent shop to take a look at it. They said they could positively diagnose a sticky valve and if that was the cause, they would recommend a decarbon process which would cost about $350.

I went ahead and put a bottle of fuel injector cleaner in the tank and also took the car out on the highway. I do mostly city driving with the car.

By the end of the tank, the check engine light was off and has stayed off since!

I did go ahead and add a bottle of techron to the next tank.

I think I just saved about $500!

I do buy the cheapest gas (which is still not cheap) and was told this could contribute to carbon buildup. Any merit to that? Should I be spending 20 cents per gallon more for this 9 year old car?

Thanks......