My 91 Legacy has been sitting for a few days now in some mighty cold temps. I was tempted to start it up each day but dislike doing that if I've no place to go. In hindsight, not the best decision maybe.

-25 here this morning, and she just won't fire. I've no doubt flooded the engine so I'm letting it sit a couple hours. In my experience, once you flood a fuel injected car, its misery to get going again. I put a small ceramic heater under the front and a blanket over the engine compartment and will let that go for a couple hours.

I think she would fire off with some starting fluid, but I'm no sure how to introduce it. The plastic cowling over the intake is too brittle to mess with. In fact, I cracked the plastic armrest by leaning on it with my elbow getting out of the car.

Any suggestions on how to get a little ether in there?

If you think it's flooded, pull the ecu fuse and crank it for about 20 seconds with the throttle on the floor.

 

To get starting fluid in...can you open the air cleaner housing? Spray about 2 seconds worth on top of the filter then snap it back shut.

My owners manual sez fuse 14 is the EGI unit, AT unit. Is that the right one?

 

I don't see a fuse for ecu?

I don't know.

 

Anyone?

Would'nt disconnecting the crank sensor have the same effect?

She's going! Went out to give it one more try, then I was going to put the battery charger on it. Just a simple unit, it has no "Start" circuit. The ceramic heater has been under it for about two hours. It's still -12 here at 2PM. She cranked awhile, the interval of firing increasing then caught. Think I'll get inthe habit of starting it up and letting it run an hour or so everyday in these types temps. I've been sticking real close to home lately, normally it's driven every day. However it seems almost everyone here in the Adirondacks is sick! Normally I go out for a couple "dustcutters" in the evening but I've been laying low. I live by myself with two beagles and the LAST thing I need right now is to get sick! Moving to North Carolina soon, but not soon enough!

Frag, I don't thinkso but might be wrong. It's the fuel pump you need to disable. Otherwise, when you turn the key on, you get a shot of fuel to the throttle body. If you crank the motor with the pump disabled, the excess fuel can get down the return line. The Subaru manual sez to hold the pedal down and crank the motor, but, in my opinion, in these type temps, the slow crank, wet plugs, "everything is frozen" combination is just too much. Gotta take something out of the combination. Dry plugs would be great for instance, but not practicle. The ceramic heaters work well because they are pretty subtle in the warming effect. Like I said I put the hood up, blanket over the engine compartment and slid the heater under the front. I had a Harley that I used to ride when it was cold(Young and stupid then, just stupid now) and at night I'd hang a trouble light so the bulb was between the cylinders. Helped a lot. Theres really no substitute, in my experience, for a block heater. Alaskans and those from northern Canada will back me up on this I think. Plug her in at night and in the morning she's good to go, plus it heats up on the inside more quickly and I'm all for that! The barracks parking lots on Elmendorf and Eielson AFB's in Alaska were fully stocked with outlets to accomadate this technique!

I'm not sure either but I think the ECU does'nt send spark nor fuel when it gets no signal from the crank position sensor.

You're right about the block heater. I've got one already installed on my car but the problem is I've got no place to plug it in. The car sleeps on the street and sometimes at a distance from where i live.

Had no problem starting it down to -35 C° but I dont like the sound the engine makes during the first few minutes when it's realy realy cold. I usually use Mobil 1 5-30 from december to the end of april.

I went to Montreal with my girl friend in a 64 Austin Healy Sprite.

Man was that cold, the Sprite's heater did just about nothing. Those Eastern winters can really drag a battery down and I had no plug to plug my engine water heater into. A nice cop gave me a jump from his squad car or I would still be there shivering.

Gnu and I were just whineing to each other about the weather being cold here in No CA, but I guess we should knock it off and be thankful. If it gets to 60 we think we are in the South Pole.

I went to Montreal with my girl friend in a 64 Austin Healy Sprite.

Man was that cold, the Sprite's heater did just about nothing. Those Eastern winters can really drag a battery down and I had no plug to plug my engine water heater into. A nice cop gave me a jump from his squad car or I would still be there shivering.

Gnu and I were just whineing to each other about the weather being cold here in No CA, but I guess we should knock it off and be thankful. If it gets to 60 we think we are in the South Pole.

That's going to a lot of trouble to make her cuddle up to you.

30 years ago I went down south on a motorcycle (Yamaha 500 single cylinder) to Cape Hatteras with my girl friend with exactly the same thing in mind.