January 27, 200521 yr My wagon has been in the garage with it's hood up for two weeks after dying on the road. It turns over and is getting spark but it still won't go. My husband, the erstwhile mechanic, is frustrated. He's checked all the obvious things and he says that the next step would be to check electric relays which he doesn't think will solve the problem. And so it sits. Can any of you provide some ideas for what else might be wrong, or questions I should ask him? Is diagnosing an electrical problem hard? Also, I'm looking to buy a 96 Outback 5 speed and having no luck in my area. Any tips on tracking one down (I look on craigslist, the newspaper and autotrader every day)? Meanwhile, I'm walking to work.
January 27, 200521 yr It needs: Fuel Air Spark Compression. Any one of those things will cause it to not go. Fulfill those requirements and report back Welcome to the board. EDIT: Just noticed where you are.. Richie has a shop in Portland - board name richierich. He and his dad do good work. Additionally, there are a large number of other members between seattle and portland. I'm sure one of which could be convinced to lend a hand if necessary.
January 27, 200521 yr Author No spark: new coil put in, still no spark. Plugs look fine, wires fine, battery fine, distributor cap and rotor new. Guessing something in distributor set up or switch or relay. Is there one that would be more likely to go bad? Haynes manual is vague. In what order should stuff be tested?
January 27, 200521 yr Hi! First off I would like to say welcome to the board. Okay, now to your problem. Caleb said it right. If you don't have any of the 4 things he listed, it will not run. Sounds to me like your crankshaft position sensor has taken a turn for the worse. It is the only thing inside the distributor besides the shaft and the rotor. It is underneath the cover plate that is held down by two screws. If they go bad, it won't start at all, as it controls when the coil is supposed to fire. Have your husband take the distributor apart and check it out. *EDIT* Also, check and see what codes the ecu is throwing. This will give you a pretty good idea of what is going wrong.
January 27, 200521 yr I guess that I also should have mentioned that the crankshaft position sensor is located underneath the rotor, which has to be removed to gain access to the cover plate. Once the cover plate is removed, you will see a small metal wheel w/ slits in it. (crank trigger wheel if I remember right), that passes through a black plastic piece. The black plastic piece is what needs to be checked. It is held in by 3 screws. *Note* It will also have an electrical connector underneath the distributor that plugs into it and also has a cover plate that is held on by two screws. This will also have to be removed. I hope this helps. Patrick
January 27, 200521 yr Is the rotor turning when you turn the motor over? Could be a broken timing belt. The driver side belt runs the dizzy. If the belt breaks, there will be no spark.
January 27, 200521 yr Hi! First off I would like to say welcome to the board. Okay, now to your problem. Caleb said it right. If you don't have any of the 4 things he listed, it will not run. Sounds to me like your crankshaft position sensor has taken a turn for the worse. It is the only thing inside the distributor besides the shaft and the rotor. It is underneath the cover plate that is held down by two screws. If they go bad, it won't start at all, as it controls when the coil is supposed to fire. Have your husband take the distributor apart and check it out. *EDIT* Also, check and see what codes the ecu is throwing. This will give you a pretty good idea of what is going wrong. what about the timing belts?
January 27, 200521 yr 3rd person to suggest checking timing belts. Check to see if the distrib rotor is turning like calebz suggests.
January 28, 200521 yr I am in Portland, find a time when I am free and I will help you out, its just hard for me to find time. Maybe Saturday evening after I get off work or sometime between monday-thursday in the evening... all my days off are occupied right now though I have had ALOT of EA82's (See signature) So maybe I would have some luck figuring it out.
January 28, 200521 yr Along with the other suggestions that must be looked at I would first check to see if there is voltage getting to the coil by using a test light. If there is voltage getting to the positive side of the coil then place the test probe on the negative side of the coil and see if the light is on there also, as it should be. If the light is not on then you may have an open coil. If the light is on then try starting the engine with the probe still connected to the negative side. As the engine cranks the light of the probe should pulse. If it doesn't then you need to check the pickup in the distributor. As suggested earlier, you should check to see that the rotor is turning with the distributor cap off and cranking the engine. The timing belt may have broken on the side that turns it.
January 28, 200521 yr It would help out a lot if you could list sounds, smells, and length of firing/starter.
January 28, 200521 yr Author I am in Portland, find a time when I am free and I will help you out, its just hard for me to find time. Maybe Saturday evening after I get off work or sometime between monday-thursday in the evening... all my days off are occupied right now though Thanks, Flowmaster. Tonite and tomorrow morning we'll check out the above mentioned suggestions and take it from there. Lots of great advice!
January 30, 200521 yr Author Yep, rotor no turn, must be timing belt. That's a JOB, right? Gotta take out everything to get to it. And requires special tool we don't have.
January 30, 200521 yr imng belts aren't that bad it's just one peice at a time. not a job you want to rush. first one i did i had to redo ..not fun
January 30, 200521 yr Author I found this site listed after doing a search but it doesn't work: here is some reading on the timing belt procedure(with pics) http://www.warpthree.com/milesfox/s.../timingbelt.htm Does anyone know of anywhere else I could get some info and pics on replacing the timing belt? We have Haynes and "How to Keep Your Subi Alive" (not much help). How many hours are we looking at do you think? Never done one before...
January 31, 200521 yr Don't sweat on timing belts, I did mine the first time with NO problems. Just be careful with them and make sure you get everything lined up properly. I actually took mine off and put the new ones on, made sure that nothing had moved or had any additional slack in it, tensioned them properly and it was done. Started on first try. That was over 15k ago BTW - VERY good idea to change your oil pump seals (shaft, O-ring, Mickey Mouse gasket) when you do the timing belt. Perhaps even do the camshaft seals, it will add a little time, but it will save you down the road. Water pump would also be a good idea, I had to replace mine a month after I did the timing belts It will probably take you 5 hours total your first time, and 3 or less after you have done it once. Timing belts are VERY easy to get to on these engines.
January 31, 200521 yr I have a tool... I will loan it out, but may want some kind of deposit on it (fully refundable of course!!) if I have to leave it there (sorry its a nice machined aluminum tool and I dont want to have to get a new one as it took me a long time to find one this nice)
February 2, 200521 yr Author Update: Yep, broken timing belt on driver's side. Got everything out but busted one of the plastic covers in the process, one of the bolts won't come out. Hopefully can find another at U-Pull-It. Used the "prybar and Friend" method to get the crankshaft pulley bolt off - no problem. Hope to throw the new belts on this weekend and have her running again!
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