2000 Forester, 5-speed, 87k miles; well maintained with plugs/wires somewhere in the 15-20k mile range.

 

 

Recently began having a "miss" at various speeds.

 

The car will suddenly feel like the engine lost a chunk of power. This is similar to the sensation of the A/C compressor coming on; only stronger. Sometimes it'll be a rapid-fire "stutter" sensation, other times a longer feeling of power loss.

 

This will happen at pretty much any speed, whether cruising or accelerating, lightly or hard.

 

The car starts fine, doesn't stall and there are no obvious problems like loose wires.

 

Today, while on a 3-hour drive; the Check Engine Light came on and stayed on. The CEL doesn't go off after shutdown or re-start. Even after fully cooling off, it's still on.

 

 

I don't know what the codes are because I haven't taken it to the dealership and I don't have a tester to pull the codes.

 

 

What I'm looking for is anyone who has experienced a similar set of symptoms. Before I go to the stealership, I'd like to have some sense of what the possibilities are.

 

I'm not looking for a bunch of wild guesses. I can do that myself. I'm looking for anyone who has had a similar experience.

 

Thanks in advance.

Sounds like a coil pact. Easy to check with meter or by pulling codes.

Hi,

 

Check for chafed ignition wires, even if they are not too old, by unplugging and examining all around. Grab the ends of the spark plug and wiggle them, checking for loose threads or cracked insulators.

 

The coil pack suggestion is also a good one. As for CEL, it will stay on until you use a scanner and clear it. Most likely, you'll find it to be a misfire code in a particular cylinder.

 

Regards,

Adnan

Coil pack....

 

Yeah...

 

That sounds about right.

 

Thanks.

Went to dealership, got code pulled and it turns out that it's a front oxygen sensor. (They use some other name for the sensor)

Ask if there was a TSB on the O2 sensor for the Forester, there was for the Legacy and Outback.

O2 sensor,Thats better than coil pact if I remember right my coil pact was not cheap to replace.