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1990 legacy 2.2 dies intermitantly


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Have been chasing problem for several months. Have changed fuel pump, knock sensor, purge solenoid, drained fuel tanks, monitored fuel pressure for weeks. I have 250,000 miles on this car and have never really had any problems to speak of. Then I got the bright idea of pulling of the intake and cleaning it. I do not know if I caused the problem or it was a coincedence. But now about ever 30 miles or so it just dies. if I catch it just right i can prolong it by thottling the excellerator but just for a few seconds. Then all i have to do is turn the key off and back on and it is fine for days. Fuel pressure stays at around 35psi during the events so i have eliminated fuel. The car runs great except for these episodes. With gas prices as they are i would really like to keep it. But this car really is a hazard. any help would be greatly appreciated.

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yes i had a couple of codes early on. one was knock and the other was puge solenoid. but i have fixed them both and have not had the check engine light come on since(month or so ago). and it dies 3 to 4 times a week. does the maf throw a code or is there a way of checking it.

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Im sure you did but have you checked the vaccume lines around the intake??

If you removed your intake its a good chance you either cracked a vaccume line or had one fall off.

 

You can also check for vaccume leaks by using the carb cleaner trick.. If you dont know what im talking about PM me

 

Good luck

Ryan K

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Strangly enough mine died alot around long or sharp right hand corners and also alot at lights(highway lights are he worst. nothing like people zipping around you at 60 MPH) it would also die just going down the highway. I think it had to do with the vibration or maybe the way the body was flexing. I have only driven mine a couple of days and have not really tested it throughly. But the MAF sensor located right after the air filter (should have 4 or so wires going to it) seems to have been the problem. There was a broken solder joint on the small board that the sensor plugs into. Also does it start right back up.

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It can....but it sometimes won't. Mine didn't throw a CEL until it was REALLY bad.

 

 

tha's cuz as long as its still sending a valid signal, even if it's erraneous, as long as it's in the range of what it should be, it typically will not throw a code. This was long before there was a component monitor in the ECU that would take th readings from the sensors and compare them with readings from other sensors to make sure they all make sense. (for example, if the MAF is reading a good healthy flow of air but the TPS reads closed and the RPM is at idle, your computer might not think twice about it, but a newer car would know that something doesn't add up and it would throw a code).

 

You MIGHT want to try swapping out the ignitor module, it's the big square box that's bolted to the firewall, more or less where the spare tire mount would be on an EA82 car. (Well, it's not BIG, about 2" by 3"). Would be interesting to hook a scope up and monitor the injector pulse width and the spark signal, see if either one of those pukes when the car dies. Too bad these cars don't store a "Freeze frame" like OBD2 does, those can come in handy. (Basically the ECU stores a "snapshot" of most of the sensor readings, vehicle speed, etc... when a code is flagged)

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  • 2 weeks later...

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