I need help. I own a 5 speed 97 impreza outback sport with approx. 188k miles. When the weather turned cold this winter my car started to exhibit a strange trait. When the engine is cold the engine will RPM high when accelerating but the car will not respond by going any faster. i have to ease off the gas and bring the RPM's low before the car will continue to push forard again. this will happen in any gear i use, preventing me from getting up to speed quickly, thus forcing me to be conservative. When the engine warms up though, the car will respond like it should and i can take it to the proper RPM, usually between 4 and 4500 RPM, before i upshift. If anyone has any ideas what this might be. please let me know. PS. In cold weather when starting my car my RPM's will go to 2-3K and usually the way to bring them down to normal is to rev the enging for a second. this will usually put it back in the 900 range. thanks again for any help.....

I need help. I own a 5 speed 97 impreza outback sport with approx. 188k miles. When the weather turned cold this winter my car started to exhibit a strange trait. When the engine is cold the engine will RPM high when accelerating but the car will not respond by going any faster. i have to ease off the gas and bring the RPM's low before the car will continue to push forard again. this will happen in any gear i use, preventing me from getting up to speed quickly, thus forcing me to be conservative. When the engine warms up though, the car will respond like it should and i can take it to the proper RPM, usually between 4 and 4500 RPM, before i upshift. If anyone has any ideas what this might be. please let me know. PS. In cold weather when starting my car my RPM's will go to 2-3K and usually the way to bring them down to normal is to rev the enging for a second. this will usually put it back in the 900 range. thanks again for any help.....

 

 

The high rpm's in cold weather starting is normal. 2-3k sounds a little high, but 1800 to 2k is normal in my GL in cold weather -- the computer is revving it to warm up faster. By hitting the gas, you are somehow telling it to stop that -- like hitting the gas after it starts to disengage the automatic choke on old carbureated cars, except this is all computer driven now.

 

Don't know about the clutch slipping thing.

My guess is your clutch is worn and the slipping will become more prevalent as time goes on. The heat is expanding the pressure parts just for now.

 

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