Hi,

 

Here's the story. I bought a 98 Legacy with only 40K miles, but with the CEL on, from a dealer in New Jersey, got on the turnpike, and it stalled at the first tollbooth. It started fine, but the engine sounded like a lawnmower, was shaking terribly, and had a fraction of the power it was supposed to. I brought it back to the dealer, he started it up, and it was fine. We later figured out that if the car is doing this, you can turn it off, let it sit 5-10 seconds, and when you start it up, it's fine.

 

Sometimes, the car will start running badly, shaking etc, without stalling first. Always, though, it's when the RPMs have gone from high to low pretty quickly, like when stopping, or shifting into neutral between gears. However, it doesn't always happen, so it's difficult to replicate.

 

He had me bring it to a mechanic, who replaced injectors and the Idle Air Control motor. When I picked it up, the CEL was off, I thought everything was okay. First time I get on a highway, though, and slow down due to traffic, it stalls, I restart, it sounds terrible and has no power, and the CEL is back on.

 

The dealer had me bring it to another mechanic, who took out the EGR valve and told me to drive it for a week or two. If the car doesn't run badly, the EGR was the problem. It ran very good after this for several days, but occasionally stalled. Then, one day it stalled and shook and had no power. It did this a few times, but not near the frequency it had been when I first bought it.

 

Then, I took it on a 100-mile trip, and after a couple of hours it started stalling almost at every stop sign, sometimes running badly afterwards, sometimes not.

 

As it is now, I'm taking it back to the second mechanic, who will put in a new EGR and then do the next thing, whatever that is.

 

What could possibly be wrong with this otherwise wonderful car? I've searched through the forums here and seen some people with similar problems, but not quite the same, and never with a definitive solution.

First thing to do is not go back to that dealer (unless its under warrenty). Sounds like they didnt bother pulling the codes. Go to an autozine and let them pull the codes. Modern cars dont have many fuel system issues, so this is going to be electrical. It can be the coil, the ignitor, or bad cam/crank sesnors... or a few other possabilities.

 

SInce it doesnt do it when cold, im betting on an eletrical issue.

 

We need the codes.

 

nipper

My car acted very similarly when the MAF (Mass air flow) sensor was toast.

MAF, bad gas, plugged fuel filter, I would also consider valve sticking in the heads, this would be cause by infrequent oil changes and not a lot of highway driving and vehicle sitting quite a bit. MotorVac, or throttle body cleaning might help your situation.

We need the codes.

 

Here are the codes:

 

P0400 - EGR Flow Malfunction

The EGR valve is gone so that makes sense.

 

P1101 - Fuel Air Metering

 

P1507 - Idle Speed Control

Here are the codes:

 

P0400 - EGR Flow Malfunction

The EGR valve is gone so that makes sense.

 

P1101 - Fuel Air Metering

 

P1507 - Idle Speed Control

 

why is the egr gone? thats actually important these days to prevent ping.

 

idle speed control can cause stalling, and fuel metering i think is related to map sesnor, but i would inspect the ISC first.

 

nipper

why is the egr gone? thats actually important these days to prevent ping.

 

idle speed control can cause stalling, and fuel metering i think is related to map sesnor, but i would inspect the ISC first.

 

nipper

 

The mechanic took out the EGR and had me drive without it to see if the problem still happens (it does). He ordered a new one.

whew ... but im not crazy about your mechanic.

check the idle air conrol motor, the ISC is the same thing pretty much.

 

nipper

whew ... but im not crazy about your mechanic.

check the idle air conrol motor, the ISC is the same thing pretty much.

 

nipper

My 98 GT did that. IAC needed to be cleaned. Works great now!