OK, I'm not going to get into the long story about this car, but here's the specs:

 

1999 Legacy GT Limited

Sedan

Automatic

34,000 miles

 

 

Symptoms:

 

1 Weak start

1 (followed by 2 immediate) No Starts (starter cranked twice and stopped)

Lights didn't APPEAR to be dimmer, but I could be wrong

Garage says battery gives proper volts

Starts immediately with jump

 

Could be:

Camshaft Sensors (trust me...had that happen with my '96)

Battery

???

 

What else? (this is where YOU come in.)

Battery should be load tested; like 100 amps load for 10 seconds then read voltage.

 

Make sure your battery cables and connections are clean in good shape and tight. Check the ground connection to the starter also. When you say it starts right away if jumped, is the jumper cable ground cable at your vehicle connected to the battery terminal, or somewhere else?

Battery should be load tested; like 100 amps load for 10 seconds then read voltage.

 

Make sure your battery cables and connections are clean in good shape and tight. Check the ground connection to the starter also. When you say it starts right away if jumped, is the jumper cable ground cable at your vehicle connected to the battery terminal, or somewhere else?

 

battery terminal

battery terminal

Definitely battery should be load tested (a simple voltage test is not sufficient), and pull both battery terminals, clean them and the battery posts, reconnect snuggly. Ideally leave the battery disconnected for an hour or so to avoid potential memory corruption issues that some years had in the ECU.

think there's any possibility of it being the starter?

Possibly starter I suppose; though that would not explain why it starts when it is jumped. Typically when soob starter contacts, etc go, they won't crank at all, or you have to bump the key several times to get it to crank. Cranking a little and then stopping sounds different.

Possibly starter I suppose; though that would not explain why it starts when it is jumped. Typically when soob starter contacts, etc go, they won't crank at all, or you have to bump the key several times to get it to crank. Cranking a little and then stopping sounds different.

 

i see. i'm just trying to come up with anything i can to make this car as good as it can be

Starter contacts, maybe

Cam sensor - controls fuel injection

Crank sensor - controls spark

 

a slow crank, look at the battery terminals, the cables, the grounds.

 

Low mileage cars are not always good things. For every month of age is the same as 1000 miles of wear and tear.

 

nipper

 

Low mileage cars are not always good things. For every month of age is the same as 1000 miles of wear and tear.

 

nipper

*singing* "Here comes Nipper Downer!"

I would almost definitely pin that on the battery or battery connection. Clean up all the contacts like the other people mention.

 

I had this happen in my '89 wagon a couple of weeks ago. The negative battery terminal was just not square on the post apparently. Caused a no-start with weird conditions.

 

If the connection is not the problem, go ahead and buy another one. That way you have the funky one as an emergency backup.

I would almost definitely pin that on the battery or battery connection. Clean up all the contacts like the other people mention.

 

I had this happen in my '89 wagon a couple of weeks ago. The negative battery terminal was just not square on the post apparently. Caused a no-start with weird conditions.

 

If the connection is not the problem, go ahead and buy another one. That way you have the funky one as an emergency backup.

 

keep in mind that the car's at a dealership in pittsburgh and i'm in columbus. i would sure HOPE that they would think to check the connections.

 

the mechanic took the car home tonight so hoopefully he's able to recreate some of the problems.