Starting - Gasoline :: 2004 Subaru Impreza Turns Over But Won't Start Intermittently
Mar 16, 2015
Subaru Impreza 2004 2.5 TS170,000 km
For a couple of months now and every few days, my car turns over nicely but chokes. I can keep the engine running by pressing the gas pedal as lightly as possible without letting the engine stop or rev too high, and after about 15 seconds it stays on on its own. When it's running it runs very smoothly...no knocking or shuddering or poor idling at lights.
So there’s obviously a gas delivery problem at startup. I don’t know if I can but I would love to rule out the fuel pump since it's only at startup (fuel filter is new, battery is new, and sensors have been checked, even during a failure to start scenario) and it runs so well when driving. Also, it won’t start randomly, regardless of temperature, cold start or not, incline, etc. I read that a fuse can have intermittent problems but again it seems to me that it should be properly intermittent, not just at startup. Which leaves the relay and wires.
Now thinking about wiring, a few years ago I noticed I could no longer leave my highbeams on. I could hold the lever and make them stay on, but pushing the lever into the on position no longer works. Also, recently and only once, on a -26 C day, the air compressor was dead when I started the car. After stopping and starting for a half an hour I noticed that it had come back on. Does this sound like it could be connected? Where do I even start to diagnose this starting problem?
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The sound most of the time usually happens when i am making a left turn(but sometimes happens while going straight but never in reverse or right turns) while accelerating from a complete stop. However when i take my foot off the accelerator while in motion it the sound stops.
This sound occurs maybe 25-30% of the time. What is going on????
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I was looking at pages to remove the dashboard to have a look.
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