Subaru - Legacy :: 1998 - Intermittent / Delayed Starting After Several Tries Of Turning The Switch
Nov 15, 2011
'98 Subaru Legacy L, Automatic Tran., 2.2 L, ~140,000 mi. (a youngster)
My issue is with intermittent/delayed starting. What happens is that when I turn the key, the starter solenoid will click once. Eventually after several tries of turning the switch, it starts, usually with some hesitance. When I try to start, I don't hear anything laboring like the starter Bendix grinding against the flywheel, just click and nothing. I did have the CEL come on once for like 40 minutes and then go out. Once started, however, the car tends to run well and once warm starting is still hesitant, but is quicker. Did conk out on me once at an intersection, was able to restart. Luckily I can walk to school, so I have been keeping it off the road.
As far as troubleshooting goes, the car has the same difficulty starting in neutral as well as park. Within the past year I have replaced the alternator (died), timing belt (routine maint.) as well as the battery (bad). I have also reseated all the ground wires and coated them with dielectric grease. A few months ago, I took the starter out and had it bench tested as good at a "popular auto parts store" in my region - it tested good (starter readily turned over and the Bendix deployed and retracted). Funny thing, when I pulled the starter and replaced it after being checked, the car started flawlessly for a month or so, so I chocked it up to a bad connection. Guess not.
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I jumped in my car, started her up, and drove the 10 miles or so to meet up with her on the other side of town. And hour and a half later, I jumped back in my car and tried to turn her over....and nothing happened. I got the normal lights on the dash but no sounds at all - not even the usual "click".
I tried a couple more times before I went back inside and retrieved my brother-in-law, who is a retired truck mechanic, and asked him to take a look at it. He found nothing wrong and even he couldn't get it to start up.
I finally relented and called AAA to tow me to my fav mechanic. Before the dispatcher sent someone out, she offered to run through some troubleshooting stuff with me. She tells me, "Jump in, make sure the car is in park and your foot is on the brake, and give it one more try." And guess what? YES! THE CAR STARTED! It wasn't the normal start - it was silent for about three seconds before it finally roared to life - but at least it started.
So, I rush to my mechanic's place and ask them to give it a check over and make sure everything is okay. (I'm heading up to the high desert tomorrow and don't want to get stuck out there.) They came back a couple hours later saying everything looked fine - the battery, starter, and alternator were all fine. The advised me to keep an eye on it and come back when it "finally dies".
In the past year, I've replaced the fuel pump, battery, tie rods, and a boot. The alternator was replaced about 5 years ago and I've never had the starter worked on.
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On my 1993 Subaru Legacy wagon, when the ignition switch is turned on to engage the starter, normally the power to the windshield wipers and radio is cut off until the key is released. What is happening is the power to the wipers and radio is occasionally delayed by a couple of seconds up to maybe a minute or two. This is happening sporadically, maybe once every other day or so, unpredictable. What is going on?
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There is a new issue with our 2012 Tiguan S 4Motion. On several occasions the wipers did not turn on when the stalk switch was moved through its positions. Right now, the switch and wipers are working but we don't know for how long.
One interesting fact is that when the switch is left in the on position, the wipers eventually start working. This delay can be as long as 5 minutes.
I scanned with VCDS and found no faults. I monitored the switch position with no issues in any of the 4 positions. Forcing the output causes the wiper motor to work as well. Since the wipers will not operate with the hood open I also checked the status of the hood switch. That too had no errors and responded correctly, disabling the wipers when the hood was unlatched/opened.
Having issues with your wipers not responding to the switch inputs? I will continue to monitor it and will scan with VCDS if I can catch it in the act.
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Ok. I replace my alternator on my 1995 Subaru Legacy Ls. Everything went great. Last thing I did was to connect the positive cable on the battery. When I did it sparked alittle. Well when I got into the car to start it nothing. Turn the key nothing. The knob on the shifter won't go in to get out of park. Neighbor checked my battery said it was fine. But nothing will come on. Nothing.No lights. I had problems with my ignition before. Do you think my ignition went out? Honestly don't know what to think. Some one told me that these cars have a secondary security system. If it goes on you cannot move the knob on the shifter and when you turn the key on nothing?
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I've got a 2002 subaru legacy wagon, 150k miles. Over the past year or so (a real guess, can't really remember when it started) it's developed a wowowow noise that happens when turning. The car has to be moving - just turning the steering wheel while stationary does not make any noise. I can't tell if it's only coming from left or right side of the car or the front or back. It also doesn't happen when driving in a straight line. The wow's are faster when the car is going faster but the frequency is very roughly 4 per second at 40 mph. The noise itself is pretty low and grumble, and kind of sounds like James Earl Jones saying "wow wow wow wow".
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I have a 99 Subaru Legacy Wagon with just over 196,000 miles in it. Over the past few days I have had a noise coming out of what seems to be my right front wheel. It is a clicking sound that increases with speed, and is only when I turn and have my foot on the gas. Other than the noise there seems to be no other symptoms.
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In the past month our 2005 Subaru Legacy has had a vibration(intermittently) where the steering wheel going slightly back/forth 60-70 MPH. I understand a wheel balance can cause this. However intermittently does not make sense. My wife simply speeds up to 80MPH and it disappeared or less than 60. Any clues?
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My husband has a 2013 Subaru Legacy, and we have noticed that on days where the temperature is below 35 degrees Fahrenheit or so, it is having trouble starting. It cranks for about 7-10 seconds prior to starting, or will not start until after a few attempts. We have owned the car for about a year, and did not notice this problem last winter.
So far, we have taken it back to the Subaru Dealer twice. The first time, they told us they found nothing wrong with the car. The second time, they tried draining and recharging the battery. Our car is still having issues starting, and we are not sure where to turn to next. Is this a known issue with Subaru Legacy? Our car is still under warranty.
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I have a 98 Subaru Legacy wagon and have replaced alternator FIVE times in last 7 months or so -- originally my mechanic (who has been awesome & doing all the replacements for free) thought the parts were defective, but last one came from a different supplier and only a month or so after installing, my car just died at a light this morning. Battery not drained, and mechanic was able to start it after had it towed there. What can it be?
FYI, bought the car used two years ago, so don't know whole history, but was fine for first year or so. The first time I lost power, I think it really was the alternator (and snapped belt), so I don't know if something happened or something was not reconnected correctly. (First time it broke was on a Saturday and my regular mechanic was closed to went to someone not very good -- and if this is useful info beyond just complaining, when this guy put in the new alternator, he didn't connect it to the battery, so I stalled out within hours of the "repair.")
My mechanic is stumped and I am at a loss -- don't want to sink a bunch of money in if this is the beginning of the end of the car (mileage is just over 100k, though, so seems to young to die), but need a bit more reliability.
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problem is the my 1998 Legacy (142K) overheated this past weekend. It shut off and I had it towed to a "new" mechanic around the corner from my house. He diagnosed the problem as being a faulty thermostat. He replaced the thermostat and returned the vehicle to me. Two days later my wife was driving home and the car had a major overheating incident with resulting serious mechanical failure. I did a little research and within about five minutes found that this problem is quite common for this car and is more commonly related to a head gasket issue. My question is should this mechanic be held responsible in any way for the misdiagnosed problem? If so, what would be the best course of action? The car was otherwise running fine and in fact I recently had the transmission rebuilt.
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i have a Subaru legacy rs 1996 twin turbo, about 6 months ago now i replaced both front outer CV joints and boots due to a grinding when turning at slow speed e.g a car park. the grinding had gone and its was all fine until now the same grinding as come back. its it normal for the CV joint to wear out that fast or could there be a different problem?
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for the past few weeks when turning corners the outer rear tyre is skipping as if the diff is locked. was thinking of taking it into the mechanincs and maybe replacing it, but now the problem has gone no skipping when turning. could this be an electrical problem mayb a sensor?
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I bought a new 2011 Outback about 3 weeks ago, and I have around 1500 miles on it.
A couple days ago I started noticing a clicking noise near the right-front wheel area whenever I turn for the first time after I start the engine (releasing handbrake, shift to Drive, etc). This happens only one time per drive, and mostly after I turn to the right for the first time. After hearing that sound, the next time I will hear it is only after I park and shutdown the engine and restart.
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I have a '03 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport thing with the 2.5L boxer engine, standard, with 160,000 miles.There is an intermittent starting and idling failure that i thought started because of the colder weather rolling in(25 at night 35 during the day). When I turned the ignition to start it, there was a huff, it sounded like it would start, but it would simply shut down after about one second. If I depressed the throttle it would run at 1.5k rpm but only with my foot on the pedal. If i took it off it would die. Here's where it gets odd. The other night I had been getting rid of some rust on the undercarriage and so i kept the car indoors overnight. In the morning it started fine, and ran fine for an hour. I parked it and went to run an errand. 20 minutes later when i got back into my car to start it, still warm, it was 49 degrees outside, i started it and it went dead again. The same happened two days later after I had driven it out of the garage, I drove it for about 20 minutes, got out for less than five minutes, and when i got back in, it did the same thing twice. My uncle says it could be a hose leak.
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Had an issue with "check" engine light turning on and "cruise" control light flashing, intermittently. Dealer said we had dirty oil contaminating some solenoid valves in the system but we had just done an oil change and do so every 3-5K (car has 170K). They recommended switching around the sensors and doing an "oil flush" with another oil change. The warning light problem hasn't recurred, in the past month, since we started giving the gas cap a few extra turns after a fill-up. We're getting ready to buy a new car and don't want to give what might be a serious problem over to the next owner.
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The car in question is a 1998 Subaru Legacy Outback. Just had the heads resurfaced and new gaskets, and timing belt. Runs great. Acceleration is good, stays cool. However, it has developed an intermittent knock/tapping. it sounds like its coming from the top end of motor. I added Marvel Mystery and the noise left for about a week but came back. Is this the beginning of the end? Or could it be a small problem involving the lifters/followers/valves?
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2005 Bonneville SE. 3.8 liter V6 46,000 miles.
I just purchased the car in September of 2013 and it's in great shape. Over the past couple of months, I have noticed every once in a while, it won't fire right away after turning over. To get it to start, I have to press down on the accelerator once or twice while cranking. The problem seems to occur when the engine is relatively warm. It seems to have no issues after the car has been sitting over night.
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Recently my car has been giving me lots of problems starting. At first I thought it was a battery issue. All the lights on my dashboard would turn on but once I turn my key nothing happens . After trying to turn my car on all I would hear is one click . I get a new battery and the problem happened again . Thing is , it only happens sometimes and at the most inconvenient times at that.
I then thought it was a alternator problem but I ran the test to check that like taking off the the negative cable and even both after I started my car and the car stood running smoothly. Had someone else check the alternator and they said it was fine.
Today I had to turn the ignition switch about 5 times before the car even started . When it finally started , it sound like it was struggling to turn on. I have a 2001 eclipse gt.
What it can be?? Sometimes I'm scared to turn my car off . Someone told me it could be the cold weather , but I find it so hard to believe that it's just that. Especially when it happens at the most random times . When it wants to basically .
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I have a 98 Grand Cherokee (V-8) with 127K on it, that sometimes during cold starts acts like an old carburetor system with the choke sticking. It floods, chokes, it sputters, and you have to maintain an RPM of about 2000 to keep it running and get it to snap out of it. A local shop did a tune up on it before this problem started to happen intermittently, aside from this, it seems to run well. I took it back to the shop and they did several diagnostic tests and even got it to do it for them while they had it.
I told them that it seemed like if we released the key from the start position as soon as it began to fire, the problem would happen, if we held it I the start for a bit longer we could usually avoid it. They returned it to me saying that "Yup, if you hold the start position longer it won't happen, and by the way here is a bill for $103." With the recent below zero temps, it's getting worse, almost unavoidable. My wife says it uses a lot of fuel when this is happening but we have not actually tracked the mileage. Other than this it's a great car but I'm ready to drive it off a high mountain cliff.
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I have '98 VW JETTA Wolfsburg and EVERY time after hard rain (cold OR warm weather), the next day my car is unable to start without giving it gas while turning the key. It only starts after a few tries AND it "bucks" when I give it a bit of the gas pedal early on (within 5-10 minutes) into the drive. After that time, it drives great like always. Just had the fuel system "cleaned" at a local oil change conglomerate, which yielded tons of white smoke out of the tailpipe.
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