Hesitation while beginning to accelerate+Flashing check engine light

Hi everyone,

 

After starting my 2005 Subaru Legacy today it seemed to be running fine, I then attempted to accelerate from a stop sign and the car seemed to hesitate and the steering wheel seemed to shudder. I stopped, checked the engine and looked to see if everything seemed ok, oil was fine and the belts seemed tight. I then attempted to pull out and the same thing happened only this time it was accompanied by the check engine light flashing. I let the car idle for a bit while I poked around in the engine compartment to see if any of the belts were slipping and everything seemed to be fine. I tried accelerating from a stop again and the hesitation happened but it was not as bad. The car still accelerated ok after the first couple seconds and seemed to run normally once it was moving.

 

Some background maintenance facts: Car has 125,000 miles, I had new tires put on last week and within the last month the car had its 125,000 mile overhaul (all belts were changed, water pump and belt tensioner.)

 

 

Any ideas as to what might be causing these problems? Do you think it would be ok to drive the car to the shop or should I have it towed?

 

 

Thanks for the help!

 

Kostic

we need to know the CEL code.

Welcome to the fourm.

 

I think some where here there is a DIY to check the codes. If you live close to a auto parts store, they can read the code and tell you what it is for free.

 

They can reset the CEL or you can pull the negitive battery cable for a few minutes and it will reset the cel.

uh built in code reader in o5's

uh built in code reader in o5's

 

 

 

Frank, I take that as a no. So it must be the 07-09's that can do that ?

 

I have a code scanner and Cobb AP v2 so I never paid much attention to the posting.

I've only heard of 05's having the reader

both of my 05 have the built in reader

2.5 gt and 2.5i

Is it as easy as plugging in the green connectors and turnig the key to on ?

 

I believe the OP is looking for some instructions.

1. Find a bundle of green and white connectors just above/to the left of the fuse panel inside the car (trust me they are there).
   
2. Untape them, hook the two white connectors together.
   
3. Put the car in acc (engine off) and hit the odomete once while the gauges are sweeping.... easy.
   

Hi all thanks for the replies! I have had class all week and was unable to mess with the car. I went out today to check out the car to discover that both my battery (dome light left on, doh!) was dead and apparently I have a significant water leak that is under the dashboard on the passenger side. After cleaning it out and charging up the battery I plugged in my code reader and it was not displaying any codes. I decided to start the car, it started ok but seemed to run at a very low rpm. I let it warm up and then read the codes again. All I got was P0506 which I understand just means the engine is operating at a low rpm. I gave the car a bit of gas and let off the pedal, the car seemed to almost stall. Any ideas as to what might be going on? I think I might have it towed to my mechanic and see if he can figure it out/fix the leak.

 

Thanks for the insight!

If your battery died it reset your ECU - so your car needs about 60 miles to relearn where to idle and other type things, so your low RPMs are probably just a product of that. A flashing check engine light is far worse than a steady check engine light if I recall correctly, so I'd definitely have it checked out.

And that is what worries me. I've never had any issues whatsoever with the car. All that has been done is the scheduled maintenance. I was actually wondering if perhaps there was a short somewhere. I drove the car earlier in the week with no problems, this all happened when we were having the enormous amounts of rain this past week in the Mid-Atlantic.

Get your alternator tested

Flashing check engine light sometimes signifies a misfire. Since you killed your battery, I would not expect any of the original codes to be there. For the p0506 Check the airfilter. Pull the intake duct and inspect the electronic throttle body for debris (don't move it by hand). I have seen many mice make there way into engines before (to the point where the ground mouse is preventing the valves from moving!).

 

I would change out the battery if it is OE since it went all the way kaput. Reset the CEL and take your car for a nice romp until the light comes on again. Re check the code and keep us posted. Good luck.

I've dealt with this before and thought it was my battery but the battery light never came on to signify low voltage. I found the phantom misfire to be a small vaccum leak that subsided once the engine was warm.

I am going to go ahead and replace the battery after this as they are never quite the same after a full drain. Air filter should be ok as it was changed with the 120k maintenance work that was done recently but I will check it out. Malt Beverage, you do not think that the post rev near stall is related to the ECU having been reset like gholman12 thinks? The CEL is not set permanently and did not stay on when the issue began, it flashed solely when I accelerated. It definitely felt like a bad misfire when it happened as the steering wheel shook pretty hard. Thanks for all the ideas and I will keep you posted!

If it no longer is an issue I would have to agree with gholman12. It's tough to get a good handle of a problem over a forum so really I just wanted to recommend checking all the simple stuff first. I've over diagnosed issues many times when checking the obvious would have solved the problem (IE rip out a gauge cluster and and then find a fuse is missing). I find I naturally lean towards the worst case scenario first .

Hey all, I just got the car back from the mechanic, seems to be running fine now. He was unable to find any problems but was thinking that perhaps I had gotten a bad tank of gas. Hopefully that was all it was!