undriveable

Good afternoon. '98 legacy, 2.2, 251K Car runs like a champ then suddenly acts like a misfire. To the point of stalling at lower RPM's. After cranking 8-12 separate times, car will start and drive away almost like nothing happened.

Mechanic replaced the "Mass Air Flow Sensor" and air filter 2 weeks ago, and the car still had minor misfire/hesitation. Now it's almost undriveable. I put in Lucas injector cleaner and mechanic put in some too. I looked at the engine in the dark and there were no evident plug wire crossfiring.

The Code P0440 EVAP System Performance is still shows in the scan.

 

Thank You,

 

Bob Sheedy

Albany, NY

Go to the junk yard and try throwing a used coil pack on it with some new plugs / wires. I would start there since the MAF has been replaced already. Cheap route to try.

Thank you. Any other ideas to check out?

 

Bob

Clean the throttle body

Check fuel pressure with the car off and running

NGK plugs and wires are highly recommended (required, IMHO).

Also, w/those miles the valves may need adjusted. The '98 2.2 has the screw adjustment.

Valve clearance:

Intake: 0.20±0.02 mm (0.0079±0.0008 in)

Exhaust: 0.25±0.02 mm (0.0098±0.0008 in)

 

 

Is your CEL ON? or is the P0440 a stored code? Read THIS and see attached.

 

 

More P0440 Tips

Here are some additional tips for

dealing with P0440 codes:

• After doing the compulsory valve check with

the NSM or aftermarket test equipment, make

certain the ports on the canister drain/vent

valve are not physically damaged. The hoses may

disguise this condition and you may misdiagnose

a broken valve.

• Prior to reconnecting the hoses to the new valve,

confirm that there are no obstructions in the

drain hose due to the damaged component.

Evaporative Emisstions Testing.pdf

Valve Clearance.pdf

Clean the IACV (Idle Air Control Valve). There are Subaru IACV cleaning How-To's on YouTube. It's fairly easy and doesn't cost anything besides a can of SeaFoam.

Thank you for the responses. These ideas will give me some direction at least.

It's not the coil pack. I swapped it out w/ one that I know is good.

The CEL light is on and the code is what comes out.

GTEASER called it. A can of Seafoam through the Idle Air Control Valve intake seems to have cured it. Almost purring like a kitten. A road test and there was no hesitation at all. Thank you for all the responses.

Bob

Good deal! Do the SeaFoam treatment to the IACV again after another oil change or two.

My celebration ws premature. After the Seafoam treatment the car drove well--a 4 mi test. Later, I got in and drove about 10 mi and was lucky to get home with the same symptoms as before.

I just replaced the plugs and wires and once again it warmed up nicely then became undriveable with a 2 mi trip.

Any more thoughts?

Bob

make sure the 02 sensor is good, and all the connectors/harness to it.

it sounds like a vac leak,

except they usually cause staring problems as well as running problems

check all the hoses under the hood and make sure they are connected.

 

it also sounds like the running issues are triggered by the engine warming up and going into ''closed loop'', running on actual engine info instead of basic computer ''pre-start'' programming.

if this is hte case it could be an O2 sensor or even your temp sensor.

if the fuel ratio is wrong (o2) it will run crappy.

if the engine is warm but the computer thinks it is cold, it will run crappy.

 

but since you have an evap code i would look for hoses first.

or maybe even the little gray filter in the vac hose that runs to the passenger side strut tower.

 

no other codes?

 

good luck.

OK everyone. I think it's conquered. A second mechanic replaced the o2 sensor and cleaned electrical conections. Yes, he said the fuel ratio was all out of wack. It still ran poorly. Back to the first mechanic who replaced the "mass air flow sensor," under warrantee. It now runs almost as good as new. So it was a faulty replacement mass air flow sensor and maybe the o2 sensor.

 

I want to thank everyone for making suggestions. They gave me some direction with this problem.

 

Bob