Idle/Running Issue

I apologize in advance for this long post, I appreciate your feed.

 

So the car is sort of being temperamental. A few days ago I was driving it and it had very little power. The RPMs went up like normal but the speed would not increase. I shut it off and it made the rest of the trip home with no issue.

I went to back out of my driveway shortly after getting home and the car didn’t have enough power to do so. After shutting it off and restarting a couple of times it finally made it and I drove to my destination with no issues.

When I went to leave, the car would not crank, but it would pop start. So I pop started it and drove a short distance and lost power eventually, after only being able to go 35-40 in a 50, I pulled over and the car died. Unfortunately I was not somewhere I could easily pop start it so I let it sit overnight.

I came back the next day with a trailer to pull it home. I was able to pop start it in reverse and drive onto the trailer with no issues.

The following day I brought home my 2002 Subie I just bought, and pulled the starter off of it. After installing it on the ‘98 it started right up with no issues.

Now at one point in time I was getting codes for the O2 sensor, IACV, camshaft position sensor, and a manufacturer defined code. I figured the camshaft position sensor could be causing this, because when it would act up the exhaust sounded way different, making a puttering sound.

So anyhow, I went ahead and put the camshaft sensor from the ‘02 onto the ‘98 as well. I drove the car up the road and while it seemed to drive ok.. the oil light came on and wouldn’t go away, also I thought I could hear a very slight knock.

I added a half quart of oil because it’s all I had and the oil light went away and so did the sound.

I drove the car to work and it would buck and lunge like a son of a gun until I was in about 4th gear.

On my home there was no bucking or lunging but it had no power again. I pulled over and shut it off for about 5 mins and I drove it the rest of the way home no issues.

After getting home I checked it over for vacuum leaks, tightened the throttle cable a little, made sure all the clamps on the manifold were tight etc. I did find that the bottom of the air box lid was broken, so it doesn’t hold tight on the bottom but it doesn’t seem like any air is getting in there.

After all of this I started it up and tried to pull out of the driveway. It had no power just like before and the exhaust was puttering. I shut it off and restarted it and it sounded fine and had power again.

I decided to check the timing so I removed the timing covers and everything seems to line up just fine. I put everything back together.

This morning when I went to leave for work, I checked the oil and it was above full, I only added a half quart the day before, but the car started right up but idled like garbage.

I can’t remember if it died or if I shut it off, but when I tried to restart it, it wouldn’t start.

That’s how it sits now. It’ll crank forever but will not start, when it cranks it almost sounds like a knock. I’ll get a video of it when I get home.

Also when the car was in neutral it the RPMs would fluctuate from like 1800-2400 RPMs, and I still have codes P0507 and P1507 I believe? One is for the IACV and the other is the manufacturer defined code, but I believe they are connected.

 

 

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It sounds like a compound issue, like maybe fuel starvation and/or alternator not putting out enough to run right. When my alternator died and the car was running off the battery it ran like crap. It wouldn't shift, the fuel mixture was horrible and it had no power. To start off, I'd temporarily bypass the fuel filter or just replace it, and then put a multimeter on the main stud on the alternator with the car idling and see what it's putting out.

Thanks for the info but I have tested the voltage with the car running in the past and it was around 14.6 volts or so. The battery also seems to be excellent, in fact, I've been cranking on it for a while and the battery hasn't seemed to bog down any at all.

I should mention that the rain pissed down with the hood open last night, not sure if that has anything to do with it, I have pressure washed it before with no issues so I would assume the rain wouldn't hurt anything. That being said I've got a fan under the hood drying it out right now.

Here is how it cranks.

My car used to act really weird when I'd wash the engine bay, and I've had it short the oil sensor before which turned the oil light on. But what I did was disconnect every electrical connector and spray them out with electrical cleaner and then I filled the connectors with dielectric grease, now it doesn't act up in rain or even puddle splashing. But after listening to it crank it sounds horrible. It kind of sounds like a valve is open when it's not supposed to be, maybe jumped timing?

The running description and the cranking both sound like jumped timing to me, but that shouldn't run fine sometimes. I've never heard of timing jumping out and then back in again. So I think it can't be jumped...

 

A sticking valve might do it only sometimes although I don't know why it would switch.

 

The oil light must be from a different issue. You don't have a blown head with a lot of water in the oil right? Water pumping through the oil system would produce way low pressure. But if you did that the engine would only run a few minutes before throwing a rod or shearing a cam or some other such disaster.

Thanks guys, I’m starting to suspect maybe it did jump time, or perhaps the camshaft sensor I put on is no good? I’m not sure. The last thing I did, before it decided not to start anymore, is check the timing. Everything looked fine but it wouldn’t start after that. Maybe I’ll check again..

 

 

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Perhaps bad connection at cam or crank sensor and pulling the timing covers jostled it in a way it didn't like?

Perhaps bad connection at cam or crank sensor and pulling the timing covers jostled it in a way it didn't like?

 

 

 

I was originally thinking crank sensor but I’ve had them both disconnected to clean the connectors and no luck. I’ll see if I can swap the crank sensor from the other one onto this one.

 

 

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SHE RUNS!

As it turns out the problem was (drum roll please)... she jumped time.

I'm not sure what caused it to jump time but it was off by 6 teeth! What in the holy hell would cause it to jump 6 teeth?

After putting it back in time it starts and idles just fine and sounds fine as well. I've not driven it yet but it revs up just fine. Just so everyone know this is an EJ25D i'm working with. It is in a '98 Forester, but originally came out of a '96 LGT.

Thanks for all the help everyone!

Wow! Mine was about 25 HP and it was three teeth off. Mine jumped because I downshifted to get up a highway mountain in AZ. The shift wasn't perfect because of the extreme grade and traffic.

 

No wonder yours wouldn't run at 6 teeth. Glad it's back to working.