Can anyone help me before I have to call up the local Scooby dealer? I hadn't used my '97 UK Impreza for about a week. Yesterday I got in, tried to start it and it began to fire, then suddenly the note changed and it clearly wan't firing but it was still spinning over. In fact, it sounded like it was spinning faster than usual.

I thought cambelt, as it's done 88,000 miles, with 90k service booked in ready for a belt change. I've taken off the nearside cambelt cover and the belt's still on it. Offside isn't as easy but I can see in and the belt's still on the pulley. I risked turning the engine again, and the n/s pulley turned. I couldn't see the offside, I'll check that with a mate tonight.

Anything else spring to mind? I've fixed and even rebuilt plenty of engines but I look at the Scooby engine bay and think 'errr' and very little else.

I'd really appreciate it if someone could suggest what to do next. Thanks!

 

you could check the crank and cam sensors, see if there is any dirt on the heads. the one is on the back cover of N/S cam cover, the other [crank] is mounted centrally, behind main crank pulley, on top of engine.
Other than that, you could try a ecu reset, for simplicity, disconnect battery, leave 1/2 hour, reconnect, try again to re start.

 

When you say:

Are you sure the engine was turning over and it wasn't just the start solenoid clicking like mad?

Andrew...

 

Thanks for the ECU tips. I've been away a couple of days (not in the Scooby!) but I'll try them later.

As for whether or not the engine is spinning, it definitely is spinning.

Any other theories gratefully received