Hey what's good guys? I'm hoping you guys could help me out. So I have an Impreza GC8 and it's not starting at all.

Backstory: I stopped driving the car a while back around the end of 2018. I turned over the engine from time to time to keep it alive and well. It hasn’t been driven for about 3 years. I only start it and let it idle. Then about a couple months ago, I decided to drive it and stretch its legs. It was on low fuel. On the first drive, I did a wide open throttle. The car felt sluggish, it felt low powered like it was misfiring, and wasn’t not aggressive like it normally is. When I reached the end of the straight (about a quarter mile) to turn around and go back home, the engine shutdown as soon as I came to a stand still. I tried starting the car and it turned over like normal without any issues. On the drive back home, I stretched it again (wide open throttle). There was white smoke coming through the exhaust (but it was nighttime so the smoke appeared white). The car gave the same sluggish response. About a half of the way on the straight, the car picked up aggressively all on its own, and started feeling like how it would normally feel. Now back home, I parked and realized the temps were up past normal but not excessive. There was also oil that had shot through the blow off valve onto the engine bay. I believe the oil level was past the maximum recommended level. So I turned the car off, allowed it to cool down, and cleaned up the oil. After it cooled, I started it and backed it into the yard and turned it off... **FADE TO BLACK** Two days later, I tried to start the car and it hasn't started since… It’s been 3 months.

We checked for a few things:

• We checked for spark from the coil pack and it seems to be firing. We grounded it using a screwdriver and saw a blue spark.
• We checked the camshaft and crankshaft sensors using a multimeter and got a resistance from them. The resistance read ~27.5 - 27.8 kΩ for both, as far as I remember.
• There is fuel coming from the feed line which indicates the fuel pump is working.
• We took out the injectors, put 12V power to them and they clicked. We cleaned them and put them back in but it didn’t. They are currently back out again.
• There is fuel flowing through the fuel rails. We can see this with the fuel injectors out.
• There was a concern that the fuel regulator may not be working, but after a check it seems to be sending fuel back to the return line. The car hydrolocks after trying to start it over a period. Our suspicions were that the fuel regulator was not passing the fuel back to the return line.
• The check engine light is sending out a 24 error code which is for “idle air control valve”. We replaced the IACV and it still is giving out the error.
• We sprayed some gasoline in the intake and the car turned over and idled once constant fuel was being sprayed in the intake. So it appears that it won’t start from fuel injection.
• We checked for timing and it was correct.

What’s left to check for:

• To see if spark is coming from the spark plugs.
• To check the ECU to see if it is the problem.

Would be really great if you guys could give some advice on what could be the problem with this godforsaken car that I love yet hate so much.

Thanks for your help in advance!

 

What petrol is in it? Old petrol in the system won't help.

My Hawkeye runs like a bang off nails on standard unleaded, has to be E5 super unleaded.

But smoke out of exhaust doesn't sound great, saying that if not driven in ages, you can get a lot of condensation in the exhaust and this will start coming out when exhaust gets hot.

 

This is a job for 1509joe

 

Are the plugs wet with fuel after trying to start?

 

What year for starters, the hydro locking would be due to fuel running straight into the engine with the injectors out. I would personally try a new fuel pump, injector seals, plugs and fuel filter first.

 

Can you test the compression in the cylinders? You mentioned Oil level being high and temps being up.... could it be chg?

 

I'm in the Caribbean and our island only have "petrol". The fuel stations only offer one type of gasoline and off the top of my head I believe it is unleaded. I wish they offered ethanol - that would be really great! The gasoline is probably just really old after sitting there for a while.

Would condensation affect the fuel lines?

 

One of them was completely dry and new like it never even sparked.

 

I will look into getting those, especially the seals, plugs and fuel filter.

So apparently the fuel regulator isn't working (it's a stock fuel regulator). The car has an upgraded fuel pump, a Walbro 255 LPH or higher (can't remember). When we turn on the ignition, there is a lot of fuel running through the fuel rail. The regulator seems like it's not passing back the fuel to the tank. We unplugged the regulator return line and a little fuel was going back, but when we removed the injectors the fuel rushed into the rail. What's strange is when the injectors were unplugged with the ignition on, there was fuel going into the cylinder.

 

Was going to do a compression test but there's gas going into the cylinders.

 

Ah right, sounds nice get a picture up, it's freezing in the UK

Nah you don't want ethanol, over here our standard unleaded is E10 normally 95 Ron, it absorbs water from the air I believe. So when left over periods of time the fuel becomes diluted. With using standard unleaded my Hawkeye runs rough.

We also have super unleaded called E5 but most of the time it has no ethanol in it. And is normally 98-99 Ron.

You can add additives to unleaded to increase the Ron of the fuel. Your fuel might not be E10 and this is a euro thing trying to drive down emissions.

 

Yh okay so we've got regular unleaded gasoline.

E5 sounds efficient. Sad we don't have other options.

In that case then I wouldn't used E85 for daily driving. Would use it for a day at the track (drag racing).

 

Okay so here's an update:

On taking out the injectors, the largest seal was damaged on two of the injectors. We replaced those.

Next, turns out the return line from the firewall back to the fuel tank was blocked. We cleared it up.

We tried starting the car and it now starts on its own but it just doesn't idle. But you have to turn it over for about 3 to 5 seconds before it runs. We gotta figure out why it doesn't idle.

We took off the fuel regulator and inspected it. On blowing on the vacuum opening, oil started coming out of the regulator's sides. Here's a pic:


Notice the oil near the highlight area

So my guess is, this regulator is damaged.

Our next step is to install a different regulator and get a crankshaft and camshaft sensor. and and see what changes.

 

Hey guys, I have a question. What would cause the fuel pump to continuously cut in and cut out while priming?

When I turn the ignition on, the fuel pump primes for about 2 seconds, stops for 1 second and repeats continuously. Is this normal? Should it prime continuously? Or should it only prime once?

 

Only prime once. But if you turn the ignition off for a few seconds and turn it back on again, you should hear fuel pump priming again for another 2-3 seconds.

 

For starters that looks like spilt antifreeze secondly you haven't the test connectors connecters under the dash cause that would cycle the fuel pump.
Still don't know what year or version it is.

 

Okay so its definitely not doing that lol

 

Gonna check if they are plugged in.

It's a 1997 GC8 Type-RA

 

So it's been a few months... and still nothing guys

(Skip to TL;DR below for the main problem)

Since the last update, we ruled out the following:

• Fuel supply - there is fuel.
• Cam and crank sensors - replaced sensors didn't make a difference.
• ECU - replaced ECU didn't make a difference.
• MAF - replaced Nissan MAF didn't make a difference.
• Fuel regulator - this was damaged and removed its internals and routed the fuel through an aftermarket fuel regulator with a gauge.
• IAC sensor - replaced and didn't make a difference.

When we installed the other ECU, we turned the key on to the ignition position, and we could not hear the fuel pump. Somehow, the #16 (Ignition) fuse was blown. We replaced the fuse. I turned the key, the car started and it ran for about 5 to 7 seconds. Then we turned off the engine on our own because the radiator and other things were not put together on the engine. Was so happy that it worked. I was like, phew, it's working, finally!

Turns out I was wrong. Next day, back to the same old problem. So we went back to doing small little checks.

TL;DR:

Here's what we found:

So what we learned was that the coil pack should be firing vigorously. It wasn’t. We removed the leads and tried turning the car over. The spark was very weak on the passenger side (RHD) and no spark on the driver-side end (RHD). The mechanic helping showed us a video of what the spark should look like:


Image showing what spark should look like.

Ours was nothing like that.

We changed the coil pack and the ignitor and the same results happened: weak spark.

So what could cause this problem? (One suggestion was the car not being on timing, having jumped timing)

 

Have you checked/ cleaned all your earth wire connections around the inlet manifold and back of strut towers??




"I believe" your problem is one of the reasons people started fitting earthing kits to the early models.

 

Sorry about me late reply. Had been meaning to respond but I hadn't gotten the time to.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. It turned out to be an electrical problem, and the issue was in the fuse box (*facepalms* a fuse was loose). Pulled out and reset all the fuses and relays in the main fuse box and the car started.

Thanks again for your help guys.