Yesterday while overtaking a truck my 1998 Impreza decided to totally cut the power at about 3500rpm, scary as there was a lorry coming the other way!! It only lasted for max 2 secs and no lights came up on the dash during or afterwards but it was such a loss of power that it felt like i'd hit something! It has happened before once but it was a few weeks ago, I tried to make it do it again and it did it 3 times in all, the last time was so sudden i thought we were gonna somersault down the road! I lifted the bonnet to check all the obvious things but can't see anything. The car was parked all day and last night when I drove it again it was fine again. Wondering if its the coil pack breaking down? It does feel like an engine fault, not drivetrain. Any ideas please????

 

Fuel cut maybe???

 

Maybe, but a fuel cut/pressure drop like that is more likely to happen as soon as you ask for a lot of fuel quickly, ie at low revs, from a standing start or blipping the throttle, not as part of a progressive acceleration, I was accellerating but not THAT hard......

 

a fuel cut is a safety measure that happens when the car over boosts to stop it blowing its self to peices, it just stops the fuel and can feel like running into a brick wall, do you have a boost guage fitted if so what dose it boost to, what mods do you have?

 

Definately sounds like fuel cut might be due to sticking solenoid which is what usually happens or too much boost try cleaning solenoid out.

Mark

 

Ok, yeah, wasn't thinking bout over boosting, but would there not be some sort of warning light if that was happening??

 

No there is no warning for fuel cut. Mine used to do it in higher gears when demands were high,called boost creep.Shouldn't do it on a standard car,if yours is standard?

Tim

 

Sounds like fuel cut - it can be down to momentary overboost so you may not see it on a gauge. One thing that can cause it is if the restrictor has been removed from the wastegate piping, or the hole is the wrong size.

Matthew