Hello, I've had some issues the last week with my '99 Impreza GC8, it has had some issues starting up in the cold weather, only firing on 3 cylinders for a minute, but now it won't start at all.
I then had it towed to my fathers place, he put a heat fan to blow hot air on the ignition coil pack, and after a couple of hours, it started up with no issues at all, all 4 cylinders firing up straight away.
So I've ruled out the battery, and am pointing my fingers, mainly at the coil pack, but I wanted to get some more input before i order one. The plugs and wires were replaces less than a year ago, both NGK. I know tried having the coil pack sitting inside my place over night, to heat it up, and get it dried up, but unfortunately, the car still wouldn't start, so does this mean that the coil pack is not the problem? Any ideas for troubleshooting etc. are welcome

 

Time to get the multimeter out mate i think.

 

Hope you did not tow it far

 

Does anyone have a guide for measuring the coilpack? Can't seem to find the correct resistance it should be showing, the only guide i found for Subaru showed the measuring for a 3-pin, where mine is a 4-pin.

And by towed, I mean put on a flatbed tow truck..

 

But towed with all 4 wheels on the deck is fine.

 

Exactly, anyway, when I got it started again with the help of the heating fan, I drove it back to my home, so definetely no center diff damage, just an engine that refuses to start

 

Just tried with another coil pack on it, no result, it still won't start, any other ideas? Id certainly doesnt sound like it is getting spark at all, I just don't understand why it fires right up, when I had the heating fan on the coil pack?

 

Perhaps it's nothing to do with the coil pack & you are just heating the whole engine with the blow heater. Coolant temp sensor perhaps. Have you had a code read done, it may shed some light on it.

 

It isn't showing any "engine light", should that not rule out the error codes?

 

And another question, I have a small code reader at home, but do you still get error codes, even with an aftermarket ECU (VEMS)?

 

An after market ECU won't work with a code reader. Who mapped it, it may need a map tweak for the cold weather, Simtecs are well known for this problem. When mine was first mapped on a Simtec the first frosty morning & it would not start, the mapper had to come out & Map it stone cold to resolve the issue.

 

Am I right in saying, that if I pull out the plug for the coolant temp sensor, it should start, if this was the problem? Might as well try to rule out some things, the guy who maps it lives a long way from me, especially with a car that won't start. The ECU is a Vems.

I should also say, that it is between 5-10 degress Celsius in Denmark right now, so no frost on the car.

 

I'd just buy a new sensor to be 100% as they are cheap enough, but you can try it unplugged to see what happens.

 

measure the resistance of the coolant temp sensor to see if it is faulty,
2K~3Kohms @ 20 deg C
350~400 ohms @ 80 deg C
200~300 ohms @ 90 deg C

Mick

 

Will do that tomorrow, am also hoping to be able to connect the Vems ECU to my Vemstune program, so I will be able to see the actual values for the coolant temp, intake air temp etc.

 

Just had my computer connected to the ECU, the coolant temp is saying 17 degrees, and the air intake is saying 18 degrees, so should'nt in my mind be a problem there. The battery voltage is also fine, however, I can't see the RPM "gauge" in Vemstune move at all.

 

It there is no RPM signal while cranking then poss crank sensor.

 

You should see 400mv or more from the cam and crank sensors on cranking.
Resistance of the sensors should be 1~4 K ohms.

Mick

 

I did not have the opportunity to see the voltage while cranking, as I was alone, but I measured the resistance, they are both showing 1,83~1,84 K ohms, so unfortunately nothing conclusive. The connectors all look fine.

 

Ole just ship it to me before you go offshore , i Will then fix it for you

/Skassa