Hi,

For over a year now I've had intermittant starting problems with my MY95 WRX wagon.

I've tried all the advice on this board;

1 - don't touch the pedal before starting
2 - turn the key to the 1st position - wait for the fuel pump to get ready - then start
3 - if it doesn't start - wait 10 minutes -try again.
4 - even depress the pedal fully after a series of unsucessful starts!

It quite embarrasing to pull up to a petrol garage - fill up with super - and then pull off again after about 7 attempts! Even with business partners who talk with admiration about the car....then find themselves waiting 15 minutes for the car to start!

A quirky thing I do though is to move the car a few inches forward or back - this seems, but not reliably, to make the car start! Why!!

I will get my local mechanic to look at it again - but any advice would really be appreciated....it's taken the fun out of driving it :-(.

cheers

marcus

Check the crank and cam position sensors and the water temp sensor.

If you are near a servicing company that has a Select Monitor, they will be able to sort the problem very quickly.

I had the same problems last year on my95 everytime I fill up with Fuel it wont start, call out the AA by the time they arrive it works.
In the end it was my sensors just as Pete said, but, once the AA man did arive and the car didn't start, he said, because I had filled my tank so much there was an air gap in the tank which was causing the fuel not to be sucked. I have no idea how reliable this is!!
To be honest I just left my engine on (illigal yes) while I filled up, but it does upset you when you car wont even start!

--
Steve

I have had two problems with starting on my 95 WRX. The first will turn over, fire and then stop. The Check Engine light comes on and the fault codes are 11 and 21. These relate to Coolant Temp. Sensor and Crank Position Sensor - can't remember which way round.

Turns out my power steering pump is leaking fluid on the plugs to the sensors and contaminating them therefore giving false readings. I'm getting the pump changed tomorrow - thanks Pete - so this problem will be cured. Fortunately the two times this has happened I have been at home and not in the middle of nowhere at night.

The other problem I have is that the car turns over but fails to fire. I can here the fuel pump whirring away but sometimes sounds like water going down a plug hole.

I have found that the most effective way to get it started is to leave the ignition on after a failed start and try again after about 30 seconds. There are no fault codes. The frequency of this seams to be random, hot/cold weather, hot/cold engine, after short/long run. The most embarrassing time was outside KFC near a crowded bus stop, at night luckily.

Stew

I had exactly the same problem with mine and initially thought it was a fuel / flooded engine problem. A quick visit to my Subaru dealer had the car on their diagnostic kit and the fault was the Crank sensor (senses position of engine thingy.....). Funnily enough it would always be ok if I walked away and came back when the car had cooled down again (30mins). Price of part was £106 inc VAT and it's been perfect since.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Marcos:
<B>Hi,

For over a year now I've had intermittant starting problems with my MY95 WRX wagon.

I've tried all the advice on this board;

1 - don't touch the pedal before starting
2 - turn the key to the 1st position - wait for the fuel pump to get ready - then start
3 - if it doesn't start - wait 10 minutes -try again.
4 - even depress the pedal fully after a series of unsucessful starts!

It quite embarrasing to pull up to a petrol garage - fill up with super - and then pull off again after about 7 attempts! Even with business partners who talk with admiration about the car....then find themselves waiting 15 minutes for the car to start!

A quirky thing I do though is to move the car a few inches forward or back - this seems, but not reliably, to make the car start! Why!!

I will get my local mechanic to look at it again - but any advice would really be appreciated....it's taken the fun out of driving it :-(.

cheers

marcus
[/quote]

Had the same trouble on my 95 WRX , back to the Garage 3 or four times . Eventually turned out to be the crankshaft sensor . Graham.

Don't know if this is any help but I had a similar, but intermittent, problem with my Rover Vitesse (the proper 3.5 litre fuel injected jobby - not as quick as my scooby but RWD).

It turned out to be the fuel injection pressure regulator. It was not always maintaining the fuel pressure in the system.

Stewart is right.

It's quite a common problem on MY95's, I had it too on my old car. A new cranksahft sensor proved to be the solution. Appearantly the old one didn't work in a given temperature range.

The problem is also related to in the SIDC FAQ's.

Dan

[This message has been edited by Dan Hack (edited 20-06-2000).]

Thanks for all the advice - I'll get me trusty mechanic to change the crank shaft sensor.

ta

marcus

Not sure if it's relevant, but I remember a similar problem with a crankshaft sensor on a car that I used to work on. At one time, if the engine got too hot, it would suddently cut out. Let it cool and it would fire up again without any problems. Turned out that the crank sensor magnet was being de-magnetised by the excess heat inside the engine. When the engine cooled down, the magnet repolarised and everything was OK.

Of course, the car was a Spice GC289 with a 3.9 litre Cosworth engine, so it did get a little warmer than the average Scooby! http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/wink.gif