COF139

I have just had my 24 month service, and asked the dealer to investigate symtoms similar to fuel starvation or a misfire when cruising on the motorway.

The dealer has been pretty good about this, and prepared to try out one or two things to correct the problem. However, yesterday I got sight of two different letters sent by FHI and International Motors, that refer to a phenomenon described as "Hesitation".

They state that although several owners have complained about this (MY99 & MY00 only), this is perfectly normal for turbo's, and are suggesting that this is purely turbo lag.

In my case, this problem has only arisen after 22 months of ownership, so it certainly smacks of a problem occurring, rather than a standard part of turbo performance. The fact that this is only prevalent on MY99 & MY00 models is also interesting.

Has anyone else experienced similar problems ?

blubs

COF,

I had exactly the same problem with an owned from new MY99 at about the same time in period of ownership. However my problem deteriorated into an intermittent chronic mis-fire. It would be fine for a week then would lapse onto three cylinders, always starting when I was cruising on a motorway or similar.

The third time it went back to the dealer the check engine light had come on, meaning they could identify the problem (don't ask me how!). It turned out to be an oxygen sensor (I think it's sometimes called the Lambda sensor or something).

They changed all of the sensors and the problem never re-occurred. This might not be related to 'hesitation' but that is certainly how my problem originally manifested itself.

Hope this is of some use to you.

blubs

epriest

I too had this problem on my Scooby. The dealer stated that they (Subaru) were aware of issues with the ECU.

They replaced both the Lambda air flow sensor and the ECU with a slightly modified MAP and I have not had any further stuttering. It seemed to happen for me around 3000rpm.

My advice is to chase your dealer.

Cheers

Ed.

COF139

Thanks for the responses. I understand that there are 5 owners currently experiencing this problem through my dealer alone.

Any other ideas about how to resolve the problem are most welcome. I will put them to the dealer to try to get this resolved.

Cheers.

PaulL

My car (MY99) suffers from something similar, and, maybe by no-coincidence, it started around the time of the fuel crisis.
I'm hoping I just got a dirty batch of fuel and its just crud moving around and blocking the fuel filter.

The problem doesn't happen all the time, but when it does, it seems to occur when I deccelerate abrupty (foot completely off throttle), and then gently re-apply throttle at about 2500rpm.

Hopefully the dealer can sort it out at the next service; if not, then this is my first and last Subaru.

Paul