Subaru Legacy Outback 2002 110,000 miles. All service up to date, including sparkplugs and cables. Loss of overall power, stumbling, some exhaust back firing, can accelerate and seems relatively normal after about 3,000 rpm, returns immediatly to poor functional after acceleration let off. Problem occured while driving to vacation site. It is variiable in severity, and intermittant to some extent. With a diagnostic plugged in it only showed a P0400. While observing it on the diagnostic the problem suddenly stopped, but returned when redriven the next day. The mechanics working on the car are perplexed, but very competent, and honest. They are not doing the swap parts nonsense, but trying to find out what is wrong and fix/repair the cause. Coil cap and wires are fine as are the plugs. It does not behave like a cylinder is missing, but more like the fuel air mixture is way too lean. But again it is seemingly intermittant, though lasting for hours when it occurs. I don't know about the open loop / closed loop behavior of the engine, but wonder if hard acceleration might be closed loop and therefore bypass ar leasr some portion of the emission cotrol system where the problem may be. We're 200 miles from home and faced with transporting it to our local dealer to solve. Thanks for help leading to a solution. The last certified Subaru mechanics online did not remember the 2002 did not have an EGR valve.sp he was of little real help. Re like

SOURCE: miss fire in cylinder #1, 1998 subaru legacy outback

fuel injectors getting ground from pcm?

SOURCE: Cause of noise in front differential of 1997 Subaru Legacy Outback.

there is a plug on the shaft-side of the differential. Using a ratchet remove the plug and with the engine OFF, stick your finger inside the hole and you should get fluid just below the threads of where the plug goes in.

gord storey

• 477 Answers
• Posted on May 13, 2009

SOURCE: I have a 1997 Subaru Legacy Outback AWD. The

when you replaced the plugs , was one of them (cylinder 1 ) dirty and fouled ?
I'm thinking that bad rings in cylinder would give you low compression , and eventualy cause the missfire by fouling up the plug.
There is an inexpensive product that will help with the compression by filling up scratches in the cylinder walls. It is called Restore , and it is one of the only products of its type that I have used , and feel actually works.
Unfortunately , if your rings are broken , or badly worn , nothing in a bottle will fix them.

If your car had a distributor cap and rotor , I would change them too.

SOURCE: 1998 Subaru Outback Wagon Grinding Noise/Squeaky Brake/Gas Gauge

The first issue, I would have the brake calipers checked for either a pin stuck or one of the pistons stuck, It is a dual piston caliper and sometimes one will stick causing pad to angle slightly. While inspecting the brake issue also check your wheel bearings, which may be the squeak. On the fuel issue, I will tell you a secret, LOL, but Subaru has set the fuel gauge to read E but still have about 5 gallons of fuel left. I use US measurements, but trying to use my head I believe you are getting about 22-24 MPG from what you said and that is pretty good. I hope this helps a bit and have a great day.

SOURCE: subaru legacy/liberty 2.2eng lacks power under load and cuts out

There are two common issues with the 2.2... Both relate to valve guides. If you're confident that the sensors and controls are functioning well. Knock sensor? it doesn't hurt to pull it clean its mounting surfaces and bolt before reinstalling it if you're certain that it's good - you may be retarding timing significantly if there's an errant signal there. This would be noticeable loss of power, but not "cut-outs" as in your presentation.

You may be looking at a hanging exhaust valve. The valves sometimes will 'hang' and not close as anticipated leaving you with a vicious stumble (a 4-cyl running on 3-cyl) two "causes", if you will.. The valves may just hang in the guide (sticky & tight from build-up) or the guide itself may be sliding in the head (unfortunately, a few of the 2.2's of this period do have this issue).

If you're interested in the diagnosis, you can drop the exhaust manifold at the head you can look at & compare how far the exhaust guides are protruding from the head - all of the guides should "sitck out" from above the exhaust valve the same amount -- if you have a loose guide they tend to be "out" a bit further -- The thinking on this for your symptom is that the guide will push out with the valve opening and NOT return far enough to allow the exhaust valve to fully close - the result is a loss of compression at various times/conditions that is hard to track down. The "fix" would be to R&R the offending head to press a new over-sized guide.

The other sticky valve issue is also not too uncommon, the diagnosis is less straight forward - in that you'd need to watch vacuum, power, and DTC data at the time that the this power issue occurs. Typically, I'd recommend going with a strong and safe engine-oil flush and some sort of strong induction/injection cleaning to try to loosen and remove any build-ups on the valves. Many people with the 2.2 have switched into Synthetic engine oils for this reason... Some discussioin have included a few of the "snake-oil" additives for use after the flush (the very thin "metal penetrating" kind of snake-oils get good comments in a lot of the discussions) - It's your vehicle, I find the flush and regular good oil changes can clear-up the 2.2's sticky valve issues without wondering what I've put into my crankcase.


- best of luck