khidr3

Hey, im new to the forum and new to Subarus. I have a '01 Forester.
Lately it has been idling high, and to me it sounded also like a ticking sound. but i thought little of the ticking as most subarus have a ticking, ive heard.
I have had to timing belt/water pump replaced and the head gasket done, within the last 5000 miles.
This morning i was driving and i heard a what sounded like a hose blowing off quickly, or a belt snapping, its hard to tell what it sounded more like.
Immediately my car lost power, and got very loud, loud knocking from the engine. I pulled over and opened my hood while the car was still running and my engine was bucking pretty bad, visibly. I shut the engine down, called for a ride, looked down the road and saw the post office a hundred yards down the road, so i started it up and tried to make it to the parking lot. The car went terribly slow and felt as if it was going to die at any second, almost complete losses of power. I managed to get to the PO and parked.
I had my generic scanner with me and it pulled three codes
p0507 which is an idler of some sort
p0302
p0304 which are cylinder misfires

any insight as to what it could be, i looked for any hoses that could have come loose or off but found none, none visible from the top of the engine bay at least. there was a few inches of snow so i didnt crawl under to check.

Has anyone had an issue like this, ive found similar threads but none with any answers.
thanks for any help

another interesting thing was, while i was checking on my car in the parking lot, another forester was hit pulling out by a jeep cherokee. no one was hurt, but very strange.


thanks again for any help

Aaron'z 2.5RS/WRX

Check to see if you lost a spark plug..

ryanwood

+1

It sounds silly, but I actually had a spark plug shoot out of a cylinder while driving. The result of the missing plug resulted in similar symptoms to what you describe including the loud bang (I assume that was the sound of the plug hitting the washer fluid reservoir).

The plug was still attached to the wire (it was the number 2 cylinder so I had to remove the battery and the washer fluid reservoir to access it) so I was able to thread it back in and drive it home. Once home, I replaced all four plugs with OEM plugs and torqued them to specs. Luckily non of the threads were damaged when the plug was ejected.

I bought the car used, and this occurred roughly 1 year after purchase so I assumed that the previous owner or their mechanic did not use the OEM torque specs.

khidr3

Thread Starter

ok ill go and check the plugs, but could the plugs becoming loose effect the idle, i had been noticing a high idle for a few weeks now.
also i have two misfires, 2 and 4 which are on different coil packs, im reading...would a plug cause two misfires?
ill report back

Loscaldazar

I'm not sure about the exact circumstances, but I know in some cases misfires in one cylinder can cause another to misfire, sometimes an actual misfire, and some times a "ghost" misfire (doesn't actually misfire, but the sensors checking for misfires improperly register a misfire because something is out of wack). Let us know what happens.

__________________
2003 Forester 2.5XS Mod Journal

Easy Fixer

Vacuum leak! Check the PCV valve. It could be clicking.

khidr3

Thread Starter

I went down this morning to see what i could see, and just as you said Ryan, and Aaron; Spark plug shot right out and was laying against the washer fluid reservoir. I put it back in and tightened the others, and it runs fine.
i plan to change them all next oil change. The ticking seems gone as well, i guess it must have been working its way out for some time now, affecting the idle.
Its funny, i was feeling like the car had been running with less power, i guess now i know why.
thanks again

Loscaldazar

WOOO!

Always love it when it is a cheap fix for what seemed like a major problem! I have to admit, spark plugs flying out is interesting.

Thanks for reporting back, hopefully someone in the future will be helped by this!

__________________
2003 Forester 2.5XS Mod Journal

Aaron'z 2.5RS/WRX

Baaaaaaaaaaammmmmm....



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