2006F0717

Hi everybody,

After 60K miles service my 2006 Forester 2.5 X got a problem.
Only in the morning and only when weather is really wet (temperature around 70F now here in NH) when I start engine and wait a little bit, RPM goes slow down and when it getting less than 1.5 RPM, engine starts shaking (no spark ?), “check engine” ON + “cruise” blinking.
I need to keep more than 1.5 RPM for 3-4 minutes until engine temperature gets closer to the normal and then can drive.
If I don’t wait then cold engine in idle mode starts shaking a lot on less than 1 RPM.
I drive 50 miles to my job and have no such staring problem in the evening even if weather is still wet.
After 3-4 dry days “check engine” and “cruise” go to normal (OFF) themselves.
I also could reset them once, switching a battery off for 3 minutes.

Any ideas what is going on?
Thanks

bbottomley

I see that this is your first post, so welcome! I'm in New London.

Go to Autozone and have them pull the CEL code (free!). That's your best clue.

Blinking cruise is a byproduct of some CEL situations, not necessarily indicative of anything wrong with cruise control other than it won't let you use it.

My immediate guess, without knowing the CEL code, is that it might have something to do with electricity leakage at the coil or the plug wires. Any visible damage to insulation?

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2003 XS Premium MT - 2005 Impreza 2.5 RS MT

Kean

....personally, my first thought would be to take the car in to the dealer those 3-4 days after the CEL is triggered. Chances are that regardless of the problem you will be taking it to them to perform the repair under warranty anyhow. Also, it's probably better that they witness the light being on and that they are able to pull/verify the code themselves.

Dan

Excuse my ignorance, but does your motor use a distributor? If so, I'll guess you have a leaky cap. My brothers' car has the same problem. Runs great on dry days but when the humidity is up it doesn't run well. He needs to order a new gasket/seal for it one of these days.

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SHIFT_to_Subaru
'04 XT, 5spd

bbottomley

Distributor? That's a thing of the past. NA Foresters have a four-headed coil pack sitting on top of the engine.

And at 60k miles he's well out of warranty by now. Though now that I read the original post again I do see some ambiguity there. Hey, 2006F0717. Did you mean "After 60K miles of service" or "After the 60K miles service"? I read it the first way, but if it was the latter then yes, go back to the shop that did the work.

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2003 XS Premium MT - 2005 Impreza 2.5 RS MT

Dan

So what you're saying is, the distributor is not the problem.

Ah, well.

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SHIFT_to_Subaru
'04 XT, 5spd

bbottomley

Perhaps you meant to post this in my recent Forgotten Arts thread?

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2003 XS Premium MT - 2005 Impreza 2.5 RS MT

BlueBrick

My neighbour had a similar problem with his wifes Foz. Would not start after moving it out of the garage on a wet morning. It has somewhere around 150k Kms. I tried to look around under the hood to help out, maybe see something obvious, but no such luck. Turns out it had the original plug wires and wouldn't give good conductivity through them, so they had flooded the engine. They had it towed to a garage and they diagnosed the faulty plug wires and put in a new set of plugs. Problem solved.

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03 X Pacifica Blue Metallic Smooth Brick.

TheEmrys

Vacuum leak? How are your hoses? Everything properly plugged in? Any cracked (shouldn't be)?

Tau137

Bad wet start is almost always an electrical issue. Anything ignition-related should be checked first - spark plug wires, coil, igniter and connections throughout. Check the sparkplugs, too - while not the problem, they may contribute due to incorrect gap or whatnot.

Then it might be some other electrical gremlin, having to do with failing sensors or not so good wiring from them (TPS, cam & crank position, knock, MAF). Check, clean (use dielectric grease on connectors where needed), reinstall.

Finally, weak alternator and/or battery may also be contributing to the problem.

problemcat13

Most dealers warranty their work, so you might get them to check it out for the problem (assuming they just did your 60k mile service). Of course, they may end up charging you if they find a problem that they supposedly didn't cause.

And as everyone else said, go by a parts place to get those CEL codes checked, so we can all find out what's happening!

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99 L 5MT (sorely missed)
04 JBP XT 5MT

2006F0717

Thanks everybody.

Yesterday couldn't get to autozone. Now just did. They said – misfire.
Yes, the last service was “60K miles” - no warranty.
Next week (next service), I’m going to ask dealer to check what they did last time.
BTW Could somebody tell me how fast RPM going down when you start cold engine (60-70F)? In other words - how long (minutes?) it takes to get to 1.0 RPM?

Thanks again

bbottomley

Did Autozone identify which cylinder was involved? The common misfire codes (P0301-4) are each tied to a specific cylinder, and when coupled with the wet weather problem you've reported would tend to suggest a leaky plug wire or leakage where that wire plugs into the coil pack.

Time to get down to 1000 RPM? Nearly instantaneous on my Forester.

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2003 XS Premium MT - 2005 Impreza 2.5 RS MT

2006F0717

No, Autozone didn't say which cilinder, I didn't ask...

bbottomley

That's unfortunate, but it shouldn't be too difficult to check out all four of the wires, look for moisture in the connectors, etc.

When my Forester threw a P0304 recently Autozone gave me a printout.

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2003 XS Premium MT - 2005 Impreza 2.5 RS MT