1993 Suburu Loyale - Lurching problems

many possibilties on a vehicle that age - but MAYBE the cat is clogged? That is sometimes dependent on load and warming up.

Couls be bad/rusty ground connections, fule pressure regul;ator, TPS....

I dunno - if you discover the problem, please let us know OK?

Carl

bluehowler wrote:

Hi, Sue

Some of your problems could be caused by the same things I mentioned to Scrapbook on the '91 if you'd like to take a look at that thread.

Carl's suggestion about a clogged cat isn't on my list, but should be added to the more complex section. I had a cat clog on my '90, and it started lurching a tiny bit on sharply curved freeway onramps (mainly uphill direction) but not on the straights. I couldn't figure it out... but when it finally DID give up completely, it was like the old "potato in the exhaust pipe" situation: ALL power went away, and I ended up limping home at about 3 mph. Fortunately, it was only a mile. And you could feel excessive heat on the floor tunnel above the cat, something to check for (warm is normal, too hot to touch isn't.)

Best of luck, and with the "low" miles on your car, I'd think of keeping it a bit longer. Mine's in the garage right now, waiting for a post-mortem on the totally dead No. 3 cylinder, but it made it 360k miles before giving up!

Rick

"" wrote: > bluehowler wrote: > > > I have a 93 Subaru Loyale Station Wagon which is having some > > ?lurching? problems. It?s rather odd; when I first start > the engine, > > Hi, Sue > > Some of your problems could be caused by the same things I > mentioned to > Scrapbook on the '91 if you'd like to take a look at that > thread. > > Carl's suggestion about a clogged cat isn't on my list, but > should be > added to the more complex section. I had a cat clog on my '90, > and it > started lurching a tiny bit on sharply curved freeway onramps > (mainly > uphill direction) but not on the straights. I couldn't figure > it out... > but when it finally DID give up completely, it was like the > old "potato > in the exhaust pipe" situation: ALL power went away, and I > ended up > limping home at about 3 mph. Fortunately, it was only a mile. > And you > could feel excessive heat on the floor tunnel above the cat, > something > to check for (warm is normal, too hot to touch isn't.) > > Best of luck, and with the "low" miles on your car, I'd think > of keeping > it a bit longer. Mine's in the garage right now, waiting for a > post-mortem on the totally dead No. 3 cylinder, but it made it > 360k > miles before giving up! > > Rick

Thanks for the suggestions, by the way, what is a ?cat? (not a feline, I assume)

Hi,

The "cat" on a car is the catalytic convertor. It lives in the exhaust system at various places between the engine and muffler, and depending on make and model there may be one or two (I've heard there are three-cat systems, but haven't seen one personally.) On my older Subie, there are two: first one is at the "Y" where the exhaust pipes from each head come together, second one is downstream just aft of the gearbox/transfer case area.

Its purpose is to act as an "afterburner" to continue combustion of unburnt exhaust gases (that's the simplistic description.) If you were to look inside one, there's a ceramic "honeycomb" (the catalyst) filled with zillions of tiny passages for gases to travel thru. This ceramic heats up rather hot in normal usage, but if there's an inordinately rich mixture, it can overheat and start to break up. (A failed O2 sensor is one common culprit.) The resulting pieces can partially or totally clog the entire exhaust system.

Hope this helps!

Rick

"" wrote: > bluehowler wrote: > > > Thanks for the suggestions, by the way, what is a ?cat? (not > a feline, > > I assume) > > Hi, > > The "cat" on a car is the catalytic convertor. It lives in the > exhaust > system at various places between the engine and muffler, and > depending > on make and model there may be one or two (I've heard there > are > three-cat systems, but haven't seen one personally.) On my > older Subie, > there are two: first one is at the "Y" where the exhaust pipes > from each > head come together, second one is downstream just aft of the > gearbox/transfer case area. > > Its purpose is to act as an "afterburner" to continue > combustion of > unburnt exhaust gases (that's the simplistic description.) If > you were > to look inside one, there's a ceramic "honeycomb" (the > catalyst) filled > with zillions of tiny passages for gases to travel thru. This > ceramic > heats up rather hot in normal usage, but if there's an > inordinately rich > mixture, it can overheat and start to break up. (A failed O2 > sensor is > one common culprit.) The resulting pieces can partially or > totally clog > the entire exhaust system. > > Hope this helps! > > Rick

Rick, thanks for the ?cat? lesson - Doh! I should have been able to figure that one out. And to Karma - the timing belt was replaced about 2 years ago - hopefully that?s not the problem. The mechanic did ask me about that too, sorry I forgot to mention it in my original post.

Anywho, the mechanic told me he ?didn?t do the split muffler? thing, (thing is my word, I can?t remember exactly what he said) - Maybe I?ll take it to Midas as see what the say...???

Anyway, thanks to all who have responded!

sue.