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93 Subaru Impreza shuts down at idle

Hello. I own a 93 Impreza, auto trans, 94k (my mother in law gave it to us last year, she had put 60K on it in 13 years).

Car runs great except for one thing that has recently developed.

There are some times when, if I am at a stop light, the car will suddenly shut down. I can restart it, but will have to keep my foot on the gas for it to stay on. Sometimes this shut down will happen if I need to slow down during driving and take my foot off the gas to brake.

A local mechanic who I trust checked the car's computer codes and did not find any evidence of a failure of an idle- or air-flow-related sensor.

This morning I checked the oil, and the dipstick showed I was about a quart low.

Now I am beginning to think that there might be a low-oil sensor that will shut down the engine if the pressure drops.

I added a quart and took her for a drive, and had no problems. That could be coincidental.

If anyone has any thoughts or experience with this issue I'd appreciate any information you could share. Thanks.

Reply to
bwv
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That's a puzzler with no codes. maybe something like cracked coil or plug wires. Is the charging system working well? maybe check the voltage at idle. Hmmm...is it more likleto happen when the car is hot or cold?

I dunno

Carl

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

Those are excellent suggestions, thanks. The plug wires are all new, as is the coil. I will check them out nevertheless. Charging system seems fine,... the shutdown seems more likely to happen when car is hot. I just hate to put in a $300 idle control sensor that may not solve the problem. thanks again.

Reply to
bwv

Well, sensors and the ECU are electronic components which can sometimes be intermittent with temp. Um...does it re-start and run immeditely after stalling? Ooops - rereading the original post seems to indicate it does.

I dunno. I was gonna suggest crank angle sensor but...

maybe a good throttle body cleaning? The age of the car coupled with the stresses low-mileage driving yields MAY mean some build-up of varnish and other 'gunk' in a few systems. Probably wouldn't hurt to check the PCV valve and hoses, but likely not connected to the problem. But I THINK you must be careful not to use the wrong solvent in the throttle body. I've read that some can damage a rubber seat or something in there.

You should consider posting this at

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as well.

Carl

Reply to
Carl 1 Lucky Texan

Is your foot on the brake pedal when it stalls? Slim chance the brake booster or check valve could be going south creating a major vacuum leak.

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Reply to
johninKY

How does the car die, does it shut off in a similiar way as when you turn the ignition key to off or does it stumble, miss and then die. Does it die at once or gradually?

I lean to think that there could be a vacuum leak, as suggested check the EGR, booster, throttle body, IAC valve.

Good luck

bwv wrote:

Reply to
AS

Thank you all for the very helpful replies. First, I found the source of the oil loss -- oil is leaking at the bottom of the timing belt cover, where the two covers are bolted together. I know that there should not be any oil in there, so I guess I have some sort of seal problem. And the timing belt might be contaminated with oil, which I suspect is not a good thing. I went ahead and changed the oil yesterday, and the car is running fine -- no sudden shutdowns.

Looked inside the throttle body, looked clean, no sludge or carbon buildup to speak of.

To answer the question, yes, the car usually would die if I took my foot off the gas and applied the brake. Pressing the brake pedal itself does not cause the problem, however.

When the car does die, it does so as if you are turning the key to the off position, in other words, it is quite sudden -- no missing or stumbling. If I act fast I can press the gas pedal and get it back before it stops altogether, but this is rare.

Does anyone know of an online diagram showing the EGR valve location? Thanks again.

Reply to
bwv

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