I bought my H6 Outback in June of '03. It is used almost exclusively by my wife and it has performed flawlessly until now.
Last Friday night my wife and I were getting ready to go out to dinner. I went out and tried to start the car. all I got was a whinny. I tried several times and it would not fire. No "Check Engine" light came on. What to do? Well we got into my trusty ¹91 Jeep Laredo and went to dinner.
The next morning I went out to see what was what. I first opened the hood and checked for loose wires, low oil, and any other idiot things that could have gone wrong. Nothing! All appeared normal.
I got into the car and tried to start it. I just got the whinny. The engine would turn over, but it would not start and again no trouble lights. I remembered that my ¹86 Jeep would behave this way when the engine was flooded. But how does a non-carbuerated engine flood? So, since the battery was good and it was relatively warm, about 50F, I tried starting again. This time I kept cranking the engine. I then heard a cough. I stopped and said "Aha!"
So I proceeded to crank the engine again. More coughs and still no trouble lights. It finally was coughing about a coupla times a second, and then it caught and slowly revved up. I kept the RPMs to about 1500 until the RPMs would just drop off gradually. It finally ran normally. But, wow, the gasoline smell. The wind was blowing in just the right direction and, of course, the smell went into my house though an open vent window in the basement.
The car kept running so I took a chance and drove around the block. All was normal! I shut the engine down and it restarted instantly and still no trouble light. So I took the cell phone and took our refuse to the recycling station. Normally I use the Jeep for that. I stopped and started the car a few times while on my trip; no problem and still no trouble lights.
So what could be responsible? The only thing I can put a finger on is what had happened on Friday during the day. We were raking our leaves. There were some leaves under the Outback so I started it and moved it back about 10 feet. I removed the leaves and then started up the Outback and moved it back into its original position. In each case, the engine was not on for than a few seconds.
All I can think of is that the engine mixture is rich during original startup. Perhaps two startups within a few minutes and with the engine running just for a few seconds somehow screws up the computer or else the engine is flooded. After all, it had all of the characteristics of a flooded engine. Now this is bizarre. I would not expect that a modern engine would behave this way.
When the ¹86 Jeep flooded, I would hold the choke plate open with a clothespin while I cranked. This would clear out the flooded condition. Once in a while a nice flame would shoot out of the carburetor. Can¹t do this with the Outback. Only by cranking long enough for the gas to be pumped out will it clear; at least that is my hypothesis.
The car has been behaving normally and no "Check Engine" light has come on. Anybody have any ideas?
Al