3.0-H6 cold start roughness

If the revs are going up AND down during warm up, sounds like the AC compressor is cycling. Are you starting it with AC on, or defroster blowing?

I also have a 2004 3.0-H6 Outback (35th Anniversary Edition), and I am experiencing the same rough start problem. In the mornings when I leave for work, my Outback will sometimes take two tries to get started, at which point it will run extremely rough for about 30 seconds (sounds like it's running on about 3 or 4 of the 6 cylinders), with the idle speed going up and down several times, as if it can't decide if the engine is cold or warm.

Even with all power accessories turned off (air conditioning, headlights, stereo) the problem still happens. Strangely enough, it doesn't happen every single morning, but on most mornings it does happen.

I was thinking about pouring some fuel injector cleaner in the gas tank and seeing if that remedies the problem. If that doesn't work, I'll probably video tape a cold startup and then bring the car and camcorder into the dealer service manager and let him see what is happening. In my opinion, my new car should be starting on the first turn of the key, and it should run smoothly afterwards.

If anyone has any other experiences with this, please post. Thanks.

What kind of gas are you using? My wife's OB had the same problem. She took it in once and the dealer sent the ECM out for a replacement. That didn't fix it, so she took it back. The dealer checked everything and found nothing wrong. The dealer said that it was running roughly at startup because she was using regular gas (87 octane). I thought it was bogus, but she started buying better gas and the problem went away.

I have used only premium grade gasoline since I purchased the car.

I'm using Premium grade gas, the expensive stuff. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

ISTR that "hunting" at idle was an indicator of an intake manifold leak of some kind, at least for some engines. Dunno about your car/engine.

Null, do you happen to have a TSB number for this, or maybe a URL link to more info on the Internet, so that I can point my local dealership service manager in the right direction? I'd like to get my hands on the documentation of this TSB if at all possible. Thanks.

David

I second that. It would be useful to have the TSB in hand at the dealership. I have not found it online.