HELP ASAP: Starting issues

heres whats up. my buddy has been looking at subies for a couple weeks now, and he just found one that went on sale today. so in an attempt to beat other people to it, he wants to go look at it today. (thus the ASAP)

heres whats up. 95 impreza wagon, 113k miles, 5 spd. runs good, minor rust. some dents. yada yada yada. the question arrises when the lady selling it says it sometimes has problems starting. (it always starts, but not lik eit should).

when you first start the car it starts fine. then if you drive it for about 15 min and shut it off, it has issues starting. but if you drive it for about an hour or so before you sgut it off it will start perfectly fine. whats up with this? lady had the ignition replaced, already.

if anyone has even the slightest incling to what this could be please speak up. we need to know how serious this is, and how hard to fix before we go to look at the car.

 

heres what i was thinking:

Battery?
clogged injector?
fuel pump?

 

My car does something very similar. If I drive a short distance and then try to start it before it completely cools down, it starts hard. I frequently have trouble starting when I leave firestone... When it won't start, it just won't start, it cranks and cranks without even firing. What I have to do if that happens is completely shut off the ignition, wait a second or two, and then try again and it'll usually start right up. If I don't completely shut it off, it would never start.

My best guess would be fuel related, fuel pump or pressure regulator. My wife's old honda did something similar to the point where it would never start, and it ended up being the fuel pressure regulator. Since I can always get my car started, I haven't worried about it too much. I've done all the standard maintenance items on my car with no change in behavior.

Joel

 

if the price is right he should buy it, it sounds minor, im guessing regulator...when it does start, does it blow black smoke for a sec???

 

i dont think it blows smoke. it sounds exactly like joels problem,becuase the car will start. just not easily. how much is a FPR?

 

my mom's car does something very similar, though we haven't figured out what it is, or even what the pattern is as far as when it does it. but it always starts, so we haven't worried to much

other side of the spectrum...the people I bought my car from said it had problems starting...and for those of you who don't know, I replaced timing belt, spark plugs, plug wires, disty, water pump, and oil pump seals before I ever drove it again....

 

like CHux said... I would look at doing a good once oer basic tune up... new plugs, wires, fuel filter, maybe an injection clean (good one) and while doing the clean if done with a good setup you can check the fuel pressure at the same time which will tell you if the fuel pump is good or not

 

when i first got my 95 it did that every once in awhile in my case it was the crank position sensor, it caused the car to just crank and crank and not start.

 

Hey all,
I am the guy Dynapar is reffering to at the beging of this thread. As of now I am still subaruless... I checked out that Impreza last night.

The bad:
Right front axl is shot
Quart low on oil when I pulled the stick
Oil in the tail pipe...
a bottle of power steering fluid was sitting in the back????.....
good handful of dents and scrathes on the outside
front right corner light busted
spot of rust in the back left wheel well
random starting problem
radio stolen
crazy owners were trying to tell me the blue book said it was worth $3,800 in this condition. They wanted to get rid of it fast so they dropped the price to $2,850 obo. The problem here is that the actual blue book for the car is $2,700 and that is in fair condition which is a stretch to apply to this car. So by their rule they should drop the price down to like $1,800 or something at which point it would be worth purchasing and fixing!

The good:
113K miles
solid cluth
good breaks
new tires
interior was perfect
its dark BLUE.

So yeah... the search goes on.

 

a crank sensor would make it not run...but a cam sensor would make it do exactly what you guys are talking about...and its SUPer easy

 

is three an easy way to find out if it is the crank sensor?

 

For what it is worth I just figured out that it is actually an impreza outback wagon, not just the plain impreza wagon. That said the car now has a blue book value of $3,200 in fair condition. The owners agreed to sell it to me for $2,400 if the fail to sell it by next monday the 19th. I still think that price is a little steep considering what is wrong with the car. I am the most concerned about the car being driven for who knows how long a quart low on oil. The black/oily tail pipe is a little scary too. However I could not get the exhaust to blow any smoke of any kind so perhaps I shouldn't worry about a big problem like a head gasket. What do you all think? It needs a handful of parts and some work but I do have a nice place to work on cars thanks to the big garage my dad added to our house.

 

an outback sport?! nice! You should totally do this to it:


and I bet I know someone who'd have a set of forester struts you could use to do it with! :twisted:

 

and he now works at my work!...but i disagree...slam it, nobody slams obs's

 

your working w/ fong now?

 

I agree with eric, slam it. Low ridin' spevinator. Woooooot woooooooot :lol:

 

EVERYBODY lowers soobs, old, new, legacy, brat, baja, obs....

NOBODY lifts 'em!!!

how many lifted subarus do we have here on the board? 5? come on, you know you want it!

 

lowered bajas?

 

ide lower any subaru...even justy, and bajas are no exeption..slammmed!