1993 Suburu Loyale - Lurching problems

[bluehowler]

Hello!

I have a 93 Subaru Loyale Station Wagon which is having some
’lurching’ problems. It’s rather odd; when I first start the engine,
it drives relatively fine (minor hesitations), but after I drive for a
bit, (20 min or so)it lurches terribly in 1st and 2nd gear, and will
smooth out a bit in the higher gears, (unless I accelerate heavily,
then the lurching begins again, but not as pronounced in the lower
gears). Anywho, it seems odd that it will be fine for a bit, then
after is warms up, it acts up.

During the lurching, it backfires majorly; I don’t know if the problem
is the exhaust system or if the problem lies elsewhere and this is
just a symptom. I recently had the muffler exchanged (but it was
doing this before) and had the mechanic look into this problem. His
only solution was to use ’sea foam’ in the gas for a few times and see
if that improves the situation. It hasn’t.

Also, forget about using the A/C - there is no power at all - if the
ac is on, I can barely get up enough speed entering the freeway
system. I don’t know if that’s a symptom of the same problem or a
different one!

FYI, it’s a 5-speed, about 130,000 miles. Any ideas? Or is it just
time for a new vehicle??? I’d really love to be able to get this
problem fixed. I like the wagon and don’t want to look for a new,
good used vehicle right now. Thanks for any suggestions,

sue.

 

[Carl 1 Lucky Texan]

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

 

[Rick Courtright]

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

 

[bluehowler]

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)

 

[Rick Courtright]

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

 

[Karma]

blue,
check your timing belts. The passenger side belt could go and cause these
symptoms.
remove the two passenger side spark plugs and see if the engine 'smooths
out' and you are getting alternating pressure and vacuum on those two
cylinders.

Hello!

I have a 93 Subaru Loyale Station Wagon which is having some
'lurching' problems. It's rather odd; when I first start the engine,
it drives relatively fine (minor hesitations), but after I drive for a
bit, (20 min or so)it lurches terribly in 1st and 2nd gear, and will
smooth out a bit in the higher gears, (unless I accelerate heavily,
then the lurching begins again, but not as pronounced in the lower
gears). Anywho, it seems odd that it will be fine for a bit, then
after is warms up, it acts up.

During the lurching, it backfires majorly; I don't know if the problem
is the exhaust system or if the problem lies elsewhere and this is
just a symptom. I recently had the muffler exchanged (but it was
doing this before) and had the mechanic look into this problem. His
only solution was to use 'sea foam' in the gas for a few times and see
if that improves the situation. It hasn't.

Also, forget about using the A/C - there is no power at all - if the
ac is on, I can barely get up enough speed entering the freeway
system. I don't know if that's a symptom of the same problem or a
different one!

FYI, it's a 5-speed, about 130,000 miles. Any ideas? Or is it just
time for a new vehicle??? I'd really love to be able to get this
problem fixed. I like the wagon and don't want to look for a new,
good used vehicle right now. Thanks for any suggestions,

sue.

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[bluehowler]

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.