My 2000 Outback stuggles to accelerate when the engine is cold and it loses speed climbing hills.
Asked by honeydipper226 Feb 04, 2015 at 09:20 PM about the 2000 Subaru Outback Sport Wagon
Question type: General
I have 2000 Impreza Outback Sport Wagon with a 2.2 liter engine, and 135,000 miles on it. The car lugs down and does not want to accelerate when the engine is cold. My experience with fuel injected engines in other cars is that they accelerate just fine even when the engine is cold. You would think this engine is carbureted and not fuel injected with the way you have to wait for it warm up. The car also loses speed climbing hills, and it's getting poor gas mileage. Any ideas as to what the problem or problems might be ?
5 Answers
honeydipper226 answered 9 years ago
Yes ! Thanks ! That does make sense. I did forget to mention that the "check engine" light is on, so I assumed the there was a problem with a sensor or sensors. Thanks again !
two good replies :) Might not be 100% accurate but I would guess idle air control and/or upstream oxygen sensor is dirty or failing for bad hesitation and bad fuel economy. But it could be other inputs as well. Watching the live data is pretty neat -- like learning how the O2 sensor fluctuates from lean to rich to in-between to keep it efficient. How much effort does it take to get it started and actually stay running? Any issues there?
honeydipper226 answered 9 years ago
It seems to start fine and it does continue to run. In the area that I live in, there is a Subaru specialty repair shop. My only other question would be, would you recommend that I take the car to the local dealership's repair shop or to the specialty shop ?
err.. you had to ask that.. I would check out reviews on both. I think it varies so much that I don't want to sway you either way. The biggest thing in my book is integrity, whether someone lets you watch or you've only heard good things and have a good feel of trust. Checking to see if your engine changes to closed loop (o2 sensor) fairly quickly and monitoring the fluctuation really takes no time IMO. I don't think it is something that needs to be dropped off for unless other things are shown in the codes and you decide to have it done. Anyway, ask around some smaller shops, ask if anyone knows of subaru trained techs that may work in the area aside from the two you know of, etc.
