legacy lost nearly all power with flashing check engine
20

Asked by santoriello79 Dec 14, 2022 at 08:01 PM about the 2009 Subaru Legacy 2.5 GT Limited AWD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

today i was driving up a hill near my house. at first

everything was fine but it began to lose power. the

hill is quite big so about half way up i attempted to

accelerate again to no result and it bogging down

on me even more. right before i reached the top of

the hill the check engine came on and began

flashing. i immediately pulled over and shut it off.

checked the oil and it had some but was low. i

added some and left the car there. later today i

went back and it stared fine but was making a high

pitched whining noise. the check engine was off so

i attempted to drive it home since it wasn’t far

(maybe 1 mile). the light came on again and was

flashing so i pulled over again and shut it off. the

car smelled hot but my temp wasn’t going up my

gauge, it still read cold. the exhaust was pretty

smoky, more than usual for it being cold started,

and it felt like it was misfiring but i was on a rough

road so i’m not too sure. i don’t really know what it

could be. any ideas?

3 Answers
2,130

Guru9R9KBS answered about a year ago

Scan the car for the OBDii trouble codes to help find your issue. A flashing CEL is usually due to misfires. If you have been driving with these misfires over an extended amount of time, you will eventually clog your catalytic converters like Ed mentioned. Misfires are due to incomplete combustion and unburnt fuel then gets sent into the exhaust, clogging the cats.

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26,835

taver91 answered about a year ago

All symptoms of a clogged CAT. Easy to find and fix but expensive to do,

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20

santoriello79 answered about a year ago

little update, the cat was melted shut. i got it fixed but it still has a misfire on cylinder 2 and still bogs out when you go to drive it. the coil pack, plugs, and wires are new. it burned through the plug on cyl 2 so we replaced that and put a new fuel injector on that cylinder. it’s still not wanting to work. compression is good and so are the vvt censors by the timing chain ( which is also good ). i’m pretty lost at this point, any more ideas? i was thinking a fuel issue at this point but i’m not sure. it is also blowing black stuff out of the exhaust, it has a trail behind it when put back in the garage.

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