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Posted by tgl on 2006-05-19 02:43:04 +0000

Diagnose my (Subaru) car.

I happened to drive to work today, needed to pickup the cylinder head for the Z car from the shop in Beverly this morning. On the ride home, with my superior from work, I noticed a throb to the car at idle with the clutch pedal down. Now, I had noticed I was low on gas leaving Cambridge about 1 hour/10 miles ago. That's right, one (1) hour. We had spent the last twenty-five minutes inching towards Swampscott from the Carroll Parkway/Lynn Shore Drive rotary. The throbbing seemed to die down as I released the clutch pedal and revved the engine. A____ mentioned, "Aren't you low on gas?" I said, "That's it, I'm about to run out of gas." I pulled over and parked the car by the Lynn/Swampscott Beach and we each walked home. We'll see if A____ ever accepts an offer for a ride again (we both had a 10min walk at that point). After supper I returned with a gallon of gas. Starting up the car, I noticed the same problem. A throb at idle, that got better at higher RPMs. I drove the seven tenths of a mile back to the house, noticing on the drive that I had less power than I was used too. I sat idling in the driveway thinking, "I hope this isn't that spark plug that I misthreaded and had to be helicoiled back in place." Opening the hood I was greeted with the sight of the engine rocking away. I had seen the engine run without a plug before, the engine was out of balance and vibrated similarly; all my plugs were in order. I also noticed the throbbing/pulsing/rocking noise was evident in the exhaust sound,.I didn't notice any exhaust noise from between the engine and the tailpipe. In neutral, revving the engine seemed to alleviate the pulse I felt (did not have an assistant confirm that the engine rocked less). * Bad engine mount? Then why the exhaust noise, and the loss of power? * A hole in the exhaust system? Then why the rocking engine? * Am I not firing on a cylinder? How can I confirm that? * How do I get to Pep Boys so that I can fix my other car?

Posted by dawnbixtler on 2006-05-19 06:31:32 +0000
Hole in the exhaust system, because: A) I've had a loss of power when my exhaust manifold failed in my Japanese car. B) If getting a different exhaust system can fluctuate your horsepower by 5-10%, this also supports the theory. C) You know you don't have a leaking gas line/fuel injector (right?), and your MPG seemed in line (right?) D) I don't want this to be a major repair, especially if the Subaru intends to get Baltimore next weekend...

Posted by G lib on 2006-05-19 12:56:14 +0000

Posted by MF DU on 2006-05-19 14:57:01 +0000
Herpes Simplex Z ? oops - I feel stupid - you guys are talking about 2 seperate cars...

Posted by cdubrocker on 2006-05-19 14:21:24 +0000
I once had a problem with my car stalling intermittently - the AAA folks kept on insisting it was the battery, but it turned out to be the alternator. Don't know if this would apply to your situation, but I always like to suggest the alternator as the source for mystery car ailments.

Posted by buzzorhowl on 2006-05-19 16:35:44 +0000

Posted by craig on 2006-05-19 20:57:36 +0000
When is the last time you changed your fuel filter? Service interval for most cars is 60,000 miles. It is entirely possible that when the car was low on gas, you sucked up some crud that was in the tank. This happened on a 1986 Nissan Sentra I had with 170,000 miles. Car wouldn't go over 45 mph. We changed the fuel filter and it was fine.

Posted by tgl on 2006-05-19 21:14:12 +0000
Fuel filter! I like it. The hole at the top of the gas tank probably doesn't have much to do with keeping crud out, does it?

Posted by dawnbixtler on 2006-05-20 06:04:11 +0000
CRAIG IN THE MUTHAFUCKIN' HOUSE!!!

Posted by tgl on 2006-05-20 17:15:50 +0000
Picked up a fuel filter this morning. While trying to relive pressure in the fuel system, I noticed that the engine was not vibrating wildly like on Thursday. Maybe I was jsut out of gas... Replaced the fuel filter. Seems to run fine.

Posted by tgl on 2006-05-26 01:29:13 +0000
It's not the fuel filter. I'm leaning towards exhaust leak. Cracked header?

Posted by pamsterdam on 2006-05-26 13:42:26 +0000
I asked hubby (read him the whole thread), and he says to check the distributor cap, rotor arm & HT leads. He says "it's almost certainly an ignition problem, and nothing to do with the exhaust." His car (and my main competition for his affections) is a BMW, and his terminology is British, but I hope that helps... Good luck!

Posted by tgl on 2006-05-26 14:11:18 +0000
Even though I'm a little shaky with the oil can, I don't think the amount of smoke I saw floating up from the engine bay can be explained away. Dizzy cap/rotor/leads is a good suggestion. Just like the fuel filter, start with the easy stuff.

Posted by pamsterdam on 2006-05-26 14:24:02 +0000
Oh, we missed the part about the smoke... or, rather - I didn't see anything about smoke and was actively paraphrasing as I went along.

Posted by tgl on 2006-05-26 17:05:57 +0000
I didn't really confirm the existence of smoke until last night, it drifting through the headlight beams was sort of a clue. I will still check distributor and such before limping to the garage.

Posted by Miriam on 2006-05-27 17:49:24 +0000
Today I did some emergency babysitting of my 7 year old nephew, and suggested we go to the pick-a-part junkyard to get stuff for my car. He was VERY excited, but we ended up at Sears and Toys'R'Us instead. Will have to wait for another scorchingly hot, unbearably humid summer day.

Posted by tgl on 2006-06-05 17:27:52 +0000
New wires, plugs, and coil did nothing. It's a '95 so it fuel injected, no distributor. (I've been elbow deep in the Z Car for weeks and weeks, it seemed only natural that the Soob had a distributor as well). Joe at the garage found a slightly used computer to pop in and it runs like new. So much for shade tree mechanicism. I'm not going to purchase a vehicle with EFI ever again.

Posted by tgl on 2006-06-05 17:28:25 +0000
That smoke I saw must have been some oil burning off of a heat shield.

Posted by Miriam on 2006-06-05 18:07:11 +0000
You really should take it to Al at the place in Somerville. He fixed Ovlov up right!

Posted by tgl on 2006-06-05 18:13:16 +0000
I can't walk home from Al in Somerville.

Posted by Miriam on 2006-06-06 12:31:53 +0000
If you ask nicely, he might give you a loaner...or a ride! Someone always drove me either to the nearest T or home or to work when I took my car in; they even picked me up sometimes.

Posted by tgl on 2006-06-06 13:10:24 +0000
I can walk to Paradise Citgo (yes, that's the name) in fifteen minutes. It's a ten minute walk to the MBTA Commuter Rail stop from there. Of course, they don't speak English, but that's fine. Sorry, it's much more convenient than a shop in Somerville. Otherwise, I'd stick with my old garage in Cambridge (a 20 minute walk to work). Driving a car on three cylinders along the parkway into town isn't really an option either.

Posted by Miriam on 2006-06-06 14:32:05 +0000
Okay, okay! I just think ABJ is where it's at. They always treated me fairly and are very nice. I'm all for supporting the MIT engineer-turned mechanic.

Posted by tgl on 2006-06-06 14:56:28 +0000
Which was also true for my old garage in Cambridge.

Posted by Miriam on 2006-06-06 15:55:55 +0000
I once asked Al if they had a club. He looked at me like I was drunk.

Posted by dawnbixtler on 2006-06-06 20:36:29 +0000
Well, were you drunk?

Posted by tgl on 2006-06-07 01:46:32 +0000
D-U-R-K!

Posted by Miriam on 2006-06-07 14:03:28 +0000
Um, no.

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