Weird issue

[TommyAtomic]

This sounds like a really weird thing to complain about but this morning while it was super cold my 93 wrx wagon started ridiculously easy. It is normally extremely hard to start. I easily crank it for 15-20 seconds before it fires up. It never fails to start but it acts like its not sure if it wants to.

This tells me a couple of things that may need to happen. I may need to replace the plugs. I am definetely going to pull and clean the plugs and replace the coil packs. However plugs and coil packs wouldnt cause the hard start issues to stop when its cold.

It seems likely I have one or more bad sensors. I am thinking that it likely has its origonal sensors. I am going to go to town with some sensor cleaning but likely I will need to replace some sensors. SO ... Replacement sensors for a 93 ej20g with a stock ecu, what am I looking for?

Also, seperate issue; I found two odd green plugs under my dash. One male and one female. when I plug them together my check engine light blinks continiously. Obviously I leave them disconnected but does anyone have thoughts as to what they might do?

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[yogibear1976]

The plugs are for diagnostics. Just leave them alone.

I have a 93 wrx and when the motor is cold it is always a hard starter. Seems to be a common issue. The length of time it takes your car to start seems excessive though.

If you have the same electrical system as mine you should have a coil on each plug. Remove them and see if the ends are cracked. If so, replace them.

Good luck!

[wagonryan]

If your valves can be adjusted, that might help with starting.

[Jessekrs123]

Check your coolant temperature sensor. This tells the engine the temperature of the coolant, and the ECU adjusts fuel/idle to compensate whether or not it is cold or hot. This could cause hard starts when its cold, when its hot, or just hard starts in general.

[Jessekrs123]

Originally Posted by TommyAtomic

Also, seperate issue; I found two odd green plugs under my dash. One male and one female. when I plug them together my check engine light blinks continiously. Obviously I leave them disconnected but does anyone have thoughts as to what they might do?

Those are the diagnostic wires, those will turn your CEL into a numbered code, and you can look that numbered code up to diagnose a problem. If it continually blinks then there is a good chance that your memory wires are also plugged in. They look the same as the green wires except they are black, if you see the black ones plugged in, unplug those, those are just used so Subaru Technicians can find past CELs.

[TommyAtomic]

Originally Posted by yogibear1976

The plugs are for diagnostics. Just leave them alone.

I have a 93 wrx and when the motor is cold it is always a hard starter. Seems to be a common issue. The length of time it takes your car to start seems excessive though.

If you have the same electrical system as mine you should have a coil on each plug. Remove them and see if the ends are cracked. If so, replace them.

Good luck!

I am thrilled that it is now supereasy to start now that its really cold out. But my main issue is getting the car to start like this all the time.

I am definetely going to replace the coilpacks with 02 dsm wrx coilpacks using the handy wiring instructions pinned at the top of the forum.

What is the domestic equivelent for the '93 wrx engine coolant sensor? I completely replaced the coolant system (waterpump, thermostat, radiator, tranny cooler)when I got the car as well as slapping in new cometic mls head gaskets so the engine coolant sensor is a pretty likely cause of issues. The old headgasket was letting exhaust into the coolant system. Hot exhaust certainly could have fouled the coolant sensor.

In my experience weird issues are usually caused by bad sensors.

Also good to know about the weird green connectors under the dash. Diagnostics.

[TommyAtomic]

Feeling the need to share an update regarding the weirdness with the car.

I tried new sensors with no joy and had not yet gotten around to replacing the coil packs and suddenly had an idea regarding another possible maintenance failure. This engine has over 120k kilometers on it. When was the last time the fuel system saw any tlc?

With that one question I've solved the hard starting issue completely.... With two tanks of impropperly diluted high milage fuel system cleaner. I ran the fuel guage down to about an 8th of a tank, poured in a bottle of redline highmilage fuel system cleaner and filled up to half. I then ran that down to a quarter tank, poured in another bottle of highmilage fuel system cleaner and filled up with chevron 94 octane.

The hard starting issue is completely gone and the idle smoothed out completely and I was going to replace the fuel filter monday night after work.

Then because things were going so smoothly something bad had to happen. Holding breath and ........ the crank pulley bolt came out on the highway on monday. To the best of my ability to visualize how that could happen I believe the little peice of metal that sits in the keyway on the crank and the crankpulley was not correctly installed when the engine was put back together by the shop that replaced the blown headgasket.

Without the little keyed peice in place the pulley eventually loosened the crank pulley bolt.

I am making the shop correct this issue. Also I am not amused. The alternator and the power steering cutting out on the highway during morning rush hour is deeply unamusing.