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Old 09-06-2007, 02:27 PM   #1
williaty
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Default Car Massively Down on Power, No Other Symptoms

I have a 2005 Impreza RS with 47k miles on it. About 2 days ago, all the power went away and my gas mileage (as judged by the rate the needle is falling) plummeted. Slight hills that used to be taken in 5th with light throttle are now WOT in 2nd. Accelerating like my mom takes WOT pulls to redline in every gear. Based on the mileage at 1/2 tank, I estimate that I have dropped from the high-30s on the highway down to about 18mpg highway. Otherwise, the car is perfectly happy. No audible knocking, no smells, no roughness, no vibrations, no indication it's running hotter, fluid levels are fine, etc.

On the suspicion of having gotten a tank of bad gas, I called the service department and asked if there's a way to get the gas out. The guy said the newer Subies have an anti-siphon feature and that the only way to get the gas out is to detach the tank and dump it out. He recommended that I get some octane booster. Once I got to the autoparts store, the guy at the counter thought the guy at the dealer was a moron for recommending octane booster. The store guy said that if it were bad gas, it's almost always water contamination that's the problem. So he sold me some kind of fluid that's supposed to pull the water out of the gas.

I poked around under the hood for stupid-obvious things that might be wrong. The only thing out of the ordinary is that the AC compressor is making a grinding-rattling noise. I called around to the dealers about it, and it wouldn't be covered under warranty. I also leave on Tuesday morning for 1k+ mile road trip (I got so lucky and The Tail of the Dragon is literally on my way, we have to drive that part of US129!). None of the dealers can see the car before then.

Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong? I'm very worried about it since I'm going to be hauling two kayaks through the mountains come Tuesday!
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Old 09-06-2007, 02:35 PM   #2
nick04263
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Did you try resetting the ECU?
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Old 09-06-2007, 04:03 PM   #3
kero
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I wonder if you A/C compressor pulley is staring to seize up and thus putting a strain on the belt and slow down everything?

If you are going to visit the TAIL, you must read the article below, it's ubsurd what is going on. Watch the videos to to see for yourself!

read: http://www.autoblog.com/2007/08/24/t...of-the-dragon/
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Old 09-06-2007, 04:05 PM   #4
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double post, ignore!
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Old 09-06-2007, 05:02 PM   #5
williaty
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nick04263 View Post
Did you try resetting the ECU?
It has been once. Didn't seem to make any difference. So either it's the AC doing something bad, or the gas is so bad the ECU goes into panic mode right away.
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Old 09-06-2007, 06:05 PM   #6
kero
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Quote:
Originally Posted by williaty View Post
It has been once. Didn't seem to make any difference. So either it's the AC doing something bad, or the gas is so bad the ECU goes into panic mode right away.
Did you read the article on the tail???
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Old 09-06-2007, 06:20 PM   #7
williaty
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kero View Post
Did you read the article on the tail???
Yeah, that's nuts. I'll be passing though during the week. It's just literally the way to get where I'm going, I'm not driving though "because it's the dragon". Now I wonder if I'm even safe to use it for its intended purpose: as a US highway!
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Old 09-06-2007, 09:23 PM   #8
kero
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Quote:
Originally Posted by williaty View Post
Yeah, that's nuts. I'll be passing though during the week. It's just literally the way to get where I'm going, I'm not driving though "because it's the dragon". Now I wonder if I'm even safe to use it for its intended purpose: as a US highway!
If you watched the videos and read the articles and such you will see they are stopping people for the most retarded things.

I am sure you will be fine but I thought I would throw you some much needed info on the tail to make sure you did not get stopped for having sunglasses on, hehehe.
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Old 09-07-2007, 01:56 PM   #9
Flood
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Have you ever replaced your fuel filter?
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Old 09-07-2007, 09:16 PM   #10
williaty
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Flood View Post
Have you ever replaced your fuel filter?
No, it's inside the tank and not part of the scheduled service rota.

Yesterday, I poured the stuff the autoparts guy sold me into the tank. Within a few miles, the car was slightly better. Still a long way from good, just not quite as sucky. Last night I ran the car until 40mi after the orange light came on. Then I filled it with 4 gallons of gas and ran it around for a while. I let it sit overnight, then reset the ECU this morning. I again drove until about 40mi after the orange light came on and filled it all the way up and then took a 200mi road trip. The car seems dramatically happier now. I'm not sure it's 100%, but it's good enough I probably wouldn't be worrying about it if it hadn't recently been so bad. I did do some basic logging, and while there wasn't much retard due to knock, the timing value was ranging from 0 to over 40 and I've never seen it that high. I have no idea what that means.
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Old 09-08-2007, 12:38 PM   #11
Uncle Scotty
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Old 09-08-2007, 12:52 PM   #12
williaty
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Scotty, thanks for posting that. Thankfully, I'll be staying on US129 all the way down to where we're camping.
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Old 09-08-2007, 10:47 PM   #13
kero
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Quote:
Originally Posted by williaty View Post
Scotty, thanks for posting that. Thankfully, I'll be staying on US129 all the way down to where we're camping.
Camping rules, I am an avid camper and go into the upper catskills from early spring to late spring and then from ending of summer (kinda of right now) to october. I avoid the very hot months and also the major traffic as well.
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