Almost a breakdown

[Mr B]

Had my latest purchased 03-SG Forester in the workshop, on permanent loan to my sister :-/ . she had lack of power, uneven running & intermittent CEL with some CEL flashing. Was still drivable so dropped it in straight away, Was hoping for the best but expecting perhaps ignition pack or worse.

Fortunately nothing more than an original HT lead had gone bad, A set of PROSPARK OES1229 Ignition HT Leads (£19, good fit, ok quality for standard vehicle servicing) & some new NGK BKR6E-11 ( £7 a set, Find NGK copper core fine and have hardly any faults/failures compared to some expensive spec plugs) plugs just for good measure.

Running perfect once again & hopefully won't see it till MOT time in December, lol ...

[Gambit]

You mean you're hoping you won't see it again until then :) 

And not a costly fix I like them 

[Jay762]

liking it - keeping her on the road with low out lay :)

[Mr B]

:-)

Yes nice when quick to diagnose & basic parts which cheap, this is only second time I had a fault on my own Subaru vehicles mainly as if you buy decent ones & do decent basic servicing they are close to faultless.

[Leecalcars]

Just purchased some PFR6B plugs @£8 each as the others were nearly destroyed ... Problem is some people buy these cars and can't afford to service them properly so they go for years without notice, then the unsuspecting buyer comes along who has to put his hand in his pocket to rectify a lot of stuff that should have been done !!

I changed my plugs cleaned all the coil packs refitted all good .. Fingers crossed, the early subaru's had the coilpack mounted on the inlet manifold with HT leads branching off a lot easier IMHO , but the later cars have changed to spark plug individual coil packs which are a B*****D to change but with patience it can be done with out lifting the motor up !!!

[Leecalcars]

Glad you got sorted mate reasonably cheaply

[Mr B]

Yeh the coil on plug type are a bit fiddly, this was single coil pack & much easier.

Basic servicing is not really that expensive excluding you high end performance boys, HT leads I used here may seem cheap but quality is as good as £40ish leads so spending more is not always needed.

[BoozyDave]

glad it was an easy and cheap fix

 

I've heard the same about HT leads, I paid out £80 for some for my saph cossie years ago and had nothing but trouble with them

[Leecalcars]

Problem with the individual coil packs is or can be the wiring ! But looking at these avcs heads the wiring goes under the inlet manifold so to replace these I would imagine would be a right pain !!!

The coil packs genuine oe part can be bought for around £40 each from Australia opposed to uk prices of about £130 each , it's advisable to change all 4 at the same time so is an expense we could do without .

The single coilpack you can buy for around £175 new cheaper second hand why Subaru changed them I assume to do with the variable valve timing .

Whatever happened to plugs leads and distributor ????

[Mr B]

coil per plug/cylinder has lots of advantages, reduced radio frequency interference,smaller lighter coils, use less energy, coils have longer recharge time between cylinder firings.

Loss of distributor & advancement of engine electronics has improved fuel economy, reliability & engine life span drastically.

I don't miss messing with points & condenser  :-) do think manufacturers need keep an eye on how advanced they go these days & on replacement parts costs as some of these component/sensor prices are ridiculous ...

[Jay762]

amount of time I spent spraying the dizzy with wd40 in the wet conditions driving back and forth to Scotland - was a regular at Halfords in those days - only Vauxhall decided the best place to mount it was right at the front of the engine just above the sump - muppets