Smoke And stalling?

[sith]

So, washed and waxed my car today, went to start it up and had a really rough idle and smoke coming out of the exhaust. Turned it off, waited a bit, started it again, it seemed fine. Started it again 10 minutes later and it started for a second then stalled. Started it again and was able to drive it around the block ok.

Temperature gauge is normal, no fluids leaking anywhere (engine compartment is fine)

Any ideas?

[Aredubjay]

Originally posted by sith
So, washed and waxed my car today, went to start it up and had a really rough idle and smoke coming out of the exhaust. Turned it off, waited a bit, started it again, it seemed fine. Started it again 10 minutes later and it started for a second then stalled. Started it again and was able to drive it around the block ok.

Temperature gauge is normal, no fluids leaking anywhere (engine compartment is fine)

Any ideas?

Blue/White Smoke, or Black Smoke? Blue/White could be a leaking fuel injector.

[sith]

I would say more blue-white-ish, also smelled like gasoline, kind of like a 2 cycle motor would smell. I may try running some injector cleaner through it, though if its actually a bad injector, that wouldn't help much eh?

[Aredubjay]

Probably not, but, what the hey. If it's bad, it can't hurt. There is also a general "troubleshooting" chart in my yahoo briefcase. Tap that resource and check the symptoms against the chart.

http://y42.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/aredubjay/vwp?.dir=/My+Folder&.dnm=General+Engine+Troubleshooting.jpg&.src=bc&.view=l&.done=http%3a//y42.briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/aredubjay/lst%3f%26.dir=/My%2bFolder%26.src=bc%26.view=l

[picklesbitch]

If you're smelling the gas, it's not burning. I am not real familiar with fuel injection, but you might not be getting spark to burn the fuel. Just a thought.Good luck!
Mike

[lightning_8669]

Way back when I used to own a VW Squareback. The thing had a "leaky" injector. Basically it stayed open all the time. If the ingition was turned on but the engine wasn't started it would try emptying the gas tank into the engine. The way I tracked down which one it was was by squeezing the fuel lines by each injector and listening for the sound of fluid dribbling into the manifold. Sort of like milking a cow. (something about being from Wisconsin I suppose:D ). I pulled the one where I heard the noise, replaced it and the all was well in the world. That car also was equipped with a "cold weather" start valve. Basically and extra injector that would fire until the engine was up to temp. I think Subaru uses a different method for the cold days though (injector pulse duration?).

You may have had one injector stuck open that let the fuel in the lines drain into one of the cylinders. Cleaning might help unstick it.

Good luck, it's the kind of thing that can drive you nuts.

[kvnobrien]

When was your last major maintence done? It might be the timing belt starting to wear down. Sometimes the teeth catch in a spot that has been worn yet, so you drive it around the block with no problem. Then you try to start the car again and the idle is bad and stalling occurs with smoke from exhast, because the timing is off.

[sith]

Never had the timing belt changed, only have 53K miles on it. I had been planning to do the 60K service towards the end of the summer anyway.. the car has been behaving ok since I posted that problem though. For now I will tell myself that it was just a fluke :)

[kvnobrien]

Thats pretty low. Most people have not had problems with the original timing belt so I doubt that was the case. I'm glad your not contiuning to have this problem.

This is just a suggestion, when you get the 60k done, replace the water pump while they are doing the work. It's good to have it replaced while they are there, really a pain to get to, and you car will thank you for it a few years from now.