Turns over, fires, then dies! please help!
 

This is how it all happened. about a week ago my check engine light started coming on for a couple seconds then turned of. It did this about once every 30 min, while driving. I checked engine and all fluids, everything looked good. So i was goin to make a appointment at subaru and get a diagnostic, i never really got around to it. so a couple of days my check engine comes on again but stays on this time. during this time the car ran perfect like always even with the check engine light on. so drove with it on a couple of times,because i needed to get to important things. now when i went to go start it this mornin it turned over like normal and then it fired up but then died instantly. Does this everytime. I've checked all of my fluids, connections, battery is good, alternator good, i tried disconnecting my battery. still same thing. any ideas!? Any help will be greatly appreciated!! Whats seems odd to me is when i turn the key to the on (to make the eletronics come on, right before starting it.) the fans instantly come on, and stay on. after the first 5 seconds, the fans get faster (i can here them pick up speed). Again any ideas? Please help. thanks!

What about pulling the code?

water temp sensor?

Isn't this the car you were selling for ten grand? hmm.

Test your Mass Air Flow meter.
Or easier yet, swap it out with a known to be good SVX MAF.

thanks everyone
 

thanks everyone with your quick responses, even if snobby ones :rolleyes: . I'm going to start trying some of your ideas and other people i have talk to. yes this car is for sale and was running flawlessly before this. If anyone else has any other ideas please tell me. thanks!

You need to pull the CEL code. You can do it yourself. Check out Earthworm's website (SVX-IW). There are instructions in the SVXipedia under ecu trouble codes.

http://www.svx-iw.com/

alright so i just pulled the code and it says its the coolant tempature circuit (probably why the fans come on). I am not mechanically inclined, so can someone please tell me where thats located and if i just need to replace that circuit, or is there more to it than that. Again thanks for the help!

If you're referring to code 21 then that normally means the coolant temperature sensor is defective (common problem). Fortunately it's the cheaper of the 2 sensors.

There's a recent thread on the subject with pictures of the sensor. It's on the top rear driver's side of the engine...the one with 2 wires coming out of it.

Awsome! thanks a lot earthworm and everyone. I found the other thread hopefully thats the problem. im leaving right now to go get the part! thanks!

Success!!!
 

Thanks everyone. She's back to her normal self. Only took about 10 min to do.