The symptoms are pretty hard to describe so I'll just tell the story as it happened. Maybe this turn of events will give some hints as to what the problem may be.
We were heading out of town Saturday. As I backed out of my driveway, there was a quick hesitation in reverse. Just a little pause in the engine for a split second. Never had happened before. While still in town at low speeds, the same hesitation happened while turning a corner. Very brief, but noticable.
About 15 minutes later, while on the freeway at about 70 mph (and doing that speed for several miles), suddenly the hesitation returned. This time slightly more pronounced, to the point where the engine nearly stalls, then kicks back in kind of harshly. Starting to feel more like the tranny slipping gears and then slamming back in to gear. The next 5 miles it happend once every mile. oh oh
Pulled off the freeway onto city streets so I could bail off the road in town if needed. Drove 10 miles on city streets 25-40mph with many stops at lights, never another problem.
Made it to my parents' house and decided to take dad's truck on our camping trip to still enjoy the weekend. Worry about the SVX on Tuesday.
Tuesday. Drove up to my parents' in the truck and then took the SVX to a nearby tranny shop. No incident on the 1 mile drive. An hour later, the tranny guy called. Took the SVX for a test drive and nothing was wrong at all. I told him to take it on the freeway, where the problem seemed more pronounced. He called back in another hour, saying the SVX still seemed perfect.
Told them to do a tranny service since it was about time and that way they'd drop the pan and inspect a little.
Picked up my A-OK tranny SVX with some excitement. Tranny guy told me the symptoms could be an engine problem or something in that area, but it had never happened while they drove it. I got on the freeway and headed home. About 5 miles into my drive, the hesitations started again. This time way worse than on Saturday. The delays were 5 seconds, maybe longer, the car would coast on the freeway, but pushing on the gas had no effect at all during the stall time. RPMs would not move when I hit the pedal. Then, after the delay, it would suddenly kick back in with a harsh jolt and continue on. But this time, only for about 30 seconds before another long hesitation. So I'm going along in heavy 70mph traffic with the car pausing and jolting along.
Started to make my way over to the shoulder, and just in time as it finally stalled completely. Coasted along the shoulder, by coincidence the only Subaru dealer in the county is just up the road a mile and right off the freeway. Coming up on a short bridge with no shoulder, had to stop the shoulder coasting. Restarted the car and pulled into an open spot in traffic. Drove fine just enough to clear the bridge than stalled completely again. Restarted and made it off the freeway. This stall/restart process got me quite a ways without having to call a tow truck. Then, as I neared the last couple lights to the dealer with cautions flashing, the car suddenly decided to work again. The last mile the car acted as though nothing was wrong at all. Told the service guy to make darn sure they take it on several test drives if they don't see a problem at first!
So my SVX sits at the busy dealer now, they have no openings until Friday unless there is a cancellation.
So is that enough info to give anyone an idea as to where the problem lies? It probably wouldn't hurt to give them an idea of where to start looking since they were pretty baffled by my story. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but the service manager gave the SVX a lot of praise for being a nearly fault free car and he was very surprised I had such a problem. So does that mean they know the SVX there or not?
