SVX can't climb hills

WhatIsThisIDont · #1 02-06-2014, 07:55 PM

I put it up on one of the Facebook pages and got some answers, but I figured I'd put it here if you guys have any more ideas.

So I let my roommate borrow the car to go to work and I got the call this afternoon that it stalled out on him on the hill coming right up to the dorm buildings. So I walk down to him and the car starts up (while sounding very rough), but when I put it in gear, it would just stall out. It was a busy road and I couldn't roll it back down the hill, do I held the brakes and rev'd it to about 2k and let go. This got it to climb a bit until it stalled again. I repeated this (while crying on the inside) a few times until I got to the dorm about 100 feet up the hill.

Once I got it parked, it coughed a good bit while starting, and if I would try to rev it in park, it filibustered it's way to around 3k and just died around there. I checked the codes, even though no CEL came up. I got a code 37, which has been there before, and I knew the ground under the ignitor was pretty rough, so I cleaned it up nicely and dielectric greased it.

I also have a spare MAF from a 90's something auto Legacy, so I plugged that in to test. No big difference there.

After the ground was done, it rev'd very well when parked, started easily, and sounded great, so I took it for a 5 mile test run with some moderate hills, but mostly flat. I stopped on some of the hills, and it took off with very little throttle or wide open. On flat ground, it takes off like it never has before. There is no hesitation, the throttle response is almost instant whereas it would fall on it's face before. The power is also very smooth and the butt dyno completely freaked out because it's never ran this well for me.

The test drive went well, so I was feeling confident when I tried to climb the same hill. It was longer and steeper than any on the test run, and starting about 50 feet up this 200 foot hill, I could tell something was off. There was no power at any throttle, and it barely coughed back to the parking lot. There was no CEL, from beginning to end.

So between what I've been thinking and what I've seen on Facebook (Thanks, Nate), the possibilities are:

1: Timing is off
2: Vacuum leak
3: It's the O2 code that the ECU has stored?
4: Throttle Pos. Sensor
5: Coils

I'll go out tomorrow or Saturday and spray around looking for vacuum leaks, but where do I even begin to diagnose the other possibilities?

Thanks again for all your help, guys. This thing would still be stuck and undrivable if it weren't for the info you guys have shared. Thanks for putting up with the long post.

-Randy

TL;DR: I accidentallied the whole car. Please halp.

SVXRide · #2 02-06-2014, 08:46 PM

Up hill = under load = taxing on the coils

Cleaned ignitor ground = better performance = ignition circuit

I'd check the coils, the harness/connectors going to the coils and ignitors.

Good luck
Bill

Chucksta · #3 02-06-2014, 11:10 PM

Gonna really, really reach on this one

"On flat ground, it takes off like it never has before. There is no hesitation, the throttle response is almost instant whereas it would fall on it's face before. The power is also very smooth and the butt dyno completely freaked out because it's never ran this well for me."

Hmm.. to me, that would seem that it's not about "pull", or "load".. The variable seems to be the STEEP hill. Dumb question, but how much gas is in her, and is there a bend as you enter the steep hill. As the SVX has a saddle type fuel cell, there's a funky jet pump thingy to keep fuel on both sides of the saddle. Maybe it's not transferring fuel from one side back to the other when you're nose up, because the symptoms sound a lot like fuel starvation. Unfortunately, you'd need a fuel pressure gauge run back inside to check rail pressure when she dies out. Or.. Hmmm... I didn't catch what year it was. If it's after '94, it's be OBD2. I don't know if they read fuel pressure or not. If they do, it'd be easy to check.

Of course, if you've got 3/4 of a tank, that idea goes out the window. If you're almost on "E".. fill 'er up and that eliminated any possibility of it being a tank supply issue.

WhatIsThisIDont · #4 02-06-2014, 11:29 PM

Around 3/4 tank in her right now. I was thinking along those lines, but she has climbed that hill many times before when running on fumes.

It's a 92, so no OBD 2 for me

fasteract7 · #5 02-07-2014, 04:47 AM

Smells to me also like a fuel starvation problem also. Has the fuel filter been changed in the last 10 years ? Can you run her on flat ground/Interstate at 80 mph without any symptoms, running her up to near redline in 2-4 gears ?

Have you checked the undercarriage where the hard lines run to make sure the feed/return lines to the saddle tank haven't been pinched by hitting a foreign body or a nice chunk of ice hardened by your single digit nights up there !

Then there's a failing fuel pump but don't this so....you would think driving in 1st gear on flat ground would mimic any steep hill conditions you would encounter.

Good luck...

WhatIsThisIDont · #6 02-07-2014, 07:48 AM

Fuel Filter has around 400 miles on it. While it was running on flat ground and going up one of the not as steep hills in my test, I womped on it and she did spool out to redline on multiple occasions. I can't stress how much life it suddenly has lol.

I hit around 70 on the straightest shot and held it for about 30 seconds, no issues there. Revs were low and TC seemed to have locked.

Now because the roads were covered in snow and all kinds of other shenanigans, I wasn't sure of what it was, but just as I pulled into the parking lot and it lost all power, I thought I heard some clunks or bangs. Reminded me of my Legacy's Exhaust coming undone and hitting the ground. I got out of the car and checked under it and nothing was dangling or visibly mangled.

Once it got off the steep hill, all was fine again. Is there a possibility that my car is only fueled by voodoo magic?