NEED HELP- abnormal idle, frequently dies, won’t start

[Mak2001]

Hey there, hoping for a little help with my USDM 2006 Legacy GT MT which is pretty stock. About a week ago my car started acting up starting with ABS kicking in once out of no where while going about 20 mph in perfectly normal conditions. The abs light stayed on. The next day it was dead in the morning I jumpstarted it and it worked fine. Later that day I had the alternator, battery, and starter tested and they all were fine. I ran for codes and nothing. The next day at lunchtime it died again I proceeded to jumpstart it which did not work so I pushstarted it. For the rest of the day whenever I would slow down the idle would drop low and it would die. Eventually it wouldnt even pushstart so I had it towed to my mechanic. My mechanic came to the conclusion that it was the ignition switch so he took it apart and cleaned it and recommended I get a new one at some point. The next day it worked the whole day perfectly with no abs light and no abnormal idle. The day after that it died and wouldnt pushstart so I had it towed to my house. I ordered the new ignition switch from subaru and put it in myself a few days later. Once again the car worked perfectly but this time for 48 hours. Then just today it died again but then came back on after the keys were left in the ignition for 5 minutes and started idling wierdly. Whenever I would rev it up thr idle would come back down and drop low and die. It came back on and I drove it the rest of the day with no problems. Then when driving it this evening the ABS light came back on and i took it home. It has since died while driving and frequently dies and only turns on after key has been in ignition for 5-10 min. Im at a loss and being a broke high school student i dont know what to do. Hope yall can help.

 

Thanks,

 

Makeo

 

 

 

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[moral hazard]

Even though the battery tested fine I would clean the terminals and make sure they are tight enough. Also charge up the battery anyway to start with.

 

 

 

Seems like a tricky issue.

[chato]

how long have you had the car?

any other issues or repairs recently?

probably worth starting with the simple stuff.

might check the voltage of the car while its running with a voltmeter to start.

second, check draw by jumping an ohm meter between the negative battery terminal and its cable and see if you have a passive draw when the car is off.

[Mak2001]

how long have you had the car?

any other issues or repairs recently?

probably worth starting with the simple stuff.

might check the voltage of the car while its running with a voltmeter to start.

second, check draw by jumping an ohm meter between the negative battery terminal and its cable and see if you have a passive draw when the car is off.

 

 

 

No I got it back in early September and it’s been great with no issues up until this.

And thanks for the advice I’ll try that.

 

 

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[molybdenum]

I know this sounds out there, but have you cleaned the MAF sensor?

After I had my head gaskets done, the car sat at the dealer for a while, so I assumed the difficulty to start the car was a low battery. As I left the dealer the car wanted to die at every stop, so I assumed I may have had vacuum issues as if a hose was not connected. (Rereading your post, have you done any work around any of your vacuum lines?)

I looked everything over and tried a Idle Learn by disconnecting the battery overnight, etc. Car seemed fine until I drove down to LA and the symptoms returned. Ditched the K&N and put a paper engine air filter in, cleaned the MAF sensor in the parking lot of the auto parts store. Symptoms haven't reoccurred since (over one year, ten thousand miles)