2000 Forester cutting out during accelerating

ACR

MEMBER
2000 ALL OTHER MAKES ALL OTHER MODELS

Hello,
A few months ago I purchased a 2000 Forester with 212K on it. It ran great until recently. It intermittently spits and chugs (almost stalls) under acceleration. To rule out the easy things, I replaced the fuel filter and plugs. Still no error code is showing. These intermittent problems are difficult to diagnose, it runs great for an hour then starts stuttering and chugging like it's totally lost it's valve or ignition timing, then it clears up again.
Stretched timing belt? Faulty fuel pump? Ignition problems? Green Wiring connections? Does anyone have any input?

1 Reply

ACR

MEMBER
4 POSTS

Turned out to be a air flow sensor giving incorrect readings. Not bad enough to trip an error code but bad enough to lean the fuel mixture enough to make the car run like s#*t. By the way, local Subaru dealer misdiagnosed the problem as faulty coil. $400 replacement item. Glad I did my homework and found the root cause. They might have eventually got to the problem after replacing everything they suspected was bad (at my expense).