'96 Subaru Legacy Wagon 5spd: very poor mileage, dealer no..

A few months ago, my friend's car began getting extremely poor mileage
(in the teens on the highway, worse in the city). It also has a strong
smell of gas from the tailpipe. It smells after it is started in the
morning, and even after warming up to operating temperature and driving
a long distance.

The owner changed the plugs and wires and when that didn't help, he
took it to the dealer. The dealer "adjusted the coolant temperature
sensor" if that's even possible (it cost a few hundred dollars and the
car still stinks of gas and the mileage is just as bad as before). They
say it's not likely to be the O2 sensor, but they don't know what to do
next. I think they're trying to get him to go away because they said
they'll just start throwing parts at the problem until it is fixed (I
would have asked to speak to the service manager at that point).

So, my question is: has anyone here had this problem before? This
sounds to me like a leaking fuel injector (or injectors...). Is there
an easy way to test the injectors without having the dealer just
replace them? If not, I would most likely tell my friend to take the
car to an independant shop I have used before to see if they can
diagnose the problem; this dealer obviously doesn't know what's up.

Thanks for the help... I drive a Honda and the Honda usenet group has
saved me cash from unecessary repairs MANY times. My buddy is not
computer savvy and had no idea the newsgroups existed.

Bruce wrote:

> A few months ago, my friend's car began getting extremely poor mileage
> (in the teens on the highway, worse in the city). It also has a strong
> smell of gas from the tailpipe. It smells after it is started in the
> morning, and even after warming up to operating temperature and driving
> a long distance.
>
> The owner changed the plugs and wires and when that didn't help, he
> took it to the dealer. The dealer "adjusted the coolant temperature
> sensor" if that's even possible (it cost a few hundred dollars and the
> car still stinks of gas and the mileage is just as bad as before). They
> say it's not likely to be the O2 sensor, but they don't know what to do
> next. I think they're trying to get him to go away because they said
> they'll just start throwing parts at the problem until it is fixed (I
> would have asked to speak to the service manager at that point).
>
> So, my question is: has anyone here had this problem before? This
> sounds to me like a leaking fuel injector (or injectors...). Is there
> an easy way to test the injectors without having the dealer just
> replace them? If not, I would most likely tell my friend to take the
> car to an independant shop I have used before to see if they can
> diagnose the problem; this dealer obviously doesn't know what's up.
>
> Thanks for the help... I drive a Honda and the Honda usenet group has
> saved me cash from unecessary repairs MANY times. My buddy is not
> computer savvy and had no idea the newsgroups existed.
>

The ENGINE (not coolant) temp sensor is a not uncommon problem causing
excess fuel use (basically, the sensor is telling the system that the
'choke' needs to stay on to warm up the car all the time) without
setting an ECU (check engine code) for people. There is no adjustment -
just replace. Is the CEL on? Were any codes stored?

Don't delay - the catlytic converter can be damaged.

I would consider a different mechanic also.

Carl


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