Hello everyone, I recently bought a subaru impreza hatchback with the 1.5 liter engine and took it for a spin, the check engine light came on and I used my scan tool to check for codes and it said that it is a cylinder 4 misfire. I do not know what the issue could be. Please help.
It's either fuel or spark. You need to tell us what year, what mileage, what engine and trans like it asks for in the first paragraph of this page.
To start with you could check condition of the spark plugs. If they are OK, switch the #4 cylinder coil pack to another cylinder and see if the problem travels with it.
Hi,
First you should inspect the car:
- Do all hoses look good, is the oil full, does it sound good? (...)
After the very basic "Looking if there's something obviously wrong":
- Check spark plugs - what condition are they in?
If sparks bad replace them - if issues persist, continue:
- Swap the coil with another cyl - does the misfire move to it?
If it does, replace the coil - if issues persist, you should take it to a mechanic.
I hope you didn't drive it hard causing the check engine to light up, otherwise it could be something bigger than spark or fuel - it ain't hard to blow a motor these days, even if it ain't half bad.
I have a 2009 Subaru Impreza hatchback with a 1.5 liter gasoline engine (EL15) that has 10 000 miles on the clock
10k miles?
yes, it was driven by an old man before he passed away. the car was not moved that much since.
Hi @dan, the car was slightly shaky when in idle but it did not show a check engine light. I then took it for a spin reved it up to 5k rpm and after 20 minutes the check engine llight lit up. I pulled over at a gas station thinking the gas might be bad. I opened the gas cap and as soon as I did so there came a psssshhhhh sound from the tank. I filled it up with 10 liters of gasoline and drove it home the one mile that I had left with the check engine light on. I anticipated it is the sparkplugs so I got a set of 4 iridium-platin spark plugs. I will get to see today what else could be the cause. (I did check the oil before and it was on full before I went for the spin)
Revving up that high isn’t a good idea on a 13 year old budget car, you can easily blow up the engine that way
(I don’t dare to take my Toyota over 3.5k and that’s the bulletproof ZR. I’ve seen too many blown budget car engines by the kinds of drivers who think their 2 thousand euro Peugeot 207 is a sports car)
Do the regular diagnostics steps as I listed instead of guessing.
not even the dirtiest fuel in the world would clog a filter at 10k miles.
I just now did a check while the car was running cold and let it idle for a couple of minutes the check engine light was off which is quite odd, but the idle was rough and pretty shaky. I think the misfire gets more severe the hotter the engine gets. Edit: I think it could be the fuel filter that is clogged. also the gas is still on low so that might be the reason as well why it misfires.
@dan I had changed the spark plugs and that was the main cause. There were some cheaply made spark plugs that were supposed to last only 10 000 miles not 60 000 miles. The old ones had some other cheaply made compound. Replaced the spark plugs with some that are out of platin and iridium. That did the trick and the car stopped misfiring. Of course I replaced all 4 spark plugs.
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