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Gday I hope some here can help me. I have an 89 L mpfi which was running beautifully (had that lovely subie note that they only have when they're happy) then about 1 month ago it lost power, down about 20% or so. Tried everything I knew to no avail.
So I put it in to Mike at Scorpian. $350 later the car is no different, tho he thought it might be a blocked Cat Converter. Swapped over the Y-pipe & Cat this arvo and guess what - no difference. It seems to be getting worse and now it seems to be surging, as tho its not getting enuf fuel.
Any suggestions???????????

fuel pump, fuel filter, dirty injectors?? that if it seems fuel related would be the first thing to look at

if it IS surging. its usually to do with the Air/Fuel mixture

so as 89rsturbo says. look into the fuel side of things and the spark delivery and other cheaper and easier stuff to replace if it hasnt been done yet.

then possibly into the engine sensors.

Without seeing the engine it would be hard to tell but a look at the fuel components as said or you could look at the Air filter and then you could have an ignitor issue. Its the little black and silver thing under the coil.

Thanks for your help guys. OK it has a new fuel filter, air filter, plugs and Scorpian supposedly checked out all the sensors. I've got a parts car so I'll swap the igniter over tonite. I'm thinking injectors like SWK said, How much does it cost to get injectors cleaned?:(

You can check the injecters like spark plugs. After you remove the clip, start the engine and one at a time slide each plug off the injecters and see if it makes a difference.

The gadget that lives near the coil is its power transister and has a 2 pin "T" shaped connector .

As a heads up , recently a fellow at USMB had all sorts of stalling and poor running problems . After spending lots on all the usual ignition system bits it ended up being the optical diodes in the CAS (distributor) . 4 plug ECU cars have an optical disc with slots pressed through it so that the LED's can shine through onto photo sensors , these tell the computer where the crank is and allows it to time all injection and ignition events .

If you can find or borrow another known good one its worth it to find out if this is your problem .

Cheers A .

Here's my experience to a similar problem, get the Air Flow Meter out and give it a good clean with electrical cleaner, can be found at most accessory shops. Be careful of the wires inside, they are calibrated with precision.
This made a huge difference to mine one time, but if its dirty, the air cleaner will need changing too. Reason is the ECU gets a poor reading from the AFM and wont run to the air/fuel mapping. (Matatak, you were nearly on the money with your legible post)

Just thought also, check all vacuum hoses.

subanator wrote:(Matatak, you were nearly on the money with your legible post)

Just thought also, check all vacuum hoses.

hehe not being an Lseries owner i can only say what i can

good thought on the vacuum hoses also.

Sorry guys got stuck at work yesterday so didnt get a chance to do anything. Looks like a saturday morning job. I really appreciate all the help - this forum is brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D

Ok took a sickie today so I could get a chance to work on the car. Changed the coil, transistor, cleaned AFM, checked injectors by disconnecting plugs, even swapped the ECU. All to no avail.
The problem is slowly getting worse. If I drive the car like a granny its not too bad, but if I try to put the foot down or even come to a large hill it looses power drastically. Tomorrow I will swap the fuel pump but somehow I don’t think that’s going to help.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

An update on the issue. I swapped the AFM which made a huge difference in power, up from 60% to about 85%, but I was only getting about 320km to a tank of fuel. Disconnected various sensors in turn with no real effect. Then I disconnected the O2 sensor and took it for a run to Gympie yesterday. Up to about 90% power and it did 400km and still some left in the tank! So it would appear that the O2 sensor (which I swapped out of the parts car) is stuffed. I'll put the original one back in until I can buy a new one. I am hoping that once the new O2 sensor is in I might even get full power back!!! Fingers crossed

good ot hear something has come of it

dave