during hard acceleration engine light come on

[justmehere]

Our car is a 1995 Legacy L.

I was driving along and during hard acceleration the engine light came on and started to flash so I slowed down. While slowing down to a lower speed (30mi/hr or about) the car was running rough like it was about to stall. I immediately shutdown the car and restarted it. The engine light came back on but now was steady. I continued to drive the car normally (no longer running rough) to work and back home.

About few days later we took the car in to the Subaru dealer who reported the following in their invoice:

Complaint: Check engine light On
Correction: Scan ENG for Codes, P0302, Misfire at CYL#2, Replaced Spark Plugs, Cleared Code & Reset ECM. (Wires & Coil OK/Not Arcing at this time)

The other day at the local shopping strip the car would not fire up tried several turns of the ignition. The engine was turning over you could easily tell but it just wouldn't turn on. On one last attempt it started on the first turn of the ignition. The engine light came on and stayed on. I was told by a mechanic that it could be a fuel pump or ignition coil/wires problem. However that the coils/wires should be tested (ohm and resistance) when running hot as well as cold.

Anyone have any ideas ? Coil wires, plugs, fuel pump or computer ? I'm taking bids here anyone ?

[jenkins6586]

sounds like a coil or wire problem u can check each plug at a time (takes some time) or just replace them if there old and if that dont work go with the coil

[StNicholas]

My 91 and 92 Legacy have only 2 coils on each engine. A pair of plugs fire together. This reults in a 'waste spark'. One spark in a 'forward' direction and the other in a 'negative' (polarity reversed). Not sure when or if Soob changed this, but it may be that holes 1 & 3, and 2 & 4 fire together. This should be apparent by looking at the coil/wire arrangement. It's raining, I'm at work, and am not motivated enough to go look myself

What would this mean to you?

1) you should reevaluate the code as both cylinders may be misfiring; or that coil is misfiring.

2) This means the spark plug wires are firing twice as often as on most cars, and they would likely need replaced twice as often.

3) You may be able to swap the coils and see if the code swaps to the other pair of cylinders.

Hope this is helpful and not

Nick