George A. wrote:

> My 1.8L Subaru Impreza 1995 (manual, front wheel drive) recently
> started to behave strangely:
>
> When an engine is truly cold (mornings or driving home after
> work), it starts and begins to drive normally, however, shortly
> after that it tends to lose power for a moment or two, then
> resumes OK, then these cycles repeat until an engine fully
> warms up. Then it behaves perfectly O.K.
>
> It's kind of difficult to describe. Basically, I press
> accelerator and feel that it "does not work" - very little
> (if anything) happens; then, as I continue to hold it down,
> the car "wakes up" and finally responds and accelerates.
> This usually happens at least several times, rather
> unpredictably. It's as if the engine is not getting enough
> fuel or air, or as if the mixture is not ignited in timely
> fashion.
>
> May or may not be related, I also noticed that, when the car
> is in this state, it seems to idle strangely - an engine
> shakes (I can feel the car shaking a lot more) and tachometer
> goes up and down from high 1,000 rpm to about 100 (when warm,
> it idles at approximately 400 rpm normally).
>
> The car is up for some expensive maintenance and break job
> pretty soon, so before I do any of it, I'd like to know
> what might be the problem with the engine and how expensive
> it might be. (I can, after all, buy another car, if it
> does not make financial sense to fix this one).
>
> Any ideas? Many thanks in advance.
>
> George
>