[SCadaddle]

Timely thread!

In the last 23 years, I've owned 5 different Legacy/Legacy Outback wagons: a 92, a 97, a pair of 98's and an 05. In fact I've still got the 97, one of the 98's and the 05.

Everyone of them, except the 05, have never failed to start in very cold weather---down to the teens F anyway here in Mississippi.

The 2005 Legacy, currently anything under about 35F and it is going to crank crank crank crank and never seem to fire and start. Did the same thing last year. I can repeat the cycle 4 times. Sometimes it will eventually crank, other times I give up and drive another vehicle. The battery is plenty "hot" to turn the engine over, I've removed the back seat and the cover to the fuel pump, unplugged it and cleaned the contacts, reconnected it and left the cover off to see if I can hear the fuel pump run with the key on---that it does--listened for relays in the far right side of the dash to click on and off--they do--I've searched the web over and over for a symptom/remedy....and finally, I think I found a nugget of "been there done that" in a Subaru forum and in that case it turned out to be:

The coil pack!

Now, a bit more than a year ago I changed the plugs and the wires and found one of the wires had more or less "welded" itself to the socket in the original OEM coil pack. I picked up a non OEM coil pack at the Autozone and all was good....until last years cold season.

So here is what I intend to try: Use a heat gun to "preheat" the coil pack on a very cold morning first start scenario. It's either that or fold up an electric blanket on top of the coil pack overnight and see if that solves the problem. IF it solves the problem, I'll try either an OEM "Diamond" coil pack or perhaps one of those "super duper hot spark racing" aftermarket versions.

Edit: Of course if your WRX has a "coil on plug" type set up this might not apply to your situation!