Subarunation 713

From running smooth to this? No water in the oil no oil in the water all fluid levels OK. But even if the headgasket was completely shot I should still be able to get 15psi after cranking it 10+ times with wide open throttle don't you think? It won't get a head gasket from me nor will I pull the head off. It will go in the front yard with a FOR SALE sign in the window. It still runs and drives and doesn't look too bad. fairtax4me, thats probably what something in my #3 looks like. You had absolutely NO compression?

On my way to work yesterday all the sudden the CEL light starts flashing and the car (1999 Legacy L sedan 2.2 5 speed 220K miles) starts running light crap. I limp the car to work and once there try to check things out. Nothing really out of whack. I limp it home, about 35 miles, by just driving about 55 in 5th. CEL flashes, goes out, comes on, stays on, goes off, flashes again. I did a search of some threads with compression in the title. Some were where the cylinder was low or a whole side was zero but none where only one cylinder was zero. btw- I mean ZERO! nothing, needle didn't even think about moving. Cylinder #1- 165 psi Cylinder #2- 170 psi Cylinder #3- O psi Cylinder #4- 172 psi Plugs #1, #2 and #4 looked great. Plug #3 looked oily wet and sooty. When running is sounds like there is an exhaust or intake leak but there is not. The exhaust pipe felt like putting my hand over the pipe of an old two cylinder John Deere. With zero compression my guess is when the piston goes down on intake it creates a vacuum and then when the exhaust valves open it is sucking in exhaust to equalize the pressure. But just a guess. Before this it started easy, ran fine, used some oil but didn't miss. I was getting about 25 mpg down from my LONG term average of 27 mpg. Any thoughts?

I can't agree more. We got our first 96 5 speed OBW with 34K on it and with routine maintenance ran it up to 160K. I got T-boned in the OBW and so we went and got another 96 5 speed OBW (currently at about 160K). All 1996 5 speed OBW are 2.2s. Not the easiest to find but worth the search.

The 01 Outback is 2.5, the Outback Jr is 2.2 and the last year for the 2.2 btw. 11 year run for that engine. 1990 to 2001. I wish they still had it, if they did I may be looking at a newer car. On my 99 Legacy and my wifes 96 OBW (both with 2.2) I did the timing belt, cam seals, main seal, oil pump, water pump and pulleys a little after 100K. I went whole hog and used Subaru parts. Figured it might be a few more bucks but do it and then forget it until 200K. FWIW the 99 now has about 180K and still no drama from the front of the engine. The 96 OB is still fine too at 150K. Back to the 01 OBS in question, the hill holder, while not a deal breaker, would be nice to have. 98obster, the cars I am looking at are in VA. I will be there for work so somebody else is paying for the flight. I cruise the Denver CraigsList every now and again. There is a nice 85K Impreza wagon out there I have toyed about calling on. Green, 2.2, 5 speed currient on maint and $5500ish. Not an OBS but I don't have to have the hood scoop (that is why I like our 96 OB, no scoop). Thanks for the cars101.com link: 2001 Outback Sport Wagon adds over L Sport wagonRaised Ground Clearance to 6.5" Anti-Lock Brakes (4 wheel, 4 channel, front disk, rear drum) Cruise control Durable-weave textured cloth Rear bumper scuff protector Cargo area protective floor liner Special Outback ground effects Cargo area accessory outlet Hood-scoop Rear spoiler and fin Body colored door handles and moldings Two-Tone paint with lower grey accent

+1 on this. Or a shifter bearing may have been put on reverse of how it was taken off and the wear may be different (if this is possible). Not a big deal. If they need to put new bushings in the parts will not be a huge deal.

I am considering a 2001 Impreza Outback. The reason 2001 is on my radar is I want a 2.2. The 2.2 changed after 99 anything I should be aware of? Does the Outback Jr have ABS? I wasn't able to see it as an option or as a standard feature when doing research but Edmunds.com doesn't know everything. Another thing, is the hill holder on a 2001? I want a 5 speed and this one is a 5 speed. 88K miles. $6000 is the asking price. I have yet to see it but I want to get an idea of how much energy to put into the search. For you hardcore 2.2 people, should I back up and try to find a lower mile 99? or find a 99 Legacy wagon? There is a 97 Outback Jr with 81K 5 speed asking $4900. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks for the idea but if you go to their Web site and enter Subaru in their search it gives 0 results :-( Even if Tacoma Speedometer doesn't I am sure there must be somebody that works on Subaru. With Google and UPS everybody is right next door. Still, I would like to give this a whirl on my own. Somebody must have done this before. I want to go the LEGAL direction afterall, plenty of people have gone the "other way". Maybe when I get the new one I can play around with the old one that doesn't work and experiment with it. What am I going to do? Break it?

Well the speedometer on my 99 Legacy is starting to flutter and some mornings not work at all until after a few miles. Cruise works, no CEL so we know it is the speedo head. (5 speed FWIW) I did a search for rolling odometer forward. I found this thread but not much info on how to do it. Anybody with experience on how to roll an odometer forward? I would much rather have the new odometer be the same as the one I take out. It saves the drama of having to explain why a CARFAX shows an error if and when I go to sell it. Maybe people won't care when the car has 200K+ miles? Another option is to buy an used one with approximately the same miles as mine but do I really trust an used speedo head with 165K+ miles? Thoughts? Thanks, Greg

I hope you all had fun! Don't worry about us here in the midwest where we got another 10" of snow Thursday/Friday. Our day will come for our first AutoX....maybe... :-)

Time to change struts so I was doing a search and I came across your post. I assume it has been more than 100 miles by now. Still give the "thumbs up" to these struts or has a few months changed your impression? Thanks in advance for your opinion, Greg

Sorry I didn't put this info in the follow up post (it was in the original). But to answer your question:96 OBW, 2.2, 5 speed, 140,000ish miles

Thanks nipper, this makes sense. I had stopped at a rest area then went to start the car 4 to 5 minutes later and the bugger would not start. It turned over and over and over then finally started to sputter. This happened each time at 3 different stops. I thought I was going to have to wait for the car to cool all the way down. It hasn't happened since but the light went out too. Is it easiest to remove the PCV hoses and get the sensor from the rear? This will be tomorrow project. I picked the sensor up yesterday.

A while back I posted about POOR fuel economy after doing some towing. I did SeaFoam and reset the ECU (overnight). Still no luck. Car was still sluggish and sucked gas. Shortly after posting it started snowing and being a "real" winter so I kind of forgot about it. Well some good news, I think. Last week I got a check engine light. Had the code read and it is a bad engine coolant sensor. Since I had done the hard ECU reset (at the time of the post) this was the only code and it was there 3 times. The question: will a bad coolant sensor make fuel mileage suffer? REALLY suffer? And any helpful hints on changing the sensor. I can't even find it let alone figure out how to replace it! It is on the right side under the intake runners. Should I just use a torch? :-) Or is there a better way? Thanks in advance, Greg

Thanks again OB99W and ferret.

Thanks OB99W! Interestingly enough my 99 Legacy anniversary addition has a hill holder. 2.2 5 speed. It isn't important though. The Foresters I am thinking about looking at are 01 and 02s. Sort of hard to teach an old dog new tricks. I have always had 2.2 Legacys with 5 speeds and this crazy 2.5 Forester thing feels weird. Not bad, just weird. Well it will have a 5 speed that is for dang sure.

This is news to me and to U-haul. They are the ones I usually rent a dolly from and their system allows it. Towed a Miata just 7 days ago. 60-65 mph, nice and easy down the interstate and no problems. I think the 1000# is the tongue weight. The class 2 hitch I have is rated for 3500# total towing weight. But if you don't want to tow a car with your car nobody will make you. I wouldn't tow an H2 :-)

Dante, I have a 96 OBW with a 2.2 5 speed. It is a good towing car. I usually tow a dolly with a Corolla size car on it. Bigger brakes on the OBW help. You are smart enough to know you won't be the first one away at a light if you are towing! It does suck when an 80 year old with a walker smokes you when the light turns green but you won't be towing 100% of the time. If you are let me suggest a Kenworth :-) Greg btw-if it doesn't have a hitch on it putting one on takes about 1-1/2 hours and 30 minutes of that is getting the tools out and putting them back. Just get one that is modified for the muffler.

In my search (hill holder + forester) I saw somebody with an 04 Forester talking about it. Was 04 the 1st year on the Forester or was it earlier? Thanks, Greg btw-I guess I should not have said "come back on" in the title as it never was on the Forester. At least I can edit so I am only half a dunce. :-)

Ahhhh, if only wives were that easy....

Serious driving take 2. Dang, that is a lot of miles.

Thanks a TON! OB99W My car was manufactured 10-95 and so it fell in one of the "troubled times" mentioned in one of the tech articles. Nipper, I am going to do the "hard reset" as you call it. I take the negative terminal off and leave it off overnight. Not because I think longer is better but because my memory fails and when I go to start the next morning somehow it won't start. I then put the terminal back on and the ECU has the "double secret probation" reset. The seach nazi was in good fun!

HOLY COW! I did some searching and talk about a range of answers. From what it appears my 96 will track knock sensor, MAP and O2 sensor input (but this is from the Web). Some say this happens quickly, some say 15 minutes some say over the period of days. I wish I could find something from Subaru. I even read where the ECU can only be reset so many times? Huh? God bless the internet! I will reset the ECU and see what happens. I hope it isn't the last reset allowed before the ECU self destructs Mission Impossible style :-)

The clutch "seems" normal but then people tell me I appear normal too :-) I will pay a little better attention to it and see if I get a hint of clutch smell. I will reset the ECU. Thanks robm, OB99W and 1 Lucky Texan for the advice on that. It is a simple thing to check/rule out. BTW-where did this concept come from that the ECU "learns" driver styles? I have seen the same thing posted in a bunch of the other gas mileage threads when I was searching. I don't recall this beeing soemthing we talked about 3+ years ago? Is this true on the new cars? New like 04, 05, 06 and 07? My car is 11 years old. If this were true of the cars my age I am sure we would have talked about the ECU learning stuff back a few years ago but I don't recall it in posts from when I first stumbled across USMB. Could this be internet legend and not "actual factual"? It has had me curious for a few days.

Thanks grossgary, It has been over 5 tanks in the span of 2+ weeks. That was one of the dead giveaways. We were spending our spare time at gas stations :-) There is no smell of brakes but I will check the feel of the wheels after driving and see if one of them is a little warmer then the rest. My 99 legacy 2.2 is getting the same mpg now as before Christmas. That is why I feel it is not gas or weather.

Here is an interesting problem. I have a 96 OBW 138,xxx miles, 2.2 5 speed. I towed a 6 x 10 tandem axel U-haul trailer (about 900#) with a foosball table in it (about 250#). 125 miles there empty and with the table 125 miles back. I got 19 mpg. Understandable, the trailer was heavy and offered a lot of wind resistance. Now for the last 2 weeks all we are getting is 21-22 mpg combined driving where before we were getting 25-27 mpg. On Sunday morning I had to go about 220 miles, 110 each way, on I-94. Very little traffic and it is really pretty flat across southern Michigan. Cloudy with temps steady at about 33-34 degrees. I filled it full (topped off full) drove to Marshall and back and filled it again (same way) and on the open road going 70-72 mph with cruise I only got 24 mpg. 3 weeks ago that would have been 30-31 mpg. Same drivers, same basic weather, same basic gas from the same basic stations, same basic destinations the only thing different is the bad MPG. Your thoughts of what might have happened and how it might be fixed? Thanks, Greg btw-to the search nazis ;-) I did do a search about MPG and read tons about gas and 02 sensors and filters etc, but I didn't see anything about an abrupt change from weight/towing and then not going back to previous. If you know or see something please pass on the links.