740gle

How many miles on it? As others suggested - it may be coming from the accessories. The alternator was making strange noises on my 02' GT before dying - open the hood, check if it comes from there, or may be AC compressor? How is the oil level, when was it changed last time? I am using Mobil 1 in all my cars now. What oil is in your GT? It may be a piece of gunk stuck in the hydraulic lifter. I've had that cured on my other car with hydraulic lifters by adding Rislone to the oil, driving for a little bit and changing oil. That happened after I switched it to the Mobil 1, apparently it picked up some old sludge and carried it there, but it was washed away by Rislone. Do NOT use oil "cleaners' with teflon - they are for racing engines that get overhauled and rinsed every other day, the small teflon particles may be blocking oil passages.... HTH, Let us know what you find. -Michael, 02' Legacy GT wagon 134K and 2 RWD VOlvo's

Well, it's not like it was "dripping"... There were drops in the exhaust gas, that one could see on the ground. And guys, remember - it all comes to normal as soon as the thing warms up... A little after the temp. guage in the cluster reachis is "normal" position around 9 o'clock. Yes, the car is being taken apart, and they are working on cleaning the valves, etc... I was just asking questions for the future.... So that I would not have to go back there again when things like this happens....

Would a fancy OBD-II reader be capable of doing that, or is some proprietary Subaru thingy necessary?

Understood, where can I find the resistance curve for the temp. sensor? I have some manuals downloaded frm subaru, but that info is not there.

I am with you.... But I am short on time to a point when it may be better for me to just go after everything at once... Why does it have to be analog ohm meter? What's wrong with DVOM?

Should I aks them to replace FPR also, it's original, 135K miles old. Do they fail often? Expensive? As I am deep in it anyways, and I would really need to have the car back tomorrow and in working order for the long trip upstate NY....

Why would FPR mis-behave only when engine is very cold, and behave normal when it is warm?

That's in another thread: (http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=108885) Question: 02' Legacy GT wagon- cold morning rough idle, misfire

OK, I'm no mechanic either, I've never done it on a Legacy, have no clue were the thing is myself. Given that accessin almost anything on this engine requires either taking out all the air filter assy, or battery and windshield washer, or both, I can see how it might take that much to get to it, and put everything back together afterwards. Does coolant have to be drained in order to replace the sensor? Is the Subaru factory manual with labor hours required for each job available somewhere? -Michael

Those were not water drops, they smelled gas... I agree, the issue may be fixed simply because of dis- assembly nad re-assembly. I also asked them, to replace few other things that are old, thanks to you advice from another thread last night. That list includes the coolant temp. sensor, which I suspected from the very beginning, but they were swearing that it tested fine, and quoted me 1.5 hours of labor for replacing it... We'll see. At least hopefully I'll get the issues fixed and engine life extended for another couple of years...

Last time I've started it there were drops coming out the exhaust, and my brand new cat was glowing red after about 2-3 minutes of running rough... It's getting a valve job now... They also offered me a new reman Subaru engine with 3-36 warranty, but that was around $6k, and take a week, so I opted for fixing this one. I also asked them to change other things - water pump, thermostat, etc.. as a PM. They are still original. I'l let you guys know how it goes. Thank for all your help, guys

It has 135K miles. The headgasket was replaced less than 1 year, about 10K miles ago... together with all belts, not sure about seals. I am not doing it myself, it's at the shop now.

Had that on myine, it was a hose running from the fuel filter. HTH -Michael 02' Legacy GT wagon 134K

While the heads are off, what other things that are hard to reach, would it make sense to may be preventively replace now, in order to save trouble later? PCV? Temp sensor(s)? -Michael

Do you mean the first time when they replaced the plugs? Actually, they did suggest the cat needs to be changed, there was a OBD code raised for it, but I decided not to...

How would you make sure it's definitely valves? I'd like to keep it for another 40-50Kmiles. I doubt it'll last longer, there s some rust on it at places, but it looks decent overall... No, the first gasket was 10Kmiles ago, ca. 125K... I did get some 10% coupon discount on it though, IIRC.

It's the dealer, they did the head gaskets 10kmiles ago, they did not do valve job, or any machining, they just "cleaned the heads in the cleaner", replaced the head gaskets, manifold gaskets, belts and seals. This time they excluded plugs, plug wires, coil, and coolant temp. sensor based on the Subaru diagnostic tool, that they hooked up to it. Tech claims it tests all these, and did not show anything wrong in the signals. He also checked for vacuum, and says the vacuum gauge was jumping all over the place. It defeintely sends fuel down the exhaust and plugs were soaked in fuel. So, the theory is - sticky valves, most probably exhaust valves...

Well, got new cat, it's still doing it. It is in the shop now, and they say, that they were able to reproduce the problem, and they ran diagnostic, and it showed that coolant temp. sensor, cioil, wires, spark plugs are all good. They suspect it's the sticky valves and suggest pulling the heads again and cleaning the valves. It did have a headgaskets, seals, belts, etc... replaced last April. Would it make sense to replace the valves instead of cleaning them? Or would it be better to try to find a used engine and swap it? It has 134Kmiles on it now...

I suppose, they tried it at the dealer when they had a car three days ago, and decided to replace spark plugs only, but not spark plug wires or coil. It did throw the cat errro code then too, but one hopes for the better and I decided not to go for the new cat then. Well, it's now in the shop getting new cat... There was some rattling sound coming from exhaust before, but I did not connect it... We'll see whether new cat does indeed fix it. The tech explained that if the cat is clogged, it may be shooting exhaust back into the engine, leading to misfire... It did drive like a charm on its way to shop though, but I decided to bite the bullet, and go for it.

I didn't mean junk-yards, I meant the new parts sources - both dealers and on the web.

Thanks, I'd look for the used one to have just in case. Somehow all parts places I've looked up refuse to take beack unused electrical parts. Never been a problem for me with the Volvo parts...

First thing this morning - started, was cold, and it was running rough, OBD-II showed developing codes for misfire in 1 and 2, same as before,. Did swap wires between the cyl. on the pass. side, (didn't feel like taking off the windshield wiper fluid tank), it still feels like it is missing on at least one cylinder, or more, but it does not throw any codes any more, and even Misfire monitor on OBD-II is not showing incomplete... Took it to drive around the block - drives like cr...p, very sluggish, sitting on the stop sign idle is very low, and it even stalled once. Put the wires back on - still no codes, and drives the same... May be it is indeed the cat?

Will do the wire swap tomorrow morning. I found a set of wires on my shelf, not sure whether they are new or the set I replaced, may be they'll work better until I get new set? Ignition coil is pricey, do they fail a lot? When replacing the CTS - is there any seal or O-ring to make it water tight? Should I be prepared to catch a lot of coolant coming out? Is it better done on the cold or warm engine? Does it usually come out easy, or is applicaiton of the penetrating oil required beforehand? I use PBlaster, works great on my old Volvos. -Michael

That's along the lines I was thinking too, where is all that stuff located on that engine? Is there a reason why cyl. 1 and 2 misbehave in particular? Does any of these subsystems work separatly for the left and right cylinders? Wires may be culprits if the insulation gets older and crackled, and starts absorbing water when it's cold and/or humid. Is that spider-like ignition coil module on top of the engine, a possible suspect? I know it's not cheap, but is it difficult to replace? Replacing wires may still be a good idea, just as a PM.

Well, the sound is gone with the new belts, so no testing so far. I think my beam-type torque wrench from Sears does go that high. So, how would I check/retorque the pulley? Is that the one that both driving belts go thru, about at the center of the engine front? What is the socket size there? What's the trick of holding it while tightening? It's the Auto trans.