jman11

They are built in Japan. I grew up there. We got the WRXs and all the fast stuff a few years before they arrived here (US). I arrived here in 2001, used to WRXs and Subarus being fast cars, but everyone is telling me they are slow and not that fun. Dependable and safe, sort of like a volvo. I'm glad that's changed. My 2000 RS gets a lot of attention.

Many cars "whine" in reverse; it's because the gears are cut straight rather than at an angle. This noise is why forward gears are not cut straight, but this isn't really on topic.

Depending on how the mechanism works. Here's a simplified scheme, that would be found out, but you could make it work. The machine starts off ignoring the 1st 1/2 gallon. So you get that for free. Then it counts every gallon as 1.1 gallons. The result would be that if you get under 5 gallons you gain a little. If you wanted 5 gallons you would get exactly 5 gallons. If you wanted 10 gallons you would only get 9.5. If you wanted 20 you would only get 18.5. Whether this would make you money would depend on how much gas people buy on average; there are some doing better out of the whole deal (those who buy under 5 gallons), and some doing worse (those who buy more). It is still possible. If people buy on average under 5 gallons then you could reverse the whole process. This could be made much more complex and harder to detect. It really depends on how the electronic counter works and how much power you have over its configuration. If all you do is test a 5 gallon pour, then methods like this would easily show you as legal, whereas you aren't.

Mine's just a 2.5RS coupe. Back from when they still existed, and before the WRX. It's the old body style, with the flat headlights. I don't think there are any other silver 2 doors in town. I'm not sure I've even seen one other coupe of any colour. The code disappeared, so whatever caused this Catalytic converter light must have been a once off. I'm thinking the CC must be close and it's just random stuff (like water bouncing up to it) that must be giving it grief.

So, we apparently live in exactly the same town. I'm also in SC, a grad student in maths at PSU. You play rugby? My old roommate, Sam, played last year. My cars a silver 2 door coupe if you've seen it around. My gas usually comes from the Sheetz up near Walmart, the Unimart on Atherton where it meets Pugh or a Turkey Hill down in Carlisle. The only thing is I tend to get it from the same places all year. Whereas the code is only winter. If I had a scantool I could clear it more reguarly and test it. As it is the nearest place to get it done for free is at the Autozone in huntington.

Sorry, misposted message.

I know there are a lot of threads about the catalytic convertor 420 code. I had a quick look through a few of the old ones and I haven't been able to find anything about the code magically fixing itself. Here's the story: 2000 2.5RS with 122k miles. Last winter the code for the 420 catalytic convertor came up. I cleared it, erased it and ignored it. It came back on. I'm a grad student, the part costs about $500, so I continued to ignore it. Well it goes off after a while (I think it's 40 warmup cycles without an error) and it doesn't come back. I make sure there are no codes and I take it in to have it inspected and emissions tested and it is all OK. So I haven't worried about it since, and of course it came back on a couple of days ago. I'm probably not going to fix it any time soon, I'm just curious if anyone has any ideas why it appears now? I'm also putting this here if anyone else gets this light (from looking at the board they seem to pop up about now) they can try to ignore it and hope it disappears over summer. I've got a couple of theories, that might work First, the cold weather, something might mess it up. Second, the winter additives they put in fuel (I'm in PA, so it's cold here). Third, carrying me after Christmas when I'm a little fatter. Fourth, I might just be a lucky bastard.

Could it be because of the boxer engine. When I think of timing chains, I think of them being fairly short. So for an inline, or V# engine. you can then have a fairly short chain. Whereas for a boxer there is no hope for it to be short. It's going to have to be fairly long and thus heavy. Another thing could be the orientation. Once again when I think of timing chains I think of them running mostly up-down. This means that gravity won't cause it to sag as much. Whereas with the boxer there has to be a lot of lateral length of chain. With a heavy chain, rather than a light belt, it might sag too much.

What are these? They look like brightly coloured dumbells with a hex socket on one side.

Just a couple of notes about my recent timing belt change on a 2000 RS Impreza. To start things, while trying to figure out the tooth count, I found a really useful little pdf file. It has the numbers for the replacement parts for, it seems, every subaru since 1990. It's an endwrench article and here it is: http://endwrench.com/oepropdf/maintenanceparts.pdf First, teeth counts: the book is wrong, every book I have heard about is wrong. It is NOT 40.5/44 tooth on the two sides. It is three more: 43.5/47, the marks on the timing belt are correct. I'm sure there are some engines out there that work with this belt, but the 2000 2.5L SOHC from an Impreza does not seem to be one of them. What doesn't help is that the Subaru shop manual states the lower, incorrect, figure. Everyone also seems to be able to use the lower, incorrect figure. Second, how to get the timing belt back on. The general consensus seems to be to remove just one pulley, the cogged one sitting right next to the water pump. You should definitely remove this one to get the belt off, it gives you heaps of slack and makes it real easy. It's a pain to get back on, though. It's easier to take of the other, lower pulley as well. Then put the belt on and then the cogged pulley, lastly put the other lower pulley back on. This gives you just a little more slack, when you are fiddling round to try get the cogged one in. The little bit of slack you gain makes it so much easier, it's then really simple to put the other pulley back in. This length of belt is now the longest possible and really asy to deflect and put the last pulley back on. Third, make sure you get that tension belt fully compressed and don't put something that will flex in it. I started with something that flexed a little (only about 2-3mm, but enough). This made it almost impossible to get the belt back on. I used the largest (it was SAE) hex key I could fit in. If it's thick enough it won't flex and will work. The tiny amount of flex meant the belt wouldn't go back on. Fourth, make sure you move the rubber seal from the old water pump to the new, if you change it. Fifth, make sure you take of the camshaft sprocket before you take off the timing belt. The last two allowed me to perfect the timing belt replacement. I ended up doing it 3 times in a week. The big thing I want to emphasize is that you can ignore the teeth counts. Just look at the belt and line it up with the sprockets. It should come close to the marks on the engine, but might be off by a cog or a half.

Sorry to bring up this old thread, but I just searched and found this; I have the exact same issue. The belt I ordered has 47/43.5 teeth and the manual (the factory subaru one) calls for 44/40.5 teeth. The OEM belt I ordered has the markings for 47/43.5. I've also installed it at 47/43.5 and everything lines up perfectly, I haven't run the engine yet; I'm still finishing. I also manually cranked the engine through a few revolutions and I didn't hear anything hit. I'm posting this just to let everyone know that the documentation out there looks wrong. This is with a 2000 subaru impreza RS.

I had already drained the coolant (water pump), so it was a 2 second thing todo. I also like the little bit of extra room. I tried the hammer thing before I sent out the message, I used the same bar, I just hit it right near the bottom. For the curious, the reason the shorter bar will work better for the hammer trick is twofold. Firstly there is less flex in the whole ensemble, this means the force you apply with the hammer will be a really sharp spike. The flex will average out the force and give you a smoother curve. There is also a larger range of motion: a 1" movement on a short handle translates to a lot more than 1" of motion at the end of 5' of pipe. If the bar is too long you might not overcome the flex and so really just may as well be bumping it with your hand. My plane for my next day off is to use the starter motor trick. I've been trying to wake my roommate up with this whole process and that may just finally do it.

My Timing beltapalooza has hit a serious snag. The radiator, fans, accessory belts are all off, but the damn crank pulley is stuck, and I mean stuck. it's a manual transmission, so we tried to put it in 5th and undo the bolt with a 22mm socket, 1/2" rachet and 5' cheater pipe over the end. All we suceeded in doing was making the clutch slip and bending the pipe. It's a really good way to bend the pipe if anyone needs to do that. I've read about a couple of other ideas: 1. bumping the starter motor with a ratchet against the ground/frame. This one scares me, lefty loosey and righty tighty, which way the engine goes, etc. Also the fact that this just smells like a disaster waiting to happened. 2. Jam something in the flywheel, and then undo it. Will this work with a manual? I am not sure how to get through the cars protective layers and see the damn thing. Any hints on where it is would be great. 3. Buy the special tool, be manly and just pull/push. This will probably be expensive and mean my baby is stuck until the tool arrives. It's a 2000 2.5 litre engine, on an Impreza. I believe the things torqued to something around 120 foot pounds, so do I have any chance at all? I'mnot sure what to try next, so any hints will be great.

I have a 2000RS (SOHC), with about 120k miles in salty PA on the odometer. I don't think the timing belt has ever been changed; I got it after it should have been changed, but the V-belts look old and I can't see any evidence it has been changed. Apart from that she's in great shape, well maintained and looking good for another 120k. So I've resolved to go ahead and change the timing belt. I'll also replace the V-belts and the water pump while I'm in there. The question is what else should I swap over? I don't mind getting back in there to have to do more work, I just don't want something important breaking while I'm driving and taking the timing out. I have nightmares about pistons colliding with valves. One question is the belt tensioner, I think I can get access to a press to reset it, but should I do this, or should I just suck it up and replace it with a new one? Also the idler pulleys, I've heard some people talk about these going and I really don't want them to. It also looks like it will cost over $100 to get the new ones, which seems alot for plastic pulleys, but hey what do I know. Lastly, I've heard talk of cam and crank seals, but these seem like they would be a real pain to get out? I've searched back through the archives and alot of opinion seems divided, so I'll probably just get the whole range again by re-asking, but what the hell.