dfortin556

I have a leaky seal on my oil pan. I need to drop the oil pan but I can't get at the rear bolts. Are there any tricks to doing this or what do I have to remove to get at them. Thanks, Dave.

My 97 Impreza OBS seems to activate the ABS system randomly. It has increaslingly gotten worse and basically will kick in under all kind of braking conditions. I'm thinking that it is a sensor. I'm not very familiar with ABS. Where are these sensors, what do the look like and are they difficult to replace? I did replace the brakes already and this did not solve the problem. Thanks, Dave.

Here is a pretty good explanation that I found at http://www.delalbright.com/Products/products_awd.htm ALL WHEEL DRIVE: Definition: A vehicle where all four wheels are driven, but there's no transfer case like a four-wheel drive rig. Most AWD setups are full time systems for year-round driving, and use a viscous fluid coupling center differential instead of a transfer case to route drive torque to all four wheels. This allows the front and rear wheels to turn at slightly different speeds when turning on dry pavement. Most folks do not consider this the same as four-wheel drive. It can be useful (and more fuel economical) in pavement driving where you're mainly negotiating bad weather conditions. FOUR WHEEL DRIVE Definition: A method of driving a vehicle by applying engine torque to all four wheels thru the use of a transfer case, differentials and hubs. Various schemes are used for 4WD including part-time, full-time and variable four-wheel drive. To help cut the drive train drag (and reduced fuel economy) that most 4WD's have, a transfer case is included that allows the driver to select either two- or four-wheel drive depending on driving conditions. Some performance cars have full-time variable four-wheel drive and use a computer-controlled transfer case to route power between the wheels. It's important to note that even in 4WD, you still have only two driving wheels; one front; one rear. A normal passenger car is essentially one wheel drive, because the other one can slip. So a 4WD rig, with the front axle engaged, now has two wheels driving. Then if you add a locker to the rear, you've added one more wheel, to make your rig three-wheel drive. Add a locker to the front, so no tires can spin, and you have TRUE, 4-wheel drive, all four wheels driving.

It sounds like this may be a clogged catalytic converter. You mention it only happens when the car heats up. This happened to me on an older 88 subaru wagon that I owned. It was fine when it was cold, but after the exhaust heated up the colapsed elements in the cat heated up and expanded, blocking the airflow. When your on the gas you create enough pressure to keep air pushing through the exhaust pipe, but when you come to a stop or let off the gas the blockage chokes the engine. Or maybe someone just put a banana in your tailpipe! The way I found that this was the problem in my car, is that I was on a road trip at night and the car was acting up. When I looked under the car the entire exhaust was glowing red hot. Thank goodness I still had the heat shield on. I hope this helps.

Hello everyone! I just found this list and I'm excited! I own a 97 Impreza Outback Sport 2.2L with 212,000 miles on it. It still rocks but I just had it inspected and the Knock sensor code has come up. So I have two questions: (1) What does a knock sensor do? How does it's malfunction affect me? (2) Where do I find the knock sensor on this engine? TIA, Cheers, Dave.