hankosolder2

If worst comes to worst, you could install an 02 sensor simulator circuit going to the rear 02 sensor wiring. It will simulate the normal output of an 02 sensor mounted on a car with functioning converters! I don't know if you can find them commercially, but I saw a schematic somewhere online. You'd need a buddy who was somewhat skilled with electronics to assemble it.... Nathan

The rear 02 sensor shouldn't have any effect on your gas mileage. It's simply there to verify the proper functioning of the catalytic converter and set a check engine light in the event of a faulty cat. I'd check the coolant temp sensor (if it has failed, it's like driving a carburated car with the choke on!) and the front 02 sensor. You could also have dribbling injectors or a faulty fuel pressure regulator. Good luck with both the car and the job market. Nathan

You could always wire a multi-pole relay in series with the lines going to the OBD2 port so it breaks the connection when the car is off. Don't know the pinout of an OBD2 port, but I'd imagine there's +5, data, ground and a few other pins for good measure....

re: identifying EJ22. You can look at the exhaust ports - if there's two on each cylinder head, it's a 1995 or earlier engine. You can pull the valve covers and inspect the rocker arms. If there are screw adjusters for valve clearance, it's a '97 or newer engine. If it has hydraulic lash adjusters, it's earlier. Very late 2.2s (1999+) are "Phase 2" engines. I believe the spark plugs are in a different location and these use different intake manifolds, but I don't know. Some Subaru engines have the VIN from the car stamped on them (think it's down low by where the bellhousing would mount.) If you can find a VIN, you can run a Carfax and see exactly what car it came out of. Nathan

Glad it's running OK for you again and thanks for sharing the picture. It's an odd failure, for sure and I think your mechanic would have seen some galling on the cam "bearings" if there had been a seizure. Metal fatigue perhaps? Interestingly enough, the Rover P6 2000 TC (the car in my avatar) was known for snapping the camshaft if revved very hard when not under load. There's just a touch too much torsional loading or some such thing. Hard metal tends to be brittle.... Nathan

Ahem, I believe I was the first to mention cam bearing seizure in post #17! No big thing. Might just be the safest bet to go for a good used engine, they're not that expensive. Nathan

Does the inspector shut the car off, or do you shut the car off? I think here (IL) they ask you to shut it off. You leave the ignition switch on, flip your ignition cut switch to the off position (the engine dies) you turn your cut switch back on again. The car won't restart as the engine is stopped. Chances are when the inspector goes to start the car, they'll just turn the ignition key from "on" to "start" and you'll pass fine. That was my plan, perhaps I didn't spell it out enough. Of course this method is dependent on the tester and how observant or not they are.

I think it would be better to cut the ignition. If you cut the fuel pump, the engine could misfire as it runs out of fuel and set a cylinder misfire code. The coil has a common +12 wire you could interrupt. I'm always a bit nervous about switching an inductive load on a running car, due to voltage spikes from back EMF. Worst case, you'd fry your ECM. Nathan

Do let us know what your mechanic finds!

I think the "fuelling" issue is a blind alley. Let's put it this way- the compression issue is a bigger problem and there's no way any electrical issues are going to cause low compression. Is it possible that the cam sprocket came disengaged from the camshaft? I think there's an indexing pin... if you had a partial cam bearing siezure or something, I wonder if it could have sheared the pin and whacked out the cam timing on that side. Your engine (from the pictures) is a single port one, so it's possible it is interference. I think the change to an interference engine went with the change to solid (manual) lash adjusters. You could pull a valve cover off and see if you have screw adjusters on the end of your rocker arms or not. Nathan

A thought- it's definitely possible that you have a faulty coolant temp sensor for the gauge. I have seen the failure mode (in BMWs) where 2 degrees of temperature difference determines if the gauge is in the middle or pegged! Here's an idea. Since the temp sensor for the engine control computer and the gauge are separate, if you can, borrow a scan gauge and drive around with it attached. You can read out what the ECM's temp sensor is saying (in degrees) and compare it to what your dash gauge is reading out. Or, you could just change the temp sensor for the gauge and see what happens.

Remember that your brakes use essentially the same friction material as your clutch. Could have a dragging caliper, rusted sliders etc. When you notice the smell, touch your wheels near the lug nuts and see if one feels much hotter than the other of the pair (i.e. the fronts are normally hotter than the rears, but the balance should be equal left-right.) Normally, you will notice clutch slippage before you start getting burning clutch odors. I'm not convinced the problem is your clutch. Nathan

Glad to hear you got it sorted out. The clutch hydraulics are probably good for another ten years now. Nathan

Well, I'd have concerns about exceeding the max weight, and the biggest concern would be liability. If some idiot pulls a stupid manouver which causes you to crash, your insurer could deny coverage, etc. I wonder if it would be possible to upgrade the towing capacity on a car "by the book." If you did a brake upgrade, tire upgrade and a suspension upgrade and had the results certified by an engineer somehow.... I'd say go for the lighter one or get (buy/borrow) a different tow vehicle. I did a bit of research on this as my parents were initially hoping to tow a small travel trailer/camper with a car and let me tell you- the towing limits on modern cars are really low. Volvo is one of the few companies which have decent towing capacity. Even American V-8 land yachts had towing ratings in the low 2000s. Nathan

The thing to consider is what I think statisticians refer to as "selection bias." Obviously, more people on internet forums are there looking for solutions to problems than mentioning the non-news that their car is running trouble free, so it's not really an accurate representation of what you might expect to encounter with a particular model. It's easy to say "hey, there's 50 threads on head gaskets, this car must be some kind of dog" but when you consider that hundreds of thousands of these cars were sold, the percentages look better. I'm no fan of the EJ25, especially in phase I form, but there are tons of these cars on the road providing reliable transportation for their owners. Having said that, there's also selection bias in the used car market- cars which need an expensive repair and which have non-obvious symptoms which may not reveal themselves in a short test drive are often unloaded by the unscrupulous, so when you buy a used Subaru with this engine you need to be extra vigilant. Nathan

I would be focusing on the coolant temp sensor and associated wiring. If the computer thinks the car is stone cold, it will be kicking it up into high idle. There are some large multi-pin connectors located on the passenger side of the engine/transmission junction. I would inspect those very carefully for corrosion, damage. Chances are your wiring problem (if there is one) is on the engine side. Perhaps the 2.2 engine and engine wiring harness was sitting in a junkyard outside or in a leaky shed and got wet...corroded connectors, etc. The sensor itself may be faulty. The idle air motor may also be sticking. Dealers don't know much about engine swaps, but I can assure it will run perfectly with the 2.5 ecm and matching parts. I have one so swapped which is sitting in my driveway! Nathan

Setright- I don't think that anyone is arguing that ABS is a detriment to stopping in dry conditions, which is where your static coefficient of friction vs. dynamic really comes into play. I think (and I may be wrong about this) that the spread between static and dynamic friction for icy and snowy surfaces is much smaller than it is in dry conditions. Add other factors, such as the ability of a locked up tire to create a helpful-to-stopping "snow wedge" and the advantage of ABS becomes a disadvantage.

I think there was a bulletin about this...could also be due to the clutch hose collapsing internally and acting like a check valve. (keeps pressure on the slave cylinder which is like pressing your foot on the pedal) Replace the hose 1st, or just wipe the system out and replace the master, slave and hose. Once hydraulic parts get to the age where one fails, the others are usually close behind.

Well, the simple fact is that cars equipped with ABS have essentially equal (actually slightly higher) crash rates than cars without. All sorts of explanations have been given (drivers are scared by the pedal feedback and back off, people compensate for the 'added safety of ABS' by driving faster etc.) I think it's just not as great a boon as one would think. The simple fact of the matter is that sometimes stopping in the shortest distance (& or spinning out) is better than maintaining directional control. Generally in an evasive situation, most drivers choose one strategy (i.e. swerve OR brake.) I honestly can't recall a situation where I felt the need to do both simultaneously. The things which vex me are a.) that it's not switchable b.) the threshold speed is set way too low...it should cut out below 10 mph, not 5mph. c.) too sensitive to bumpy surfaces d.) too sensitive to worn shocks/struts. Nathan

Nipper- you were right the first time! None of the early hydraulic clutch vehicles had hill holder. Since this is a Legacy with a 5MT, it's almost definitely a 2.2L with a cable operated clutch. The last of the cable operated clutches in the Legacy line was the '99 2.2 5MT Legacy. The hydraulic clutches were only on 2.5 L vehicles (all post '96 OBWs for example.)

At this point I would bypass the dealer and start talking to the Subraru zone rep or Subaru of America directly. There's no reason for a bolt like that to fail short of a metalurgical flaw or overtorquing- both of which would be manufacturer's defects. Lobby hard for a goodwill adjustment.

I think that 1/8" play on the crankshaft sprocket is the cause of your poor running, though of course if your timing belt is off a tooth it will run even worse. The ignition is fired by the crank and cam position sensors, so even slight misalignment will not only mess with the valve timing but the ignition timing as well. There has been some discussion on here about the various means of repairing this issue- you could do a search and see what comes up. Nathan

The length of hose can be a big factor. I agree with GD- the limiting factor is not the compressor unless it has to run continuously while you're using the impact wrench.

From what I've heard there are two EGR related codes. One pertains to the presence or absence of the EGR solenoid (i.e. it's looking for continuity from the solenoid's coil) and there's another code for EGR flow. It's easy to fake out the first one (you could just use a resistor equal in value to the EGR solenoid's coil) and difficult to fake out the EGR flow sensor. Evidently, the computer looks for a shift in manifold vacuum (via the MAP sensor) when the EGR valve is open to verify that exhaust gasses are flowing through the EGR valve. Nathan

Thanks!