blitz

On second though, I think it may be the sound of the main pressure solenoid duty-cycling. The electronic tranny adjusts the shift-firmness according to throttle position.

I appears that the SVX was a little ahead of it's time (and a little over-priced).

Kevin, curious as to whether you'd done a water-only type cooling system flush at any point prior to the failure? I've been reading stories about pump/seal failure shortly after water-only type flushing. Apparently running the pump (even for a short period) without the lubricating agents of the coolant does a number on it.

I get that on my 4EAT vehicle. I always assumed it was sound the duty-cycle of solenoid "C" in action. In order to control analog fluid pressure to the rear clutch, it needs to be rapidly pulsed (buzzed) with a variable duty-cycle the same way that fuel injectors are. So if you tell me that you have a manual trans then then I'm completely wrong.

POLITICAL RANT ON: Frankly it's both parties, technically a criminal conspiracy if you will ...a power struggle between various wealthy global factions that instinctively masquerade behind nationalism (because it's a highly effective means of swaying the peasant groupthink). Both political parties are crooked as hell. Elected representatives are in the pockets of the global corporate interests. They don't give as rat's rectum about their constituency. POLITICAL RANT OFF: Now that I got that out of the way IMO the only difference between the left bank and the right bank (from a mechanical standpoint) is the direction of the force of gravity relative to the thrust surface. The left bank has it's thrust surface facing down toward the ground (with gravity) and the right bank has it's thrust surface facing up (opposing gravity). I wouldn't seem unreasonable that the wrist-pin postion of upward-facing bank's been shifted slightly on the "countermeasure" pistons to help offset the rocking (slapping) motion. Cookie do you happen to know which bank Subaru replaces with the improved part? I'm thinking the right side. Was it Chrysler (back in the 60's?) that used to have a motor with an offset pin to combat a slapping problem, the trade-off being a certain amount of power loss? Racers would turn the pistons around to pick up 10 hp and a whole-lotta slap.

It's left wing conspiracy.

I had a rattle in my passenger front door. The speaker was loose.

Scott, you're right ...it's not on the Nokian site.

From the same article: "Erich Merkle, a senior auto analyst with the consulting company IRN Inc., said '...GM failed to leverage its partnership with Subaru'." Phew... thank god for small miracles. That was a close call. :-p

I was thinking of trying this tire. The price/performance ratio looks unbeatable. Yokohama has a solid record.

24/30 in my 2.2 OBS 5-manual (2865 lbs.).

I'm not having any luck finding data on this "non-metallic studded thing", please expound.

LOL! The styling really does have GM written all over it. Looking at the styling cues, I'd swear GM is in the early stages of what will be the eventual consolidation of Subaru & Saab together into one division. Ironically, the reason GM styling lacks fluidity IMO is the lack of pencil drawings in favor of "focus group" design philosophy. The HHR is the obvious departure, but isn't truly as inpirational as it is just a direct ripoff of the PT. The HHR just might be the vehicle that keeps GM out of receivership over the next 5 years.

Rod-knock tends to get worse as the engine warms up, piston-slap tends to become less as the engine warms up. Rod-knock sounds like a regularly-spaced wooden thunk, piston-slap sounds like a plethora of 12 inch rulers knocking on walnut shells. Piston slap will tend to be more pronounced at one particular rpm and generally no load.

Good job, Lawsonmh15. I always like the photos. FWIW, the thing you have labeled "Some Kind Of Air Sensor" is the BAP (barometric air pressure) sensor.

re: Crappy Gas/ Lotsa people suddenly experiencing reduced mileage. "To ease gasoline shortfalls, the Bush administration relaxed rules on emissions and GASOLINE QUALITY this week." http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/rssstory.mpl/business/energy/3337948

In the last week alone I've seen at least six "strangely, my mileage just dropped" posts on various groups. It's gotta be off-spec fuel ...related to the hurricanes somehow.

Thanks Corky. That's pretty much all I could think of as well ...stuff like attachment points & brackets. It still doesn't make sense to me as to why that alone would warrant a different engine code tho. Oh well...

In the filter application guide at Pep Boyz I noticed that (excluding turbo) all Legacy-based 2.5 are EJ253, whereas all Impreza/ Forester-based 2.5 are EJ251. What's the difference?

Possibly the switch-over to winter blend gas?

Storydude1, in response to your comment: I offer partial dialog from someone who delivers fuel in Virginia/ North Carolina. Your return comments are appreciated: -------------------------------------------------------- "Some stations do not have dispensers with the capability of blending the premium and regular, so at these stations the midgrade is blended as it is loaded onto the tanker truck. Usually, if you see a blue colored ground tank cover that's a midgrade gasoline tank, which means that the pumps don't blend it; it's blended as it is loaded onto the truck. Some stations may have different color codes but the standard seems to be white caps for regular unleaded, blue for midgrade, and red for premium. Yellow would be diesel. But as mentioned, some stations may be different. You might look in some semi-conspicuous place on the station's front window or near where the ground tanks are located to see a tank color chart." --------------------------------------------------------- Then in response to your comment: I offer partial dialog from the same fuel delivery person: ----------------------------------------------------- "When Citgo, Chevron, Conoco, Amoco, Texaco, Shell, and the rest fill their huge terminal storage tanks the gas comes off the same pipeline at pretty much the same time. There is one exception: Amoco Ultimate Premium is refined an extra step, and it comes up the pipeline all by itself. Other company's 93 octane premium fuels (I don't know anything about Sunoco fuels as they aren't distributed in my area) are the same before the additives are injected into the gasoline when it is being loaded onto the transport tanker trucks." ----------------------------------------------------- This lends some credance to my observation that the Amoco 93 (now BP) gives me different performance than the Shell V-power 93 from across the street. Once again, I appreciate your return comments.

Here in Metro Detroit, Sunoco has always offered 5 choices at the pump, currently 86, 87, 89, 92, 94. Also, it was my understanding that Sunoco was the one that had a blend-pump to the exclusion of all others, but what do I know?

The subject of replacement engines came up and my buddy Sam threw out the figure of 50-60k apiece. He opined that at least half of that amount is designed to cover the effects of litigious society.

Ryan, do you know the basic Lycoming engine designation for this craft? I'd like to research into 'em a little bit. I find the constant-spray fuel-injection interesting.

Try a different brand of 89. When I use Shell of a given octane, I get more tendency to knock than when I use BP/Amoco, I have no idea why ...different formulation I 'spose. The other factor is the variability in the actual octane of "89" midgrade. A lot of retailers use the 89 as a repository for emptying the remainder of what's left in the tanker after filling the regular & premium tanks.