daeron

+1, and +1 on the idea.. maybe mount htem magnetically, and make it so they can be unplugged.. then just stick them in the back of the car and set them up as needed. Down here in South Florida, "blizzard safety" is far from on my mind, but we get rainstorms in the summer that are like the whole of the everglades dumping down upon our heads. The more signalling, the merrier if you ask me... but as for normal, sunny day driving.. I think I too will pass.

The short version is: the HLAs tick when they are not functioning properly; either not filling up with oil pressure as they should, or they are stuck in one position. You CAN get this TOD simply by being a quart or two low on oil; so always check oil level first. The longer version: A: Not Functioning properly Over time they DO get old; and develop a tendency towards ticking long before they are dead. There is a check ball inside of them that allows oil pressure in, but does not allow it out (until the engine cools, someone please correct me on exactly what lets the oil pressure out) This check ball can get a little bit of crud stuck in it, which is the thinking behind the Marvel Mystery Oil, Seafoam, or ATF in your oil. These either ARE or CONATIN detergents and solvents that help clean gunk out of every nook and cranny of your engine.. and the HLAs are one of those "nooks." They CAN also be worn to the point of needing to be replaced. This occurs mostly in an engine that has blown headgaskets in the past, and gotten water into the crankcase; or some other similar type of major engine problems causing an overhaul. Generally speaking, "dead" HLAs don't go back and forth, they tick loudly all the time and no amount of seafoam or whatever makes them stop. you CAN get away with just replacing the faulty ones, but chances are that they went south for a reason; Apparently they are NOT incredibly expensive. NOW, for B: Low oil pressure also causes them to tick aggravatingly, and no amount of seafoam will make them stop. However, generally in this situation, the tick varies in sound with RPM and can go away or come back seemingly at random... until you start analyzing the driving and engine conditions under which the noise comes and goes. There is a seal that loyale 2.7 Turbo mentioned in the oil pump that can very easily go bad, collapsing on itself and obstructing the output passageway of the oil pump. The pump seals themselves also go bad, and sometimes the pumps simply need to be replaced rather than re sealed. Our oil pressure gauges are worth dog snot, so unless you have a reliable, mechanical oil pressure gauge you cannot really rule this possibility out. Oil pump repair is NOT a difficult job. I think I have touched on most of the important bits; anyone who would like to chime in to expand or correct the information I have laid out here, feel free. MOST of it is more or less hearsay on my part, but we have ALL experienced the TOD in one of its manifestations. Fellow members, lets try to keep superfluous responses to this thread to a minimum; Good information and tips is one thing, but lets not let it get too off base.... Mods, I think this thread would make an EXCELLENT sticky or USRM post for TOD; we REALLY REALLY need one so that we can just point to a good, thorough discussion anytime it comes up. TOD is discussed SO often that searching (as our friend here discovered) is a VERY daunting task before you can really find good information about it.

Ahh Dennis Leary.. "Pull the bong over, man, I wanna take a hit" Seriously, though, it DOES lead to the hard stuff.. cigarettes. *cough*

to paraphrase the great Forrest Gump, "That's all there is to say about that." LEAVE THE COVERS OFF!!!!!

it could be as simple as valve cover gaskets. The only good way to track down an oil leak is to THOROUGHLY degrease the engine.. this can be something of a pain. I could NOT get my engine clean until I did my headgaskets, and had it all torn apart... that being said, simply taking off the alternator, and unbolting the AC compressor makes accessing the actual longblock MUCH easier.. Get a couple of cans of Gunk engine brite, and an old toothbrush or two, and start working. Try to cover up the distributor and any electronic components to avoid difficulty starting it later.. but clean the engine till it shines, then watch for the leaks to start showing themselves again. They show up more starkly if you clean the engine when you are already due for an oil change.. that way the old oil leaks out all black and nasty, and you can see it better. Once you get the engine clean, you can post back here with where you find leaks, and we can help you trace where the oil may be leaking from based on where you see it. Just remember, it WILL all find its way to the bottom most point, eventually.. so just because you see oil dripping off your oilpan, say, does NOT mean you need a new oil pan gasket.. Trace the leak up to the HIGHEST point that gets dirty, and that is where its coming from. Tracking down oil leaks is another argument in favor of running without timing belts covers, because if a cam seal or the crank seal is leaking you won't be able to tell for certain without taking the covers off, and thats alot of work to go through if you do so, and find no signs of oil leakage underneath them. I have discovered that 90% of the oil on my driveway is coming from my transmission, and my power steering pump, and the other 10% is the valve cover gaskets. They are solid as a rock, and I tried using some hylomar on them when I put everything back together, but it still seeps out slowly. The oil coming from the trans may be tranny fluid, but more likely its a rear main seal.

+1000 My first car was a 92 geo storm hatchback. It had a 12 valve, 1.6liter isuzu engine in it, non interference THANK GOD. Why, how do I know this? The timing belt broke on my way down to boca raton to register for college at Florida Atlantic University, beginning what was to wind up being (for many, MANY other reasons) what I call frankly, the worst night of my life. So when it happened, all I knew was "it broke." It didnt take long for my dad to diagnose a broken timing belt, and I wound up repairing it at my friends house. This was about fifty miles driving distance from where I lived at the time, so towing was more than I could afford. We could NOT get the crankshaft pulley off. No way, no how. I had to tow it off in the end anyhow.. to my brother's house. We did EVERYTHING We could to get the bloody pulley off, and STILL couldnt do it.. so we just broke an aluminum flange that covered the bottom half of the sprocket, and slipped the belt on that way. I replaced my water pump, and my camshaft oil seal that that time; the logic was, timing belt broke because of a bad oil seal. Unfortunately, we couldnt do the crank seal because we couldnt get the pulley off. Fast forward FOUR THOUSAND MILES... belt snapped again. this was only two months later.. so I replaced it again, and got my brother to pop the thing off by driving to his shop and letting him use his big 3/4 inch air gun to loosen it. I replaced the oil seal, and another timing belt, and thought i was fine. Fast forward FOUR THOUSAND MILES.. belt pops AGAIIN!! THIS time, before it popped the car had started running VERY erratically.. hard to describe. Actually its not far from what my subaru is doing now.. (but it IS different) The reason was obvious.. the woodruff key, and its associated groove on the timing belt sprocket, had worn loose and buggered up the oil seal. So I went to the dealership and bought a new sprocket, woodruff key, and bolt, replaced the oil seal and timing belt AGAIN. Fast forward four thousand miles.. the car started running rough again, just like it had before I did the woodruff key. My other brother did a little research on the internet (still kinda new to me, a school thing not a home thing yet at the time) and discovered that these isuzu engines have an issue where the crankshaft can just kinda start eating these things.. Fortunately, my '75 280Z-to-be showed up parked on my parents corner just then, for $300. SOLD!!! I'll take the timing chain, thank you very much! My point was that yes, oil kills timing belts like I kill mosquitoes.. ruthlessly, and as fast as I can make contact. The pro-chain remark there at the end was more Datsun>Geo than anything else... I got to be a real professional at doing the T belt on that thing, though..

A+ good job!! body work is one of the most meticulous, detail oriented parts of working on a car, and you seem to have something of a knack there.

it really depends on how the gasket is blown. If you are getting coolant into your oil crank case, then driving it is BAD BAD. If you are say, bubbling cylinder compression into your radiator, and you arent getting ANY coolant contamination into your oil, then you may well be OK. I ran with a blown headgasket for about 10,000 miles.. BUT I was 110% POSITIVE that it wasnt getting ANY water into my oil. That being said, I am having problems with my car now, but I do NOT think they are at all related to the headgasket issue.... but the only way for me to KNOW my bottom end is OK would be for me to tear it apart and inspect the crank bearings... I knew my headgasket was blown because I knew my radiator was good, water pump, all hoses... but I was bubbling into my overflow after the car had been running for say, thirty seconds, and bubbling CONSTANTLY. I was adding about 1-2 quarts of water per day, and as long as I kept the radiator full I was fine. Of course, an overheat can warp the heads, too, which would mean that you just plain old couldnt run the thing.. Are you using antifreeze in your radiator?? if so, drain the oil into an open pan and see if you can see any antifreeze in the oil. If you see ANYTHING in there, then I would NOT run the engine anymore until you get it fixed... IF you have the tools to do it, the headgaskets CAN be done with the engine in the car. The most vital tool is a ratcheting 12mm box wrench for the valve covers.. particularly the back bolt on the D/S one.... They are available in a set from harbbor freight for like, 15 bucks. It took me one full but easy-going day to disassemble, a day or two between to clean stuff and get the heads checked and milled, and another easy-going day of re assembly and it fired up on the first shot. just make sure to label all hoses and wires.. use fel pro perma torque HGs.. get the cam case O ring from http://www.thepartsbin.com and use dealer intake manifold gaskets.

Oh. Yah. Duh. Thanks. I hadnt gotten that far yet... I just tried swapping fuel pumps and its the same deal.. I snagged a coil wire out of the car in the boneyard, too.. that made no difference... I guess I ought to confirm my O2 wire.. i dont believe i didnt think of that. I hadnt even gotten so far as asking myself "how do i check if this is the wire?" I had vaguely thought of trying the continuity check, but not really with the front of my brain yet. thanks again cougar..

ALLRIGHT... I thought I was confused and lost BEFORE!!! I just had a MAJOR brain fart, and was conducting all these tests, and getting matching voltage between the ECU pin and the O2 sensor end of the wire.... BUT I WAS CHECKING THE WRONG PIN ON THE ECU!! I read Gloyales remark about the O2 sensor pin being #34, the fourth pin in from the right, bottom level, with the lock tab pointing up, large yellow connector... I went and checked the fourth pin in from the LEFT, which my 89 FSM says should be the clear memory connector...... BUT... it was showing me just what my O2 sensor was showing me, 0.21 volts! the fourth pin in from the RIGHT, as Gloyale indicated, is showing me BATTERY voltage?!?????? WTF??? what is going on here? what color should the wire for my O2 sensor be at the ECU end? Should it match the color of the wire on the sensor end?? Im gonna go swap my fuel pump and see what happens.... Anyone in the south florida area with a sidearm, please feel free to swing by and put a bullet or two in my head. It might help relieve the headache...

Okay, so I warmed the car up in the driveway... since the ECU was dangling i didnt feel like taking it for an actual DRIVE to ensure the O2 sensor was warmed up, but I ran it at about 2K RPM in the driveway with the AC on full blast for about two minutes. I figure thats enough load to make it hot??? am I right in that, or should I tack the ECU back into place and go for a real drive? Anyhow, presuming that what I did was OK, i got puzzling results. the voltage at the specified connector (fourth in, from the right, on the large yellow connector, with the lock tab up) was 0.21 pretty steady at idle.. and I couldnt get it to move much at all. It didnt go below that, (not much anyhow) but thumping the gas did nothing more than raise it MAYBE to .25 volts. When I cut it off, it returned to zero, when I turned the key back to on it read 0.21 before I started the engine.. WHILE i was cranking it peaked up to like, 0.32 or so... then once it was running it settled back down to 0.21. I guess I can take this as a "lean" conditiion? I am gonna go back and test the same voltage at the wire plugging into the O2 sensor and see what I get, then try swapping my fuel pumps. Will post an update when I get more info, any further comments are naturally appreciated.

I have read issues where the temperature gauge indicated a high temp because of voltage drain from having the AC on as well... was your AC off when you got it home and let it idle? I don't want to "set you at ease" or anything, the radiators and cooling systems on these cars DO need to be well maintained or your engine will not be happy.. BUT there is a possibility that your "high temp reading" was caused by a voltage issue and not a temp issue. I believe GD was the one who informed me of this; it may be more of an older car issue but it may not be. Regular analog dash, right? Like I said, I may be off base even mentioning this possibility.. so do NOT disregard warnings about radiator/cooling system issues.. just bear in mind that this is also a possibility.

sea foam deep creep leaves PB Blaster in the dust. Just like PB Blaster did to WD-40 when it came out. Sea Foam Deep Creep really is that much better, IMO. it COSTS more, to be sure, but so did Blast when it came out.. and the deep creep just eats rust for a light snack. it doesnt go away over time; I have taken frozen diagonal cutters, freed them up with deep creep, (they felt like NEW) and left them outside under a canopy for like, eight months, picked them up and when I moved the pliers back and forth a couple of times, deep creep started seeping out of the box joint... and they still felt like new. PB Blaster, I can get the same results, short term.. but in a month the pliers are sticky and rusty again.

That was sort of my point.. number four should ALWAYS be working, if the resistor pack is your problem... Well, you should be able to trace the electricity down once you get there.. I presume you get the same symptom with either switch? I would start suspecting wires then, and go down to the resistor block and see if you are getting 12VDC at the input side of the resistor, given the state of the switch... I may be wrong regarding only two resistors, there may be an individual resistor for each of the lower three speeds.. but hi speed is un resisted, as it were.. I was about two inches away from making up a grounding strap for my own sipwer motor earlier this afternoon.. i get an issue with my variable intermittents, if they are set at anything faster than very very slow, they kinda go spastic.. part way up, stop, little more, stop, then all the way up and back to park.... the little intermittents that could I took a nap instead of installing the wire, :-\

Fine?? how fine if it let the temp get up to 260? this sounds like a hard boiled idea to me... besides, pepper smells better.

wow, compression numbers like that are something to be proud of after 250K miles. Just make sure you keep that radiator nice and clean, running antifreeze in it instead of water. You want to protect those headgaskets, since they are doing a bang up job and have been doing so for so long. This reminds me, I need to go flush my radiator again.

it IS on the passenger's side... but the lines enter the cabin on the driver's side. Pull your spare tire, and look for two parallel hoses, about 5/8" diameter, running roughly just above the DS head gasket.. i forget how far forward they go and I am not looking at my engine bay right now, but they both go into the firewall between the transmission tunnel and the brake master cylinder. if your floorboards are wet on the driver's side, I would inspect that area thoroughly.. and pressure test or no, check it when its running and hot, with a laser pointer to see if you see any stem or mist. the water is coming from somewhere, if their pressure test missed it then thats just one more reason not to go back to that place

i THINK i am right in both of these points.... For one thing, I have heard that adding a ground wire between the wiper motor body and the chassis can help sometimes with parking issues? Havent tried it, havent had to.. but regarding the resistor pack, my understanding is that there is a resistor pack with two resistors on it... No resistors in circuit, 4 (hi speed) small resistor in circuit, 3 large resistor in circuit 2 both resistors in circuit 1 so, two resistors, four speeds... again, this is me reading and repeating, not speaking from experience. but the ground wire for the wiper motor is simpler than disassembling it.. just test the idea with a short piece of wire stripped at both ends; if it fixes it make it permanent. hope this helps..

well, you know... i went and got two threads confused, I THOUGHT i had already mentioned that in the one where it was actually apropriate... no, youre right. My foot is in my mouth Sometimes I brainstorm and try coming up with "more" ideas without re reading the whole thread. my bad. the positive pressure test should have eliminated that kind of stuff.. BUT was it done with the engine warm? Anyhow, if you are smelling coolant when you drive, and coolant is disappearing from your radiator, you may have a leaky heater core. One way to test this would be to bypass the thing entirely for a little while, IF that is an option.. just splice the two hoses entering the firewall between the center of the car and the brake master, together. One is supply and one return from the heater core. If your smell goes away, and you keep your coolant where it belongs, then you've ruled that out, too.

Wow, I had thought that was a water pipe... oops, huh? Okay now... from what I gather the car needs to be WELL warmed up (not just operating temperature but driven to warm up the O2 sensor.) for me to check that.. and I just jam my positive multimeter lead into the designated pin on the ECU? I take it that I can unbolt the ECU and let it dangle for the purposes of this test.. or does it get its ground from being bolted down? I don't want to fry my ECU here. I took the EGR valve off; it had some carbon caked up on the inside of the valve, around the stem area. However, it moved freely when I sucked on the vacuum line supply to it, it returned immediately to its closed position when i let go, and when it was closed it was a complete blockoff; so unless my solenoid is malfunctioning the valve seems to be A-okay. as always, i appreciate everyone holding my hand as I walk through the last bits of unexplored territory in my search to heal the stumble. I will try to get some video of me driving the car today; I finally remembered to throw the batteries for the digi onto the charger last night.

Now I have zero towing experience with a subaru.. and honestly, I would consider it more than do-able as long as you feel the chassis can reliably mount that kind of load.. BUT I do have to play devil's advocate here and point out that the owners manual specifically says not to use your subaru to tow anything. Like I said, I wouldnt hesitate to haul a boston whaler around with the soob by any means. (well, not MINE.. 2wd 3at.. but with a 4-wheeler...) If it is going to get away from you, you ought to know quickly enough; but it sounds like other people have had perfectly OK experiences doing what you are talking about.

handy way to check for steam or mist from a pinhole leak in the cooling system: park in a darkened garage, or wait till night time... get the engine good and warm/hot.. and get a laser pointer and point all through the engine bay. that should show up any cloud of water vapor, whether mist or steam. good luck

I just re read this whole thread from the beginning, and must apologize to you cougar; I've asked, and you've answered about the solenoids at least twice now, and somehow missed that... I am starting to do something right now; im gonna inspect the EGR valve and look into the O2 sensor voltage at the ECU terminal. It would be INFINITELY easier for me right now to fabricate a wooden block off "plate" to rule out the egr system than anything metal.. no stock lying around the house, yanno. How stupid would that be? obviously it would only be UTTERLY temporary, IE i discover this fixes it and promptly go to shop to make one out of metal... I seem to have missed answering questions about potential intake or vacuum leaks; I have very thoroughly, carefully, and slowly listened throughout this engine bay with a 3/8 inch tube in one ear, and the other end fished around every cubic inch of the engine bay. I inspected all the vacuum lines etc when taking the heads off; the ONLY "issue" is that the PCV hoses are all old and hard, but they still seal up decently. One question about this EGR thing.. I have read the relevant sections in the FSM now and cant figure out where the exhaust gas that the valve lets into the intake COMES from! all I see is the valve, on a kinda rusty steel base bolted onto a flange on the intake manifold. There is a vacuum line connected to it. How does exhaust get to the valve to be allowed in? I guess I should just take the thing off and I will see. Can you tell this is the first time I have ever needed to look at an EGR system?

THAT is a story I would like to hear sometime.... there is something about school buses that always made me want to buy one and turn it into.. you name it. Party vehicle, RV of my own creation (GOD i have so many ideas in that folder) race vehicle, what EVER... Be careful; you might want to make sure that there is good strong metal frame on the bottom to weld a tailgate to in the first place. It MIGHT not be strong enough to take the kind of weight that will be rested on a tailgate without more extensive fabbing than you are really willing to get into. I don't know anything about it myself, but I thought I would add the thought to the fire and see what happened.