billcow

It turns out the nut is a M14 fine-pitch (1.50) thread. Nobody seems to sell nuts that size. NAPA's measurement scale has a thread that size, but they don't sell the nuts, and the place they sent me (Fastenal) to told me to see if NAPA had them. I did a search on google, but all I could find in M14-1.50 were lugnuts. What the *%$%#&* can I do?!? I'm out of work until I can get my car fixed, and if it takes too much longer I'll be too broke to even buy a nut.

Did I mention that it's made mostly of plastic? The problem with it is that the bit where the hose to the intake duct attaches broke off, so instead of sucking in clean air (I think....) it's sucking in dirty, hot engine compartment air. Also, when the hose broke off I noticed that the wiring connector was disconnected. I don't know how that (or the disconnected hose) affected engine performance or not because I noticed both when I was changing the PCV valve (which helped performance quite a bit). As for the nut, I threw out the old ones because the "instructions" that came with the struts (a one-page diagram with five or six steps of written notes) stressed how important it was that I use new nuts (supplied for my convenience). How ironic that the nuts they gave me weren't self locking and therefore responsible for my problems. Anyway, I found a local store that had self-locking M14 nuts (paid $10 for a bag of 25, the only way I could get them) but they're too small. I never should have listened to the guy at Autozone who said the nut I brought was an M14 - even if nobody else disagreed with that guess. So now I have to figure out what size I really need. I don't have the slightest clue where to start, seeing as I've exhausted every store in town for clues. Anyone know what I'm looking for?

I have two questions regarding my '95 Impreza L (1.8l 5mt)... Firstly, I installed new struts and springs last month and since then, two of the strut mount nuts have backed off. The left-rear I caught before it was a problem, but the right-front, well, i'll just say i'm glad that the threads on the strut look okay. It looks like the problem was a lack of locking nuts (the nuts sent with the struts were non-locking, but the shop guide mentions the use of self-locking nuts). The problem is, I can't find anywhere to buy a nut in that size - it seems to be an M14, but every store I've been to only has M6-10, M12, and M16 (and most only had locking nuts in M10 and M12). I've got to get this fixed by friday or I'll be out of work another weekend (delivery). Where the @&%# can I find these nuts? The second, less pressing issue is that of what the subaru dealership called a "solenoid valve." the couldn't tell me what it did (the shop guide, which only covers the EJ22, EJ22T, and EJ25, mentions two solenoid valves, both of which can be clearly identified as something else on my engine) but only that it cost roughly $65 and was not kept in stock. It's bolted onto the intake above the #3 cylinder, has a plastic, threaded plug with a spring around it at the top (the spring appears to have no function, as neither the plug nor the lower seat of the spring moves) and two small hoses (roughly 3/8"), one running to the intake manifold, the other running to the intake duct between the filter and the TB. There is a wiring harness with three wires but I can't see the wires themselves without cutting the insulator wrapped around them. The engine does not seem to run any differently when the connector is unplugged, or when either hose is disconnected (as long as it is plugged off to avoid a vacuum leak), and seems to serve no purpose other than a holster for a hose useful to suck Seafoam through. And in my case, to allow a very small amount of unfiltered air to enter my intake duct.