subsince77

I have to agree that on a very steep and very slippery hill, I would put the extra holding power of chains on the back. For traction and steering I'd go with the front. I have a manual, so I think it is 50/50 all the time, but maybe that is wrong. Anyway, I would compare it to other situations that I have encountered riving down a very steep hill on caliche soil that was wet. It gets as slick as ice. In a regular 4wd pickup, we used to take it out of 4 wheel to descend that slope. That way you are not causing a braking force on the front wheels. The truck sort of hangs from the rear wheels and keeps going pretty straight. If you used 4wd, it would tend to spin or turn sideways. I might be comparing apples and oranges, but it would seem to me that chains on the back of an AWD Subby, would have the same effect, again, only on a very steep very slick situation like the one described by charm.

So we took off last week from our home in Western Colorado, for a Christmas visit to the in-laws in Albuquerque. It's about 320 miles, just one mountain pass, then 2 lane roads of various sizes and conditions. We were timing the trip between winter storms that have been hitting southern Colorado, and northern New Mexico one after another - many feet of snow in the last two weeks. I threw in the chains (cables) just in case, but I didn't expect to use them, and never did. The first 100 miles was all snowpacked and icy mountain driving, with a few Bighorn Sheep on the road for fun. We got over the pass and into the San Luis Valley. Down there the roads were cleared of snow, but the area had received a new 16 inches the night before. We were cruising along pretty good, then we hit the New Mexico line and thumped onto solid ice across the entire road surface. It was just like some one drew a line on the road at the state border. Colorado does a stellar job on winter road work - New Mexico not so much. It is often like this. So the next 75 miles were pure ice until we dropped to a lower elevation and left winter behind. But through it all, given the fact that we slow down as needed for road conditions (a concept all the people in the ditch seem to have missed), the Subbie is as surefooted as she can be. This year we actually have snow tires which is WONDERFUL. So now we are back, a new 18 inches in the driveway since we left. Run the Subaru through it, dig out the snowblower, clear the drive and the woodpile, and settle in for a long winter. Gotta love that Subaru.

I have cables, but have never used them. If i ever do they will go on the front, much better use of the chains. When I chain up my 4wd pickup I only chain the front wheels. It's the only way to go.

Where do you get that? I've just used spray.

Sorry, what is VDC?

What weight oil are you running? I use 5/30 all year, which is what the manual calls for anyway. I use an oil pan heater at 0 and below, but I have started the car at -25 without the heater. It turned over a little slow, but started fine. The heater makes a huge difference. How many mornings do you get at 5 degrees in Tennessee? Might not be worth doing too much other than a good battery and good oil, which are both nice to have anyway. The door freeze on Subarus is a big pain. I fight it all the time. Many here say silicon, that has never helped me much. I had to re-glue all my weather-stripping last year. I have had to crawl in from whatever door I could open a number of times. I'd like to find a good solution to that myself. Luckily, once it gets really cold out, staying below zero a lot, it never melts enough to get the door wet, so it doesn't start freezing again until early spring.

The little black plastic mounting bracket for my radio antenna is cracked a little - could it be leaking a small amount of electrical pulse that is traveling into the car and tricking the ECU into thinking it is hearing a misfire? Hey, seriously, this is sad, but I know I have read that there were some ECUs in this vintage that had problems. Yes, I did already replace the ECU with another used one, would there be any point in throwing another one at it? Probably not. I was thinking about the rest of the wiring that runs through the firewall too. I have no motivation to even think about attacking that now. The car runs SO WELL! We drove about 60 miles today doing some X/C skiing. It purrs like a kitten. Actually, for some reason, with the new intake it even idles smoother - my wife even noticed it. Ya just have to ignore the light. Thanks for the interest everybody.

Plugs and wires? Maybe I should try that:grin: Sorry, glad that fixed your problem. I've done plugs and wires multiple times over the several years I've been chasing this problem.

Well, I thought it was time for an update. I took the car over to Denver this week. I wanted the folks at CCR to take a look at it and see if they could figure anything out with the misfire problem. I had found that one of my front CV boots was ripped, and since the axles have 211,000 on them, I decided to go ahead and replace the with some MWE remans. CCR installed them for me. They had a few ideas on the misfire, but none of them made any difference. Late in the day they decided to just replace the entire intake, which of course meant the fuel rails, injectors, and wiring harness got replaced too. 15 minutes from the shop my cel was on - 303, 304. I was trying to think of what I haven't replaced. It is by far the shorter list. The temp sensor hasn't been replaced. They didn't have one there and it was late when they had the intake off. Maybe it's the light in the glove box, or a tail light fuse causing the problem. Maybe it's the color of the car, or a loose fender. Maybe all the lug nuts are not equally torqued. Anyway, I drove 260 miles each way through the mountains in winter weather. The car runs perfectly, never stumbles, always starts, cruises through snow and over passes with aplomb, gets 29 to 32 mpg - I just have to ignore that irritating little orange light.

I second getting a tester and actually testing the coolant. If you are seeing ice in the bottle sometin' ain't right. We typically have lots of nights in the -20 to - 30 range with some as low as -40. Many highs well below zero. Most people I know use about a 65 to 70 percent antifreeze mix all year long here. My heater works within 10 minutes, but when it is -25, the car takes awhile to warm up. I have never had the problems you describe, so with adequate antifreeze, and a good subaru thermostat, you should be fine. I use a simple stick on oil pan heater. I was leery of them, but around here most people prefer them because they insure quick engine lubrication on cold mornings, rather than faster heat to the interior through heating the water. Supposedly they don't cook the oil. I got this from some reliable sources, but I usually put mine on a timer so it comes on just a few hours before I am going to start the car. When it is really cold, I'll leave it on all night.At -25 or colder you can tell a huge difference in how the car turns over at startup, even with 5/30 synthetic oil. - That's my 2 cents.

What? I am being misunderstood. I thought it was hilarious. That's what I meant by it was my first thought when I saw the title. I was confessing that my degenerate childhood prompted me to read it that way. Anyway, guess I should have included a :lol::):banana::clap::headbang:.

This has been said repeatedly, but definitely search this site for burping. There are some extensive descriptions of how to burp a Subaru. I have been surprised at how hard it is to get all the air out. It really makes a big difference, and would go right along with the fact that your problem started after you replaced the pump. I have personally experienced overheating from having air trapped, and from using a napa thermostat instead of one from Subaru. That said, did you guys catch that he said his heads were leaking badly a couple of posts back? That doesn't sound good.

So, does the heating stop at 3/4 even if you keep driving? Is the external leak still there? Or is it fixed? Someone here will know, but I don't think a minor EXTERNAL leak will cause overheating anyway, assuming that the coolant is never allowed to get low. Bummer - external HG leak on an 04 - i was hoping they were OK. I would second the burping idea first. It is a common problem and free to fix. Just be really careful to never allow the temp to go any higher as you are trying to find the cause. Yes, just a few minutes to reach the half-way, or normal running temp is normal. My 97 takes about that long in all weather conditions from summer to -30.

The only reason I viewed this thread was to see if someone was going to post something like that. It was my first thought - degenerate childhood. I notice you were completely ignored. Probably just as well.

Would it be this easy to disconnect the ABS on my 97 Outback too? I hate it.

1/2 quart in 100 miles would leave A LOT of oil all over the bottom of the car. Does it look like that much oil is leaking, or is it disappearing mysteriously? You'd think that much would at least leave some drips in the garage when you pull in after the 100 mile trip. If it is just disappearing, I would definitely do the PCV valve first.

Just curious, how do you know that? Around here an 03 would easily go for 12K, but Subarus really hold their value in Colorado.

Take it from someone who has been there, you are almost certainly experiencing the beginning of the 2.5 HG problem. It comes and goes. I found that I could run my car locally with no problems because I live in a small town where I don't have to get up to highway speeds to get back and forth to work etc. But the car would start to overheat as soon as I took it above 50 or 55 mph. Once the overheating began, I would have to shut her down until it cooled completely. I was able to limp along like this for several months as I did the thermostat, rad. cap, new radiator dance. You always hope. I opted to get a rebuilt engine, but my car and transmission were in great shape. Let me emphasize that I NEVER let the temp get near the top of the gauge. You will just have to assess the cost of repairs verses life left in the car and make a choice. If you have severely overheated the car already, that's a big problem. One good thing is that, given a good engine that has not overheated, problems with the updated HG that would replace your old one are said to be rare or non-existent. Best of luck

No. I am driving with the light on. It goes off for a couple of days at a time once in a while. I also never replaced the crank sensor plug. I have been traveling, catching up from traveling, and preparing for winter, so I haven't worked on the car. I did get the OK from CCR to bring it over for a valve check and general look-see. I'm just not sure when I'm going to get the time. On the positive side though, I found four practically new rims for it here in town for $60. Nothing fancy, but now I can run good snow tires all winter instead of all seasons. I'll let you know if I find anything on the CEL.

Still throwing codes on the trip over today. Anyone know what is involved in replacing the type of connector that is on the crank sensor?

Well, I did take another closer look at the wires. I found that the white wire on the crank sensor has a bare spot, broken insulation, just before it goes into the female plug. I checked as closely as i could without a magnifier, and it does not seem to be broken, just bare. I have to leave for the front range a 4 am tomorrow, and I have meetings tonight, so I don't have much time to work on it. For now, I encased the wire in plumbers goop - fixes almost anything - and wrapped it up tight in electrical tape. At least it should be insulated better and splinted somewhat. I cleared the codes, and the trip tomorrow will tell us if it did any good. Long-range, I need to replace that connector. I'm not sure how those attach. Do you need a special crimping tool? I could get a new/used one with some wire leads on it and splice it I suppose. Yet another possibility. I will be both happy and irritated if this little break in the insulation is the problem I've been tracking for years.

OK, i went for a drive this morning and got both misfire codes. If anything, it's happening with renewed vigor. The only other thing I am going to do is see if CCR will recheck the valves sometime when I can make it over to Denver. Other than that, I think I'm done.

I installed the sensors tonight. The part # that is on the invoice for the kit is 22090AA000. I don't know if that is a Subaru #. The installation took about 15 minutes including removing and reinstalling the battery and cleaning the cables. They weren't that dirty, I just always clean them if I take them off. I am posting a picture of the old crank sensor. It had a thick layer of what looks like carbon right on the bottom of it. I don't know if that could have blocked any signals or not. It may not be carbon, it just looks like it. On my way home, before installing the sensors, I got gas. Soon after that stop, I got a cel. I did not check it or clear it, but I assume it was the same as always. BTW, before anyone brings it up, I already replaced the gas cap. After installing the sensors, I took a drive. I got 22 miles before the cel came back on. Again, I never cleared the earlier code, but the light was off because I had the battery unhooked for about 10 minutes. I pulled over and read the code. It was a single 0304 code. I cleared it, and it has not come back on yet, but that would be pretty normal anyway. I'm wondering if the ECM completely clears itself just from having the battery unhooked for a few minutes, or if this could have been a leftover from the earlier misfire. I wish now I had read it and cleared it the first time. It may have been a single 0303, but I don't know. Any thoughts? Another dead end? I sure have a lot of new parts on this car.

Thanks, I got your pm after posting. I will post the part# when I get it.

Rocky Mountain Subaru in Grand Junction had the kit that contains both sensors for $50. I will have them tomorrow. I have a trip to the front range later this week, so I will try to get them in before we go. That will give us a good test. I hope this is it. So, anything I should be aware of on installation? it looks very straight forward. But I'm the guy that hydro-locked the engine swapping injectors. Any input is welcomed.