timmckee

Has anyone found a cargo box long enough for skis - 185cm that still allows their hatch to open fully? I have a 07 Outback Sport.

Well after driving approx 200km's there's no appreciable difference in the coolant level and there's no more water coming out of the exhaust. I think it was just a winter's worth of condensation built up in the exhaust pipe/muffler. Lot's of worrying for nothing!

Thanks

I think I snuck it in underneath so that the other end of the wrench was pointing down. See there's my bad memory again, it's mounted on two studs with nuts, not bolts into tapped holes.

... might have been a 16mm bolt. My memory is pretty bad. All I remember for sure is they were two different sizes. have fun!

Replacement isn't that tough of a job. There are two flange bolts, one of which is a bit tough to get to. I seem to recall they were different sizes. I think 14mm and 17mm. I had to pull pretty hard on the 17mm bolt with a long box wrench, so 3/8" drive might be a tough go. Besides the two flange bolts you need to disconnect the ground and power cable. It helps to pull out any misc. vac. hoses to make some room. I didn't rebuild mine, just threw in a spare I picked up cheap from the wreckers, so I can't comment on that end of the job. Best bet is just google "starter rebuilds".

It's a 1995 Legacy with an EJ22 engine. The circuit is powered through the main relay and a 30A fuse in the main fuse box. I don't have the wiring diagram in front of me so I can't remeber what other sensors/instruments are also on that circuit. I was having a previous problems with the car which I traced to a loose ground wire on the intake manifold. I'm also loosing coolant. Is it possible there's a crack in the valve body and coolant is getting into the intake manifold?

Could it just be a dirty/sticking valve?

At first I thought it was the alternator so I disconnected that connector. I could still hear the buzzing of the solenoid.

After the car has been shut off, the IAC Solenoid still has power to it - full battery voltage. Is this normal? Is the main relay f'd? I didn't see how many amps it was pulling.

Okay, so per Murphy's rule, the first thing I should have checked but didn't was the ground wire on the intake manifold. I gave 'er a giggle and she stalled the engine. The bolt was only finger tight. On to problemo numero dos - the water in the exhaust. I'll keep poking around and post an update if I find anything conclusive.

John - I'm not sure I understand where the coolant could be getting in to the valves/head. As I remember it, the only openings on the head where the manifold bolts on are for the combustion air, no coolant passages.

Hmmmm, what to do, what to do. Well, since I might be taking the timing belt off to change out a HG anyways, I think I'll just check the timing for now. If it hasn't jumped a tooth or two, then at least I know it's not a timing issue.

Ok, so the timing might be off and that's affecting the engine at higher RPM's? and causing it to run poor creating the condensation in the exhaust?

I did put a new timing belt in and gave all the pulleys a good inspection. How would a manifold leak cause condensation in the exhaust? Running lean?

I just raised the car up 8" on ramps and no change in the coolant level. Ran it for a few minutes, cranked the heater and squeezed the return hose. Still no change in the coolant level. However, with the cap off the level does slowly rise in the neck of the fill hole, but no bubbles. I changed the head gasket because of the low compression, not overheating. As far as I know the engine never did overheat. When I pulled the timing belt off at the begining of the job I noticed the cam was off by about 3 teeth. I don't know if this is enough to cause the low compression so I went ahead with the gasket replacement anyways. When I reinstalled the timing belt all the marks were aligned. Maybe I wasn't clear in my first post, but I never drove the car with the temp gauge pegged. It was about mid range on the gauge when suddenly the engine died and then the gauge pegged. I suspected a ground and when I started poking around, wiggling wire harnesses would make it go down and then back to max again. So I don't think the engine overheated. I just idled the engine for about 10 minutes and then took it up to 2500 rpm for about a minute. At 2500rpm the rev's would momentarily drop about 500rpm and the temp gauge would jump up about 1/10 the scale and drop back down just as fast. It did this last time right before it died. Also the cooling fans aren't kiciking in and I still have plenty o' liquid puking out the exhaust. What's going on? Any help is greatly appreciated.

1995 Legacy (EJ22) CEL came on and the codes were for a misfire in cylinders 1 and 4. I did a compression check and had low compression in 1 and 3 cyl's (95psi) and 2 and 4 were around 160 psi. Trying to save a few bucks and some work I only changed the head gasket, on the side with low compression. I also put in new intake manifold and exhaust gaskets on both sides (all non OEM) Threw everything back together and took it out for a test drive. Got a block from the house and the engine died and the temp gauge pinned itself way past hot. I got the car home and started trouble shooting the temp gauge. It would stay pinned even with the car off. Seems to be okay now, I think it was grounding out somewhere but I haven't been able to figure out where. While trouble shooting the gauge I noticed water spitting out the exhaust pipe. I figured that I screwed up the head gasket job so I checked the compression again. All 4 cylinders were in the 160psi range but the #2 cylinder spark plug hole was wet, as was the spark plug. The side I never worked on! No bubbles coming out the rad or any water in the oil. I'm thinking cracked head but I can't really say what caused it. The initial run after finishing the job was short, I warmed up the engine for 7-8 minutes, checked the water level in the rad, then drove about a block before it died. Any advice, suggestions, ideas? A buddy at work has an adapter so I can pressure test the rad/cooling system. I'll be doing that tomorrow.