ryanw

Was the differential. Finally gave out after 320,000 miles lol. Got a new car (well, used car, but new to me). Thanks for the help.

Shook the hell outta the drive shaft and turned it as fast as I could and could not get the symptom to appear. I put it in FWD mode and that did not change the symptoms at all. Anything else that could make that noise? It sounds like its in the front center... which is why I tried swapping both CV axles.

Thanks guys. I replaced both half shafts today (one at a time) for troubleshooting and still have the same problem. Happens in reverse or forward. Is the drive shaft the next thing I should swap? I've never worked with a drive shaft before. It looks/feels fine to my untrained eye. Anything in particular I can check before pulling it? Could it be a problem in the transmission itself instead?

I have a 1998 Subaru Legacy OBW. I did the EJ25 to EJ22 swap years ago. I'm getting a rhythmic bang/popping sounds that really gets loud when accelerating. It can be felt throughout the car and it can be heard a little (although not near as much) when I let off the gas. It sounds like this: I replaced the front drivers side shaft with one from Advanced several months ago, although the symptoms were different. Any ideas what I should check for this? Thanks in advance!

Update - I replaced Vehicle Speed Sensor 2 and all my problems went away. No codes and speedo and odo are working fine now. Put 1k miles on it over the weekend and its running great!

I have a 1998 Subaru Outback with 295k miles. The speedometer has been slowly failing... at first just hopping a little, now it rarely moves from 0. After driving with the speedometer and odometer not working for a bit it started throwing codes P0500 P1507 P1540 and occasionally the AT Oil Temp light will flash for awhile after starting the car. Codes point to Vehicle speed sensor 2. could the failure of that sensor cause the the issues I am having? Any diagrams available of where VSS1 and VSS2 are located? Thanks!

Thanks... fans were not running.... When this started I found out I have a coolant leak (for unkown amount of time as it is a small one). And it was almost 2 quarts low, so I hoped topping it off would help, but it did not. After I put on the spare MAF and cleaned and removed/reattached cables to all the sensors mentioned the codes have cleared and everything has been working fine. Does unhooking the battery clear the codes? I unhooked the negative side for about 12 hours two nights ago and the codes were still there... I had the positive side unhooked this time (cleaning it off) while I was working on the sensors and the codes were clear when I started it back up. I didnt think unhooking the battery would clear the codes (since it didnt the first time) which leads me to believe I might have fixed something, lol.

lmao...yea, I just bought a cheap one so can at least grab and clear codes. Should be here in a couple days. I have a spare MAF laying around so I threw that on for giggles and am now just checking/cleaning the wiring to all these sensors. After that I will go get the actual codes printed out.

I have a 1998 Subaru Legacy OBW. I did the EJ25 to EJ22 swap years ago. Recently, the car started having problems starting when warm. It started when cold no problem, but if I turned it off and left it for a few minutes, then came back it wouldnt start until I waited a few more minutes. One day it just never started again... I took the fuel line off the filter and there was no fuel coming out at all, so I decided it was a fuel pump issue... I replaced the fuel pump and the car ran great for a couple weeks, getting the best gas mileage it had for awhile.... It has CEL through this all but I "smartly" did not take it to have them checked as I thought i had resolved the problem and they would go away soon. After a couple weeks it started having the same problem of not starting when warm again. I cleaned the MAF for good measure and noticed that when the car was warm and would not start, I could remove the MAF sensor connection and the car would start with no problems... Then I shut it off, connect the MAF sensor and again it would start normally.... So I used this workaround for a couple days until I took it to have the codes read and their are several pointing to the MAF sensor, the Fuel Temp sensor and the CAM sensor. The guy at Advanced was kind of rude so I dont have the exact codes, but I can go to Autozone and get the exact codes if that helps. But I was hoping if I have CEL for at least those three sensors that not all are bad? Could one cause the other to code? Where would I start? Thanks!

Thanks Olnick... I checked out a local rebuild shop and they sold them to me for $15... which seemed high, but the other place I checked only had a kit for $45 and then the dealer didnt have them. I swapped them out earlier and the old ones were worn half to 3/4 of the way down... Not sure how far down they can go, but I'm pretty sure that was the problem. Thanks to everyone for their help! I'll have to call your dealer and get the part number to "inform" my dealer that they are available.

I stopped by my local suby dealer and they said one had to buy the entire starter and that I couldn't get the contacts by themselves. Any part number I should reference or any other place I should look for them?

It is just a loud click then nothing... then try several more times and it eventually works... but seems to be getting worse. I'll replace the starter and see what happens. Thanks!

Have a 98 OBW. Starter has been acting weird... First time I thought it was the battery, but everything else had good juice and it started right up when I tried again. Sometimes it starts right off the bat, sometimes I have try several times... When it doesn't start, it just clicks like it would for bad battery. Is the starter the first thing I look into replacing?

What gas mileage should I expect with a 95 ej22 in a 98 OBW? The guy I bought the engine from had it in a 98 OBW and said he would get 26 mpg on the highway. I get about 20-23 mpg... highway or city driving, neither seem to make much difference. I had it into the dealer for tires and had them check everything out and they said everything tested good and that 20-23 mpg was what they would expect the smaller ej22 to get in a 98 obw. Just wanted to follow up and see what you guys thought.

I replaced the PCV shortly after I installed the 2.2L. However, I did use a generic on that. Should I go buy one from Subaru?

Thanks nipper, but I did that on accident first :-) so the rear one has been replaced with generic and front one replaced with OEM. It's my wife's car and she says its driving much better since I replaced the front one, so I hope that was the problem... but I was just wondering if CEL p0420 did come back, if the Cat is the next step since both O2 sensors have now been replaced.

So I replaced the front O2 sensor with one from the dealer and cleared the code. So far it has not come back, but time will tell I guess. If the code does come back, the next step in this process is to replace the Cat right?

Nothing was wet back there when I put it in... everything looked fine and then a slow leak started after a week or 2 of driving. It's still a slow leak today (6 months later) stop leak seems to help, but its slow so i cant tell definitely. Also, I double checked and got it backwards, the guy I bought it from said he replaced the oil separator plate but not the main seal.

I did the 2.5 to 2.2 swap. The 2.2 was sitting on the oil pan when I picked it up and I (unfortunately) did not think much about it... however, previous owner said it had 75k and he replaced rear main seal with the newer one at 50k when he got the engine, so I was not worried about that. The leak is coming from the back of the pan/engine, but its hard to see back in there. I assume that the engine resting on the oil pan was probably very bad for the seal and hope that's where the leak is coming from. I don't see anything coming from higher up, so seeing oil at the back of the pan is either the oil pan itself or the main seal right?

I did the 2.2L swap and personally think it was well worth it. I got my EJ22 engine for $500 6 months ago. I don't know of anyone who has not been happy throwing the 2.2L engine in. Everyone I talked to said they were glad they did it. It is a little less power, but that doesn't bother me any.

I did not change the ECU. Lesson learned Thanks John!

Thanks, I came up with that part number as well, but when I called the dealer and the guy told me it was the wrong one I got worried. I just want to be sure I have this right... if I have a 95 EJ22 engine in a 98 outback I use part 22690AA290 for the front O2 sensor right?

I have replaced the plugs/wires (which really needed it), fuel filter, PCV valve, and the rear O2 sensor (mistakenly thinking it was the only one). However, when I pulled that rear sensor, it was covered white and the slits were somewhat clogged, so I really thought that would fix it because (based on my non-expert opinion) it looked pretty bad. So if the front looks anything like the rear, I think that is probably the problem (again based on my non-expert opinion). Can you tell anything from looking at the O2 sensor, like since the rear was covered in white powder, does that mean anything or is that normal for 197,000 miles? Or could that just have been from the previous 2.5L engine going through several sets of head gaskets and having coolant leak into the engine? On a side note, can someone tell me which front O2 sensor I need? I looked it up and subaruparts.com and came up with 22690AA290 for 96-99 ej22 and ej25s. However, when I called the local dealer and told them I had a 95 EJ22 engine with a 98 ECM, they said I would need 22641AA00A. Anyone know which O2 sensor I need to replace the front with?

Okay, I RTFM, and there are two O2 sensors and I replaced the rear one, which is the wrong one right? Normally the problem is caused by the front one (they are just like a foot or two apart)? However I also read on here that the front one HAS to be a Subaru O2 sensor, is that correct? If so, then I guess its good luck because I used an aftermarket for the rear O2 sensor, and it seemed to help gas mileage a bit, so I'm not worried about it.

98' Subaru Outback with 197,000 on it. Bought it 6 months ago and immediately had the head gaskets go out (after driving/owning it for 4 hours). Did the 2.5/2.2 swap and she has ran fine except only gets 22-23 mpg... seems the same city or highway. A strange side note is, the 3 times I filled up at half a tank, I was getting 25-26 mpg, which is what I would expect... do you think this is just a coincidence or does this signal a problem? I guess I should start filling up at half tank every time for awhile to see how it goes. Back to original problem, P0420... from what I've read, replace the front O2 sensor first, which I did and the CEL went away for about two weeks and appears to have improved my gas milage by about 1 mpg as I get 23-24 now which I have not gotten in a long time. But CEL P0420 came back on... from what I've read, its the Cat (are there 2 cats and O2 sensors on this car?). Should I replace the cat or should I take it in to have someone further diagnose the problem to ensure it is the Cat causing the problem?