McDave

Must get caffeine before posting in the morning. Did you clean the rotors before installing them, and keep them clean during assembly? Since you say it is better with the new brakes, but not fixed, there is a chance the new rotors could have runout. I do have to resurface even new rotors from time to time. Do you know someone with a dial indicator that can measure runout with the rotors mounted on the car? Also if you live in the rust belt or do offroading, there could be a build-up of rust or dirt on the hub mounting surface. This would show up when checking the rotor too, so remove the rotor and check the hub surface for debris and runout next. Are you getting any bearing noise?

Too funny! The only thing better would have been if the girls had got it on video.

I vote for a piece of belt stuck between the crank balancer and timing belt cover, or something along those lines.

Yeah, does it shake even when coasting down without using the brakes?

I remember player pianos. I had a great aunt and uncle that had one. Seems like I remember it broke once and my uncle explained to me how it worked. My aunt would have to keep pumping the foot pump until she got tired. I guess it developed a vacuum leak that got so bad they finally quit playing it. Loooong time ago. Yeah, the vacuum hose is 3/16" or 5/32" and they can cut it as long as you want, and it's cheap. You might as well get enough to bring the gauge inside the car since it may take a few trips to get it to act up. Just route it out the back of the hood and through the drivers window (opened a crack). Edit: The vacuum hose already on the gauge may be 1/4", but 3/16" or 5/32" is probably closer to the sizes used on your motor. Buy one of the smaller size hoses and step it down from 1/4" with a piece cut from one of the universal plastic tees.

Wasn't me:

Red Green is going to have to change his name to Red Blue now.

Is there another belt still turning it? Seems like it would just be sitting there with the a/c belt gone.

You know, I've been chasing a similar problem on my car too and I finally decided it was the right side bearings, even though they have been changed twice by the previous owner and the drivers side never have. I'm glad I ordered enough for both sides! Maybe I'll do the drivers side first. So, how did you manage to crawl all over the car while the wife drove? Is this a mechanic's stethoscope or a Doctor's or what? (imagination running wild...)

"Oh, I thought you said tuning fork." Sounds good. I can wait. No hurry. When you get it, set it up so you can watch it easily while you drive. If it's a valvetrain problem it will start jumping/fluttering before the cel comes on, and could actually quit moving by the time the light comes on. I usually slip it under the windshield wiper so it's right in front of me. Just don't turn on the wipers. Then take it out on a light traffic road and drive it at a steady 55mph like your wife was driving it while keeping an eye on the gauge and cel. Hopefully it will act up sooner than later.

Now you're talking. A search with all three codes (inc. 341) at once showed only one instance though, and it turned out to be a cam off a tooth. So it sounds like it won't set with this mild of problem. The pattern I'm seeing for just the 303 and 304 codes favors tight exhaust valves in the 2.5 motor. In fact it looks like there were warranty jobs on the early heads. But on the 2.2 motor it looks like most needed a cam sensor and apparently the crank sensor for good measure since they offer(ed?) a deal on both. Maybe the early 2.5s need them too? vacuum gauge vacuum gauge vacuum gauge...

Yeah, there are two different trains of thought going on up there. If I could somehow talk you into putting the vacuum gauge on it already and taking a drive, we could narrow it down to one.

Please don't take offense, but after reading your O2 sensor thread, you really need to take it to a first rate mechanic to have your timing belt replaced. Please don't try to do it yourself.

To me it would be easier leaving it on the car and opening the throttle rather than holding the screwdriver, tps, and mm leads to the terminals and trying to keep everything in contact while working the screwdriver. I thought you were going to compare readings with a buddies tps before making the 1.5hr drive?.

Ok, here's what I think is happening. I may be all wet and those more familiar with how Subaru does things and acts up is welcome to correct me. OBD II uses a correlation between the cam sensor and crank sensor speed readings to determine when a misfire occurs. A crank sensor failure usually causes a car to die or miss hard. A cam sensor failure doesn't. You generally can run without a cam sensor input. Your model car has a history of cam and crank sensor problems according to the database I have access to. So much so that Subaru has released a kit that includes both for less that you can buy the two separately. I'm betting the cam sensor is failing intermittently and is triggering the cel, but not causing a misfire, as they gererally don't anyway. So, as much as I hate to tell people to throw their hard eaned money at a problem on just a hunch, I think it would be worthwhile to buy the pair (~$50 bucks I believe) and at least replace the cam sensor first, if not the crank sensor at the same time just to get it over with. Ok guys... let the shooting begin. What do you think? Edit: Wait a minute. I just saw your vehicle is listed as a 2.5? Scratch what I said, it applies to the 2.2s. The 2.5s exhaust valves tend to sink a bit (according to the database) and need to be adjusted. A vacuum gauge would likely show a flutter when it's acting up.

I wish it were that simple. The SPFI distributor doesn't have centrifugal weights or even a vacuum advance. The ecu takes care of all that.

I think I would get a second opinion, i.e. a different multimeter to test with. I've seen it posted here that tps failure is very uncommon. There usually are some used ones available in the Classified section here though. In fact there's a Loyale being stripped now.

I have to wonder why it smells like that in the first place? Does the car have a sunroof? The drains may be clogged and leaking rain water into the interior.

I'm betting you have burned out bulbs. If you do make sure the alternator is not overcharging.

You mentioned in another post that you had another ecu for it. Did you ever try it? Also, this problem was there before the new motor, right? (I know it sounds like we're going around in circles, but I'm going somewhere with this)

I did some more checking on this problem. There are actually 2 speed sensors on the car. The one with the internal gear that operates the speedometer is in the transaxle, the other one in the tranny section sends the signal to the ecm and is triggered by magnets inside the tranny. Have the mechanic scan the ecm. It's likely he will be getting a signal to the ecm, but not to the speedo, of course. Techs report the sensors 'never' fail and apparently the transaxle gear doesn't fail like the type that has the gear in the tranny. Still worth checking though. The most likely cause is the speedo head in the dash. Very common failure. But then that doesn't explain the stalling either.

Hopefully your mechanic will pull the vss out of the tranny and check to see if the gear in the tranny spins by hand first. It shouldn't. Many vss have been changed when the real problem was with the internal gear. As far as the smell. My guess is the engine ran lean with no speed input, so the cat caused the exhaust to smell funny. Kinda hard to say over the internet though. Alternator? Very plausable, but you should be having starting problems by now if that were the case. Good luck! Let us know how it turned out.

The machine shop will (should) check spring pressures once the valves are ground and then shim or replace the springs as needed.

Glad to see I'm still doing it right. It's amazing how many chain brake shops don't know to put a swirl finish on rotors. Of course I'll never agree that putting pads on rotors without surfacing or replacing them is ok, as it goes against all my training, but overall it was an informative website. Thanks for posting it.

I was wondering exactly when the cel came on too. Hitting bumps is a good clue. I also was wondering if you actually feel the misfire when the cel comes on?