crash321

You don't need to be condisending about it nipper. My gut said VSS in the beginning. But being that I have had schooling in driveabilty and have been a tech myself for a time doesn't mean I know nothing about cars. I just know more about GM than subaru and that fact I have little in the way of diagnostic charts and schematics doesn't mean that I am an idiot. I have a relationship with my local subaru dealer due to the fact that they deal in other makes (previously owned mazdas, vws) and they know what I am saying when I communicate with them.Its not the tech that I was talking to, it was the service writer, and they tend to try to oversimplify things to the customer. There is rapid turnover in the service writing staff so They are not familar with me nor I with them. So saying that they themselves are so closed minded not to look beyond what I am saying would be putting very little faith in myself as well as them. Just sayin. I posted this so that I could get some info that may help me into finding what may be wrong with the car, not to be lambasted on the board.

I had it towed to the dealer in Bay City MI. they won't be able to get to it till next week:-\ but they did get it into the shop and scanned the ecu and got a code for engine speed sensor?????????? I never knew there was such an animal..........We will see what happens and I will report back. By the way, I did suggest to both dealers that I felt it was the VSS after looking at the wiring diagram.

Here is an update..........http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=95116

personal experience here, it is by the fuse block just above and toward the driver just where the trim ends. It is a square black module with the wire harness facing the cabin. hope that helps.

sounds like you spared you engine from a horrid death

Thanks for your replies, I am going to have it towed to the dealer tomorrow.

one problem the dealer that diagnosed it is in another state 5 hours away..... the only reason I took it in there was because the car broke down and only ran on a couple cylinders.....the tech said that the car would drive five hours back to the house, so i wonder if the VSS fried on the way home without the speedometer working?

Yes he was a subaru tech. He was the one who said that the VSS was sending pulses but the speedo was not processing it and therefore not working and not sending it on to the ECM

Sorry forgot. I am very upset right now. It is a 98 OBW 2.5 155,000 miles. The tech traced the problem to the speedometer so that is what he told me to order and replace part # 85020AC290. Manual, transmission Check engine was on before I replaced it, I did not drive it long enough to throw the CEL this time due to I disconnected battery before I pulled the cluster.

I have posted this on electrical gremlins but that thread is to long so I am going to post a new one for just this problem. I had alot of work performed to get my car home and that included diagnosing why my speedo did not work. The tech said that the speedo was malfunctioning. They did not have the speedo at the dealer so I ordered one from my local dealer. I installed it today and took it out of the driveway for a test drive, but the speedo does not work:mad:.....Any suggestions would be helpful, I have spent over $1200 just this week on this car. Please Help

DO NOT DRIVE THAT CAR!!!!!!!!! I drive semi and have had this happen twice to my turbo......no turbo whine, copious amounts of piss off the poor guy behind you smoke. You blew a turbo. The oil pump will continue to pump oil into the exhaust side of the turbo, into the cat and out the tailpipe. You may have killed the cat by continueing to drive it along with your o2 sensor post cat. STOP DRIVING THE CAR!!!!! Have it towed to your repair facility.

Check inner and outer tie rod ends and ball joints. just a thought

No one has mentioned this but check the rubber hose that goes into the overflow bottle and make sure the hose is not ruptured. Think of a straw you get at mcdonalds and you accidently bent it while trying to get the sob out of the wrapper. You put it in your drink and as you suck you get alot of air and not much pop (er soda to some). This is something that could happen so check it along with replacing the rad cap. Then go to worst case senerio................Or you could have a carbon test done on your coolant......that would tell you right off the bat that your hg is bad. Just a thought:)

Or a whole box:lol::lol: PS the $1017 does not include the $211 for the speedo fix!

Now if those mice were as big as mickey, I could hunt them and put em in the freezer, assuming they taste like chicken :lol:

didn't you just pick that one up?

While pouring it through the engine was running, so no hydrolock danger, also the pcv valve actually meters the solvent at a little bit at a time, so again no hydrolock danger. Also the pcv is more centrally located compared to other vac sources. Just a thought:)

Ok I am not familar with these cars. But the airflow could be restricted in another way.....maybe dirt and lint on the core itself...just a thought.

The only prob with that Gloyale is that he stated that the cylinder is pitted, it would need to be honed.

Just wanted to update again with what is going on with the car. As I was packing up the car for my 5 hour trek back home I started the car and it ran fine. I let the terminal and got down the road a mile or two and the car stalled out. I immediately started it back up but it would onlt run on two cylinders (extremely rough). I was able to rev it (alot) and limp it into Nielson Subaru in Portage IN. Luckily they were not busy. They verified that the car was in fact running on a couple cylinders but only was able to pull these codes: P1540 vehicle speed sensor Malfunction at low speed P0500 vehicle speed sensor malfunction P1507 Idle control system malfunction (fail safe) P0141 Rear Oxygen Sensor heater curciut Malfunction There were no codes for misfire..... Upon further inspection, the tech found the right bank (passenger side) of the coil pack to be badly burned and corroded along with the wires. He also put it in the air and found alot of mouse damage (O2 sensor was mouse damaged) and also a ground wire from the firewall to the transmission was eaten through. This particular wire was later to be determined the cause of the speedo failure (it also fixed my dash light in the cruise control switch, so now I can see it at night:banana:) The tech (Jeremy) was extremely thorough and knew what he was doing. He was able to diagnose that the VSS was still good and the failure was in the combination meter, but they did not have the parts to fix it. The VSS was aparently pulling ground through the speedo and not the trans due to the wire being eaten through. I promptly ordered one through Thelen Automotive in Bay City MI (closest dealer) and will install it myself when it comes in this thursday. In the meantime I OKed the following repairs: Replace spark plugs replace plug wires replace coil pack replace rear O2 sensor Load test Battery and alternator (my request, and it tested good) Diagnose where problem lay in the speedo system miriade wire repairs from mouse damage All told I about had a heart attack to just get it running to get home..... $1017. I was over a barrel being that I was 5 hours from home and no ability to diagnose the problem and not knowing where to go. But at least the tech answered all my questions, let me watch to see how he did things, and got the car running better than before all of this nonsense started with the cluster failures. Now I do still have a CEL but that is because it is not recieving a VSS signal due to the speedo malfunction. Well I will post when the speedo is in.

It was just dumb luck that I saw it! hahaha

I thought the engine were aluminum......cast iron liner? or are the older ones cast iron?

Just wanted to update. I was able to get throught the terminal for a few hours so I went through some suggestions While I had light. First off, now that I could see under the hood, I checked all the connections for the grounds coming off the battery and they were tight and clean. But the one thing that was bad were the battery posts and post clamps. I couldn't believe all the corrosion (and I mean bad all in 6 months). I cleaned them really well and sanded the posts to shiny and the post clamps to a nice brass sheen, reassembled everything, poured coke over the battery and connections, let sit for ten minutes, rinsed with water and coated the posts in fifth wheel grease (all I had at the time, My semi was my "garage" hehehe) I took my supersube down to the Autozone in Hammand IN and got the cold shoulder. I just wanted them to test the battery and they refused, they lost a possible sale and I'll never go back to those bastards again! So I went back to the terminal to see if I could find the problem with the blinker (still on continuously even after I cleaned the battery). I happened to go to the back and for sh""s and giggles I took a look underneath and found a trailer harness from the factory. Funny because there is a harness inside the car Uhaul had installed and that is the one I use. I grabbed hold of it and it was very HOT:Flame: I wiggled the wires and got the continuous light in the right blinker to go off and the blinker to work correctly. So I took some scissors and cut zzz the factory harness off, pulled the wire harness back into the car and taped it up temp so I can take care of it permantly when I get the car home. The harness is located on the drivers side of the car attached to the receiver hitch and the wire harness just goes through a grommet into the body of the car that is accessable by taking the interior panel where the jack is located off and pulling the wire through. As for the Speedo, that is still on the fritz, I have a feeling these failures were not realted but just a big cowinkadink. I will update when the other items are fixed. Hope this helps someone else.

Go Baby Go!