Exotic_Scoob

AWSOME!!!!! I do have that problem and I'm exited now to fix it!! Anything weird you encountered while changing the o-ring? THANKYOU!!!!!

I don't know if this helps, but the last time I had that exact same thing happen to me, it was because my axle nut fell off! This caused the wheel bearing to separate, and since the abs sensor is in the bearing, the sensor was convinced the car wasn't moving. I lost my brakes, my steering slipped waaaaay out of alignment, and it was snowing so that was fun. Moral of the story: when you go to fix it, MAKE SURE THE COTTER PIN IS IN THE NUT!!!! The last mechanic that saw the car (about a year ago, before I owned it) apparently doesn't understand the importance of such things. I'm just glad it happened AFTER I drove from Indiana to Seattle, WA! Hope this never happens to you! Good luck man!

It all depends on what you're willing to pay, and how particular you are with your car. honestly, as far as remanufactured parts go, the best I've seen in retail (Autozone, Pep, B&T, etc.) have been Autozone's Duralast/Duralast Gold brand. It's costy (check as autozone.com) but it's probably between $140-230. Lifetiem warranty and When I worked there, I didn't often get returns on the brand (meaning, the parts lasted the lifetime of the car, so hardly no one used the warranty). And I doubt if the 2.2L and the 2.5L starters are the same, but you can find on the same website. Just be prepared. No matter where you go, you'll probably can't get it locally so you'll have to wait a few days for the store/shop to get it in stock for you.

frag: dude, you're right, I totally phrased that wrong. The point I was trying to make is that if you get a CEL, you should take a deep breath, rest easy knowing it's not telling you the engine's about to fall out the bottom of the car (cause the Computer wouldn't be able to tell you if it was) and get someone to pull the codes of the computer. Trouble shoot the problem. Depending on the car, the dying sensor have no more effect on things than making the car drive a little bit stupid. I've had more CELs than I can count and the worst that I've ever had happen is I used to have to do this circus act on the gas pedal every time I started my legacy in the morning because the coolant temp sensor was dead. And from my experience of working at Autozone for years, most CELs aren't nearly as scary as people think they are. Sorry about the confusion guys!

The old knock sensor!! I was also suprised it took so long for someone to mention that. Subarus have hyper-sensitive knock sensors in them. Occasionally, immediately after the oil change, the knock sensor will get a bad reading because there's a little bit of a rattle off the empty oil filter. PULL THE CODES (as they said before Autozone will do it for free, so will many other parts stores) to know for sure. If you can't get to a store with an ODBII tester, reset the computer (pull the neg. terminal on the battery for a minute) and restart the car. Most people don't realize this, but "check engine" lights really don't mean much. 9/10 times, it's a dying sensor or an electrical short or something of that sort. Rarely do they actually signify a real problem with the engine. The only thing the engine computer manages is the emisisons sensors, so the only problems it can alert you to are ones involving these sensors. This may not actually be the quicky-luber's fault. Research it first. If it's the knock sensor, just get the new one and install it. I doubt you'll be able to hold them liable for anything. That doesn't change the fact that you should never take a subaru (or any car for that matter) to the quicky-lubes. If you can, change the oil yourself from now on.

It's hiding from me. The problem is in cognito. Did an oil change, put 10W30 in and a new K&N oil filter (I know, I know, but I really love that nut on the end since you can't get a strap wrench up there on the EJ22s). IT RAN WORSE. Weird. But yeah, doesn't like the thicker oil. I've been driving it for a day or two now and it seems to have calmed down, but at first, it was a horribly rough ride. We've also managed to pinpoint the noise to the "underside of the second cylinder". (I have no idea, I let my boyfriend touch the car again while I regestered for classes for next quarter.) It's loud and ticking and making me nuts. Also noticed that my legacy doesn't like antifreeze. In fact, it seems to drive best if the coolant resevoir is below empty. Right. Discuss among yourselves. Go. I'll be in the basement with my liquor and my blues music, planning my own brain aneurism.

Ok, that's music to my ears! I was wondering if they had external oil pumps since everyone seems to have done those seals and no one's said anything about pulling the oil pan. Groovy, I'll try to do that this weekend then, maybe. snotrocket: Ok, fine, everything leaks, but very slowly, and strangly (or not) the front of the engine is bone dry. It's the top and the sides and the bottom and the back and the inside that's covered in oil and stuff. I swear, the front is the only clean part of the engine. So I guess it's oil change time. I'm completely on-board with the guys who say not to switch to synth on an older car, but I'll put the 15w30 Mobil high mileage stuff in there. Do the o-ring in the spout and the oil pressure guage (I have this perfect hole in my dash that's been waiting 6 months for gauges and I just haven't done it yet. Finally going to do it, yay!) and we'll see what we can see. Ok, yeeeehaaaaa! external oil pump!! thanks, I'll let you know how it goes, Marissa

Ok, the markings on the belt-that was a joke. No, the tread is still think and the timing pulleys line up exactly. Is there any other way to tell if the pulleys are dying besides the sound? any trick to test it? The belt is clean, and the front of the engine is leak free. I'll look into adding an oil pressure gauge here, though, it's not a bad idea regardless of the problem. and like I said before, I REALLY don't want to try to get at that oil pump unless I HAVE to. that's f-ugly. <shudder> I might get at those other seals though, when I have a chance. I'm of the school of thought that says, if it's not broke, don't fix it. None of them seem to be leaking so I'm not terribly keen on toying with them. But yeah, I love this car. My first subaru and wow!!! Nothing like hauling everything you own in a "ricer", driving cross-country in august, and playing with an M5 for three states. I'd lost my transmission mount sometime in there, and never knew it because I never had to shift out of 5th, even when the M5 did! I love this car, if only it would run for three weeks consecutively!

JaapH: I'm talking about the crankshaft. I'm always in the car and driving when I have that happen, so I mean what the tach is reading. If you can figure out a way to get the frequency of the rattle, tell me! duane b: yeah, I'm going to hold out on that if possible. As I said, the timing belt is fine (I assume that's what you mean by t-belt) as are the sprockets. The water pump is old and could probably use an honerable discharge soon, but I don't think it's doing this, and honestly I don't revel at the idea of pulling the oil pump. The pan is hard to get to, let alone pull, and I know of too many cases where aluminum engines didn't like having it pulled and put back on. They're hard to seat correctly and from what I can tell, that's the only part of this engine that isn't leaking oil. If I can tell for sure that it's going to fix this, I'll do it, but otherwise, too scary for recreation. Thanks so much for the garage recommendations, though! I was wondering where the good soob mechanics around here were. right now, I'm stealing form Walkers in renton. I use my company's tax ID to get the wholesale price, hehehe. Actually, those guys are funny. So far, they've offered me three jobs there! (2 in parts, and one in the garage!) Ok, we'll be doing mroe testing and playing tomorrow after work and I'll let y'all know after that. Thank you guys so much for the help!!!

Yeah, there's no distributor, and the timing belt is new (still can read the numbers on the back of it!) with full treads, perfect sprockets, and it's lined up correctly. ?!?!?! I'm not sure what more I can check on that front, it all looks great. 5W30 and I'm not full, but not low (right in the middle). Tappet noise, I'm used to. This is much louder than the slight rattle it's always had. Vacuum hose thing and oil spout o-ring are at the top of the to-do list. After that, I suppose you're right, time for a pro. This part drives me nuts. I'm a 20-yr-old (not un-attractive) girl. last time I brought the car near a mechanic, they tried to tell me I needed to replace my entire front end for about $1500. After bartering for a few hours, they finally admitted it just needed an new axle nut. I need to grow a mustache or something before the next time I take a car to a shop, or they'll never take me seriously. Sorry. I think I needed to vent. Anyways, any other diagnostic checks I can make before the last resort are welcome. I'll go as far as taste-testing the contents of the cylinder if it'll prevent me from having to take my scoobie in!

Air intake system is as tuned as it gets on this animal. and besides, i've been down that road, and I'm not sure air problems can cause this stuff. I have a smooth idle, and no loss of power (now that the spark plug is back in right). What I do have is a lot of clatter, an engine that likes to misfire at 3-4k rpms (that's fun. Freeway. 65mph. Misfires three times in a row. Waiting for my engine to burst out of my hood and come through the sunroof). The only other weird thing it does is I've noticed soemtimes when I take it out of gear from high rpms, it bounces down to about 2000 rpms, back up to 2500-3000, and then down slowly to normal idle. I've never owned a turboed car before, so is this part of the turbo spinning down, or is this a bad thing? Thank you guys so much for your help on this, I'm totally out of ideas here!

never checked the water pump, but the timing belt and sprockets look brand new. I was thinking. I have a slight oil leak from the oil spout. The o-ring is dead there and it looks like it's been leaking for a long friggin time. I have the o-ring, but I just haven't had a sunny day to replace it yet. (I leave in seattle and I have no garage, go figure.) Do you think that could cause a similar problem? Pulling in air from the oil spout? I don't have an oil pressure gauge, but I haven't noticed the oil being low and despite the leak, it's generally pretty much full at oil changes, even when I wait the full 7500 miles (I did that the first change, but have been changing it at 3000 miles ever since). So call me stupid, but when you're talking about the front seal, what are we referring to here?

Ok. here's the results. Nothing. The timing belt is...perfect. The compression is...almost perfect: 1. 178 psi 2. 175 psi 3. 168 psi 4. 175 psi So the third hasn't dropped any at all hardly. However, we did notice on the fourth cylinder (the first time around for the test) that things weren't screwing in right (either the tester or the plug) and we got a reading of 145 psi. So I pulled the windshield washer resevoir and we tried again and got 175. Since then, though, the drive is infinitely smoother. I'm wondering if that spark plug was coming out too, or else was never in completely. I let my boyfriend do that side of the engine last time and he's banned from touching the car now (hehehe). However, we still have this clicking. It continued through the compression test, with everything diconnected and we've checked all the plug wires and they're all live. I can't tell for sure where it's coming from, but it's loud enough to hear inside the car while driving, and it's speed is proportionate to the car's speed. it's a dead ringer for a dying valve, though. Is there any way that could still be the problem, even with great compression? What the hell is wrong with my car????

timing belt, huh? I've never had timing problems before. I'd meant to pull the cover and check on that, but someone told me it wouldn't make that noise (the chattering) and I forgot to (oops). I remember thinking the 3rd cylinder's compression was lower than the others, but not by too much, however, that was a while ago and I don't have the numbers here. Anyway, I'm going to go home and re-test the compression and timing, and then pull the cover off the timing belt if either comes up funny. Can't hurt to be sure. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll post the results tomorrow.