Fairtax4me

A friend and I had the idea a few years ago to open a repair shop and call it Midnight Motors, because we always seem to end up working on cars in the middle of the night. :-p I have no idea about the suspected oil pressure related knock. Got a gauge to check it with before condemning the pump? Does it sound like valve train noise or are we talking bottom end? (more like middle on a Subaru I guess)

Being low by 1qt isn't low enough to starve the pump, but you got it running at least. I was just looking at that area on my 96 on Saturday. Not much room in there at all. I think you're gonna have to raise the engine again to get to that.

Strange. Tried Windex? It could be one of those situations where something stronger than just glass cleaner needs to be used first. I've had that happen plenty of times with kids finger prints, and dog slobber. Sometimes you even have to scrape it with a razor blade.

This style of pump does not need to be primed as said. Make sure the pickup is not clogged. Might also help to make sure it has enough oil in the pan. Though I'm SURE you've checked that... Make absolutely sure that none of the silicone you used has clogged in inlet/outlet passages of the pump.

I use Invisible Glass. Always has worked fine for me. Maybe you got a bad batch?

Most parts stores will check it for you for free. There is some way to do it by connecting some plugs under the dash but I don't know how that's done. Try searching around here for how to get the codes I'm sure you'll find something.

A tubing bender is about $5 at most parts stores. Broken hard lines are pretty common. They get old and corroded. Most of the time the fittings are brass which is soft, so it makes a good seal, but rounds off easily. Get some corrosion between the bolt and the line and they can lock up tight. I'd pick up a pre-made length from the parts store. I know Advance Auto now carries pre-made brake lines with an anti corrosion/rust coating on them.

Do you have an EGT gauge? What's the boost gauge doing when this happens? If you have one, hook up a fuel pressure gauge and see what that does when this is happening. Get that code checked and that will certainly help.

A painter knows to clean the area (s)he's about to paint before spraying it. Clean it with an all purpose cleaner with a microfiber cloth, and use vinyl protectant. Meguiars makes a good one, if you're like me and you don't like shiny slime on your dash board.

When it rains it pours. Hopefully that thing is straightened out now that it has had it's fun with you.

At a Dealer look to spend anywhere from $150 - $400+ on a new disc. You can try Ebay, but that can be hit or miss.

Don't see why not. A fan's a fan. If you plug it in and it starts turning backwards all you have to do is switch the wires.

Depends on if you're speaking English.

Well sure it can... You just have to pour it all over it and light a match. :-p Grab one from a junkyard. Or two. The place I go to sells 'em for like 5 or 6 bucks.

Liter of cola? :-p What sucks now though, since I know that I have that extra 4 gallons in the tank I'm gonna keep driving until its actually empty now. So when I fill up it's not gonna cost only $25 anymore. That or I'll find out the hard way that the tank is 1/4 full of water.

OH, so its doing that when the AC is on? It's probably fine then. Fans draw a lot of current. With 2 of them on at the same time plus the HVAC fan running you're probably drawing 30 amps off the alternator JUST for the fans. The ECU brings up the idle speed of the engine when the compressor is running. Mine jumps 300 rpm when the compressor kicks on, goes right back down when it goes off.

I'm averaging 250 miles on 11 gallons nearly all city driving. About 22 - 23 mpg. Which is pretty good, or at least seems good to me, considering my Lincoln gets a consistent 12.5 mpg in town. :-p But I have a lead foot. Thanks for the info. I'll probably just let it be now that I know it's a common issue. Not worth the time or money to fix it if a new used part won't straighten it out.

Our Saab tech tests them by putting the car on the lift and putting it in drive, and listening to the axles as they turn. We also have a Chassis ear kit the techs use to track down drivetrain/suspension noise. I've driven a few of those cars that had the vibration, I'd say it feels kind of like the drive shaft wobble that's typical of rwd cars with split drive shafts (2 piece) when the carrier bearing bushing goes bad. You can only really feel it under heavy acceleration most of the time. But as I said before, there's no point in bothering with it unless it starts to noticeably affect driveability. Binding/popping.

Correction! I looked on mine today, it's further back near the tail shaft housing. Still shouldn't be difficult to remove from the top though, just have to reach a bit further.

Been driving the past few days with the fuel gauge pretty much sitting on E. All of a sudden a light pops on on the dash, with shape of a gas pump. Then a couple minutes later it wet back off again. I had no idea this thing even had a low fuel light. When it gets to the E I just fill it up and usually takes 10.5 - 11.5 gallons depending on how long I drive on it after it says is empty. Well today it took 12.1 gallons to fill it. Which brings to me to 2 questions. How big is the fuel tank on a 96 legacy awd sedan? I just kinda figured it was 12 gallons, but I'd like to know for sure now, and the owners manual says nothing about it. And what triggers the low fuel light in these cars? Is it the gauge, or a sender in the tank?

Replace the radiator. Clean the head gasket area. Throw a new thermostat in there for good measure, and put the hose clamp back where its supposed to be. Possibilities of a bad axle. There could be some wear on the inside of the inner cv housings that can cause a vibration on acceleration. If left long enough then it can lead to some binding, but honestly that's just not worth fixing until it gets to the point where its noticeably affecting the driveablility of the car. We see this a lot in the Saabs at work. The only reason they get ever really get replaced, is because the owners are picky. With 230k miles on the car, you kind of expect there to be some shimmies and shakes here and there. I'd do some PM (T belt, water pump, pulleys, cam seals) and let it be.

Little tip. Change the sensor with the exhaust system hot. Wear gloves. Hot metal expands, the hole that the sensor screws into will expand more than the threads of the sensor and it makes it easier to remove.

Junkyard. It looks to be on the passenger side of the case just above and in front of the inner CV joint. Should be easily accessible from the top. Some PB blaster and an assortment of crescent wrenches should get it done.

It could be the cables. I've seen more than a few old battery cables corroded from end to end underneath the insulation. Low voltage can do a lot of strange things. But voltage isn't the only thing to be concerned with. You should have the alternator's output checked with an ammeter. Most parts stores will do that for you free of charge. Is that affecting the operation of the engine? Maybe, maybe not. Usually you don't run into issues with voltage affecting the electronics in the car until you get into the 10v range, depending on the load. The electrical system is more efficient when it is cool. Copper wire conducts better, the alternator produces more. It's normal to see higher output voltage from a cold alternator than a hot one.

Could be a tweaked control arm. They are designed to absorb impact rather than transfering the impact into the frame of the car. The possibility of that at such a slow speed is pretty minimal though. More than likely you just need to get an alignment done. It doesn't take much to knock a car out of alignment. And being off by just a hair, as little as a tenth of a degree, can be noticeable when driving, though it may not be to the naked eye.