99obw

I ran the snowblower for 4 hours (400' driveway) last night and finally admitted defeat. We got well over 12" of wet nasty snow. Neither of my roads had been plowed by the time I went to bed so this morning there is a few feet of wet snow at each end of my driveway. Back to snowblowing.

Ran out of gas for the snowblower. Took the suby to the gas station. Shhh, don't tell. It did awesome! The snow was about 12" deep on the road. There were a few touchy spots but overall A-. The AWD seemed to apply power to the rear wheels with a big KLUNK when I would goose it in 2nd. EEEK! I know the AWD is working normally otherwise I couldn't have taken the trip. My 2wd dodge almost got stuck in the driveway. It won't climb the 20% grade section of my driveway right now so it is sitting at the bottom. The suby walked up it in reverse WITHOUT SLIPPING!!!

Make sure they replace the filter if it hasn't been done. Don't make any assumptions, find out for sure. I have seen auto trannys do goofy stuff that was made better with a new filter. Some I have talked to locally prefer Piehler over Van Bortel for service. You may want to give them a try.

the county has issued an unnecessary travel ban!? Does insurance not cover accidents under those conditions? I saw a minivan that either rolled or hit the ditch really hard after the ban this afternoon. WNY is getting pummelled! My driveway has ranging from 8" to 2' in it. Winter is going out with a bang this year!

The EZ30 is a pretty cool engine. DOHC, chain driven cams. Relatively high CR, requires premium fuel. 212 HP. Subaru says the timing chain is lifetime. It appears to have a couple of tensioners on it, I don't know if that is good or bad. My experience with timing chains has been consistent wear, stretching, and loosening on american makes without tensioners by 150k miles, I hope Subaru does better. FWIW, A friend of mine has a '97 legacy wagon with a 2.2l 5-MT.

What viscosity and brand of oil are you using?

I like to think of the MIL as the user interface for the car's computer sytem. MIL illumination is not always caused by a failed sensor, misfires for example.

Did you read my post in your other thread?

Justys are considered Old-Gen. Try posting your question there.

I bought Subaru struts from 1stsubaruparts and ebay. They say both Subaru and KYB on them. They are identicle to the ones I removed. I have one new strut left over from the job. I will be traveling through your area in April, July, and September. PM me if you are interested.

Another thing, I was always taught that both sides should be replaced at the same time. Is there any truth to that? It seems to make sense to me that you would want the two sides to brake as equally as possible. I would think that this guy at Monro would definately try to get you for both sides.

Yep, driving style. Think coasting and following distance. 90k miles on the original OEM brakes on our '99 outback.

My own experience with Monroe struts is on my '92 dodge. THEY SUCK!!!! After 30k miles they are getting squishy and wimpy. It's starting to feel like a boat again. The KYB OEM replacements I put on the rear of the outback are nice. OEM ride quality with OEM longevity (140k out of first set). I think Monroes on your car are risky at best.

I think it may explain at least some of the failures. I worked on a buick 3800 about a year ago that had a nice bleeder on the top of the engine for bleeding the cooling system. Made it much easier and more idiot (me) proof.

Again, what kind of meter are you using? An analog meter is the best common tool for this kind of thing. The digital meter takes samples relatively infrequently so the readings will tend to look discontinuous as you move the throttle. The best tool overall is probably a digital storage oscilloscope (DSO), but a good one of those costs as much as a car. I found a diagram of the 1990 thru 1994 TPS in my Haynes manual. It is actually a 4 terminal device, my previous post assumed a 3 terminal. The wiper (signal) is on pin #4. The manual also describes basically what I mentioned before. This is done with the TPS on the car and the TPS connector connected to the TPS. Be very careful tapping into these signals. "Connect the negative probe (of the meter) to the ground terminal (#2) and the positive probe (of the meter) to the SIGNAL (#4) terminal. Turn the ignition ON (engine not running) and observe the meter as the throttle is moved through its [sic] complete range. The voltage should vary from 0.5 to 1.0 volt [sic]at closed throttle to 4.5 to 5.0 volts wide-open-throttle." The resistance readings you mention sound very reasonable to generate these voltages. Say perhaps the TPS was a 10k total resistance with 1k of guard resistance on each end. So minimum would be (1k*5V)/10k = 0.5V. Maximum would be (9k*5V)/10k = 4.5V. Sounds to me like your sensor is good. I suspect the reference voltage (5V on pin #3) to the TPS or the signal (pin #4) to the ECU. Move the throttle very slowly if you have a digital meter and the readings should gradually increase or decrease depending on the direction of travel. If the voltage varies as stated then I would check for the same voltage at the corresponding pin on the ECU. You should also test the idle switch. Test between #1 and #2. At idle 0 ohms, WOT infinite ohms (open circuit).

What kind of meter are you using? Do you have a known value resistor handy to get a sanity check on your meter? It sounds as if you may actually have a bad TPS, but if you want to use JY parts you may want to be sure that your measurement technique is reliable. The TPS is a potentiometer. A potentiometer is a resistor with a movable tap called a wiper. When voltage is applied to one end of the resistor and ground to the other, the voltage at the wiper will be proportional to throttle position. The two ends of the resistor should be easy to identify. The resistance between these two terminals will not change as the throttle is moved. The wiper is the other terminal. The resistance between the wiper and either end of the resistor will change with throttle position. If the resistor is measured to be 12k ohms, the resistance between the wiper and one end of the resistor plus the resistance between the wiper and the other end of the resistor should always add to 12k, regardless of throttle position. Check the connector to the TPS with the key on to verify that a voltage (probably 5V) is present at one end of the resistor and ground is present at the other. You should then get a voltage out of the wiper proportional to throttle position. EDIT: My explanation assumes the potentiometer is linear taper and no guard resistors are used.

/____________ \ SpongeBob Squarepants! ( Perhaps having two young children has warped my mind a little )

You may be right. I have never bench bled a MC, but I have heard about it quite a bit, so I really don't know one way or the other. http://www.vtr.org/maintain/brake-bench-bleeding.html I assume the procedure would be similar with the MC mounted on the car.

Has the external filter been changed? Could be any number of things. I would start with the cheap stuff and probably get a second opinion.

Bleeding the master cylinder first might not be a bad idea, but I would hesitate to direct the bleeding fluid back into the reservoir if the MC is used. With the car off, the pedal should get firm once all of the air is out of the system. Repeat bleeding until the pedal becomes firm with the car off. I have never bled brakes with the engine running, I don't know if it works better or not. Make sure your timing is right if you are doing the two person method such that you close the bleeder before the person pumping releases the pedal. I put a 2x4 under the pedal to keep it from going all the way to the floor. I have the assistant pump the pedal 5 times then hold it down, then I realease the bleeder until I hear the pedal hit the 2x4 and then close it, then signal them to repeat. I do that 10 times for the front and 20 times for the rear. Each rep only takes about 10 seconds. Refill the reservoir every few reps. YMMV I have had good results with a mity-vac brake bleeder, and that way I don't need an assistant. IIRC I take about 8 oz out of each of the fronts and 16 oz out of each of the rears. On the outback it seems to require that much fluid flushed through before it runs clear. It starts out coming out looking like sam adams and ends up looking like coors light.

I currently use three different filters depending on application. I use the supertech for my beater, the Amsoil with Amsoil synthetic in the Subaru, and napa gold for everything in between. From what I have seen the OEM filters are very good. I think the napa gold and the OEM are the best buy at ~$5. The supertech is a pretty good filter for $2 but I have had some unusual startup lifter noise that I attribute to a leaky anti drain back valve. I don't think I would use one on a car I cared about. As much as everyone blasts fram's cardboard end caps I think the biggest problem is the poor anti drain back valve and bypass valve. My mom was having trouble with lifter noise on startup with her lumina van and fixed it by changing from fram to wix (napa gold).

Brakes or wheel bearings.

Some people disagree with me, but I was tought that if you need a wrench you are putting it on too tight.

It looks great!!! (except for that orange oil filter)

I seem to need to remove the cupholder assembly and wash it about once a year. I lube it up with dry graphite lube before I put it back in. Seems to prolong the inevitable.