kemmer

I changed the battery terminals. My wife took it in to a shop while I was out of town, they charged her 60 bucks to tell her that everything looked ok besides the terminals and that the starter was making a funny sound. I wondered if maybe it was the starter solenoid, where is it located? I either didn't recognize it or couldn't see it.

Here's what the car is doing... If you start the car and drive it, even for a short distance, when you try to start it again it won't start. It doesn't turn over or anything. After it sits for a couple of hours it will start again with no problems. Has anyone experienced something like this?

when you say "after the first reset" I assume you mean after I changed the plugs and wires, in which case it would be the knock sensor code. this is the only code it has thrown since I replaced the plugs and wires Now that the car is running right, I would be tempted to just forget the whole thing, but I really want to walk back in to that dealership with no CEL on and demand a refund. I hadn't thought about calling SOA, but I think I will, maybe it will be good for a couple oil changes or something.

The knock sensor was new. I'll have a look at it to make sure the terminal is tight and clean. The timing belt and tensioners were replaced when we put the used engine in 20k miles or so ago. The ac is quiet as far as I can tell.

It has been replaced, about 6 months ago.

OK, the CEL came back in after about 5 miles of driving, I wasn't driving at the time and my wife didn't notice when it came back on so I have no idea what conditions may have made it come on. The good news is that all the misfire codes are still gone and just the knock sensor code remains. Any ideas what could be causing this? one of the first things we did to this car was replace the knock sensor when all of this started.

nope, engine is in the car. I just stuck the camera down in there...

Anyone wanna guess what kind of wires I was halfway done installing when I ran into this problem? You guessed it, autozone specials. Oh well, next time I'll use OEM wires.

I drove it to autozone and turned off the CEL. I drove the 2miles home without it coming back on, so it looks like maybe a simple tune up fixed it. If this is all it took I'm going to be seriously pissed at the two shops that tried fixing this for me, what a joke!

yeah, I tried a pick but the rubber was too hard and I couldn't get any leverage. The JB weld did the trick, that was the only way I think it would have come out. The sucker was stuck in there good, I had a really hard time pulling it out. I ended up ripping the wire off, and then the rubber handle thingy and finally I got it to come out by pulling on the end of the plastic tube part with a pair of pliers. The plastic was breaking and getting chewed up and I was afraid of having a real disaster on my hands if that plastic bit had been chewed up to the point of not being able to grab it with my pliers. The moral of the story is: don't buy autozone spark plug wires.

I tried to get some needle nose pliers in there, but they weren't long enough. I guess if the JB weld doesn't work I'll have to buy some longer ones. yeah, that's kinda what I trying to do with the JB weld. I'll report back once it's dry.

would this process be identical for the EJ25?

The little rubber boot on the end of my spark plug wire came off inside tthe car. I can't get the spark plug socket on, obviously, and that little piece of rubber is in there good. I have tried getting it to stay on the wire, but I keeps slipping off no matter what. I put some JB weld on the end of the wire hoping it will stick, but if this doesn't work I don't know what what to do. I'm stumped!

I'm in the process of changing the plugs and wires, I ran into a little problem changing one of the wires, and made a new thread about it here: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?p=898677#post898677 I took it for a spin with the three wires and plugs replaced and it made a HUGE difference. The plugs looked pretty bad, and I'm wondering if it was running hot or something. These plugs aren't more than 2 years old at most, I didn't think they would look this bad. I have attached a pic, please take a look and let me know what you think.

What the hell man, I want my $150 bucks back. I guess maybe we'll take it someplace else, but I'm pretty sick of paying for diagnostics and not coming up with answers.