hlevyn

thanks. tho i'm not sure how thrilled i am to hear that this is normal

it doesn't happen immediately, just periodically. i'll check the belts tho. thanks!

i'm having a somewhat related issue in my '00 outback (in that my ac and defroster are giving me trouble). when i run either the ac or defroster, i will periodically hear a sound which to me sounds like a belt slipping and if followed by a momentary loss of power (engine feels really heavy all of a sudden and car slows down). it only lasts a second tho and then things are back to normal. anyone run into this before or have any suggestions as to what might be causing it? thanks =)

just had a tank of 91 in, so, as promised, here are hte results: performance went up quite a bit. the engine had a really good solid feel to it, especially in the high rpm ranges (for the first time i didn't hesitate to get her close to red line). in addition, susan also had a lot of pep and could accelerate like a bat outta hell when i needed her to now, for the bad part. fuel economy did drop as expected, but i'm not sure how much of it is due to the gas and how much is due to me playing with the new power . i also noticed that i felt uncomfortable letting the rpms drop below 2500 (with 89 i get uncomfortable when they approach 2000). if i could afford it, i'd use 91 a lot more. but, alas, college student, so i'll be running a tank of 91 once a month or every 2 months. one other note about this: i live in boulder creek, california, so the elevation i was driving at ranged from <10ft to ~500ft.

i have a 2000 outback (manual) in which i use 89. 89 seems to give me a good balance between performance and gas mileage, however i do plan to use 91 in the next tank to see what difference it makes (will post results). as for brand, i used to use 76 but found i'm getting better mileage off shell (one note about this is that i think it might be this specific shell station - need to do a bit more research). hope this helps some =)

thanks guys. i'm a poor college student who's working to cover rent, food, and gas. when i have $150 of disposable income i'll see about replacing it. take care!

thanks. it's a 2000 outback with > 107k miles on it. feels like it's running fine. gas mileage dipped a good bit last tank, but seems to be back to normal on this one. i bought the car back in feb, and am not sure if the post-ccO2 sensor been changed (any easy way to check?). the air, oil, and fuel filters were also changed ~5k miles ago, and the plugs, wires, coil, and 2 fuel injectors on it are new due to a misfire i was having. i'm not terribly worried about it, but would just like to make sure things keep running smoothly and would also like to avoid the annoyance factor of having the cel come on. thanks for the response =)

heya guys. had the check engine light on despite the fact that the car felt like it was running great. took it by the dealer and found the code to be a catalytic converter code. the guy there said it's most likely just something in there either blocking the o2 sensor, or something just bumped it. the light's off atm, and i'd like to keep it that way. any suggestions on what i can do to clean things out in there? is there anything i can do? thanks!

Replaced he fuel injector last night and she's running smoothly again. Only concern I have now is the smell of gasoline and the excesive use of fuel on the way into work this morning.... Is that something I should be worried about or do things need to settle in?

i've driven well over a hundred miles since replacing them, but that is a great suggestion i'll keep in mind next time i repair(?) something. soon as my class/work schedule permits i'll get the air and fuel filters changed. also, any recommendations of a good mechanic in the santa cruz, san jose, or palo alto areas?

I'll take a look at that. When I had it at the mechanic's yesterday they took a look and thought it might be the fuel injector. It only seems to misfire/run rough at low rpms; once I'm on the freeway or get the engine up to 3000+ rpm things really smoothe out and seem to run well. I'll check that hose. I'm also going to have someone else look at the fuel injector. If you guys want I'll keep you posted on what's going and let you know what the problem actually was whenever I find out.

the air and fuel filters were changed 3000 miles ago. how often should they be replaced? this also reminds me of a conversation i had with a friend about this problem. one thing he suggested was that when this was fixed i started using 87 rather than 89 octane. i do a lot of driving up and down hills, and a good bit on highways. with that kind of driving, which fuel would you recommend?

Will do... What do they look like and where in the engine will I find them? (I've only had this car since Feb and I'm still learning my way around engines in general). Thanks for your patience =)

Hello everyone! I have 2000 Outback (manual) that had been misfiring for a little while. Monday I finally changed the plugs - no change. Last night I changed the wires - misfiring feels like it's stopped. However, I still have some other problems lingering: when i disengage the engine my rpms plumit to ~0 and then slowly climb back up. They used to stay down around 250, not at laest the climb back to ~750. Naturally, with the rpms that low the engine and entire car shakes a good deal. When the rpms climb above 1000 things seem to mellow out. The other problem is lack of power, most noteable when trying to accelerate up a hill (which is horribly convienent since I live in the Santa Cruz mountains). I also have a coil waiting to be installed, but after reading the thread about coil failure this doesn't sound like it (although I very well could be wrong). Tomorrow I'm taking her in for some maintenance and going to have the mechanic take a look at this problem. Another mailing list suggested that this could be a clogged converter, but someone I trust has also disputed that theory. I'd like to have some ideas that I could suggest to the mechanic in hopes to speed up diagnosis. Have any of you run into something similar or have some ideas around what could be causing this? Thanks in advance!