Setright

1991? I would assume an EJ22 engine? The sound was likely a sticky hydraulic valve lifter. If it's gone, don't worry. (A rod knock will usually get louder as the engine oil heats up and thins out.)

On slotted discs, which are less kind to pads, I get at least 30,000km. On plain discs I would expect 50,000km. Any more than that and I would be tempted to replace them anyway due to age.

Not in my car, but yes, in some models the aircon comes on along with the defrost setting.

Cougar, the air is routed through the air-con heat exchanger, then the cabin heater. Unless the door routes it past the cabin heater. Meaning that if the door is in "heat" position, the air will be drawn in, cooled and dried and then heated. Only if the air-con heat exchanger is not cold will the condensation evapourate again and hot wet air will enter the cabin.

The valve in the cabin heater is extremely old-tech. Many manufacturers abandoned this when cars were given fixed roofs. If the flap door is to blame, the air would be hot, but still DRY. Your coolant level may be fine, what I would worry about is you refrigerant level. Has the system had the wrong type of gas added? Mixing them can cause them to thicken and loose effect. The cooling element in the cabin should have a temp sensor on it. If this is too close to the element it may overeact and tell the compressor to shut off. The idea with this sensor is to avoid freezing the element, but if the sensor is loose it may occasionally come into contact with the element. In fact, I would check up on this temp sensor first. Access shouldn't be too tricky from below the dashboard on the passenger side.

It might. Less scavenging of the blowby gases from the crankcase due to a blocked PCV would be the cause. Normally, the engine recycles the fuel it didn't burn through the PCV. So it could be possible that the injection system would feed more fuel to compensate.

Brakes rubbing could be a simple as the anti-splash plate inside the wheel touching the brake disc. Come to think of it, the problem could be as simple as some dirt or stones in the spring "pan" on the suspension strut. I can't comment on prices, since I live in Denmark. I would'nt say that wheel bearing is expensive to fix. Oh, a bearing would also be noisy on the move. Are the plastic fender liners clipped into place properly? A tyre could be rubbing at full steering lock.

Your steering will feel soggy, and the back of the car will tend to slide. Especially if you close the throttle or brake in a bend. BE CAREFUL!

Or just fit the correct Mocal oil cooler. For sure you should be running a 50 weight oil. Whether it's 5W-50 or 10W-50 or 15W-50. I would not use a 5W-30 as the handbook suggests. Much too thin for all those revs.

Ok, I would suggest brake rubbbing or wheel bearing failure.

When is a car "modern"?

It used to be auto tranny only here in Europe, but the next generations will VDC available on the manual tranny aswell. So far it's a 2.5. and 3.0 engine thing.

benking, we need some info about your car please. Offhand, I would say it's a CV joint.

As Dogbert said when he charged himself with static from the carpet: "It is useless to be a resistor!"

(Whoa! Better stay out of this one, might get caught in the crossfire!)

Copenhagen, the capital city that's tucked away in the south east corner. The Swedish "Sturup Raceway" is only about fourty five minutes from here, across the bridge that spans the straight. I was at the Nürburgring about two weeks ago

A Danish car magazine and the local Sube importer invited us for a trackday in Sweden. They are doing an article to help shed more light on the Sube brand here in scandinavia. They paid transport and track rent! That's mine, fourth from left:

Volume is too small to worry about :-)

I am SO with Outback97 on this one. Fiamm AM100 aka. "Freeway Blasters" are the business! ! 132dB !

"Setright's Special Tools" Opening soon in Copenhagen

Purge the system again, but do it with the car facing up on an incline. We can talk about head gasket failures later :-(

The guy at Toyota said "boil it, and you should see it open." Erm, I said rad cap, not thermostat. But he insisted I put it in boiling water???

Yep, let someone with a bit of experience and the right equipment do it. Of course, there is never any way of being sure that they do it right...

WELL! Nissan, doesn't have the equipment. Suzuki, doesn't have the equipment. Funnily enough, neither does Toyota! How do these CAPITAL CITY Stealerships get away with it?? I phoned a radiator shop, and they can't pressure test a cap either!! All of them insisted that the spring could not have been damaged. Hopefully they are right, but I don't like the thought of the spring having been compressed past it's normal working range.

Well, I don't feel like emptying my cooling system since I just changed the fluid. The cap went haywire a few days later. I already have a new stock cap on there, so it works as per factory specs. I just wanted to use a high pressure cap, for trackdays like the one I am going on today. My problem is I cant be sure of the pressure in the STi cap anymore. I have found three Japanese dealerships in my local area and will be calling them in a few minutes when they open. Hopefully one of them will have the right equipment to test the cap with!