ldeikis

I need to put a new clock spring into our 98 Forester. There were a couple used ones online, but they've all escaped me. There's a guy on eBay selling one out of a 01, which he describes as "S MODEL WITH ID# 6HL2035337". I can't tell from the Opposed Forces page if SOME 01' models interchange to my 98, or if they all do. Can someone with more experience with that page give me some quick help? The cruise being dead is no big deal, but the horn stopped working and now the car is way out of date for inspection because I keep not getting to this issue. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190596723708&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en http://opposedforces.com/parts/info/98261FC002/ thanks, Luke

You might read THIS for some entertainment. The VW > Samurai thing has been done enough that there's kits for it. Putting in a TDI is going to be real tricky--in addition to major fabrication, finding a mechanical pump for a TDI is a needle in a haystack in the US. You need an early TDI engine and a pump that basically doesn't exist here. Most guys end up buying them on euro ebay. Swapping in a "modern" TDI, with associated electronics and engine management, is (IMHO) insane. You can find a pre TDI VW diesel in the states fairly easily, and 1.9 Turbos in Canada. You can also make a 1.6/1.9 franken that's fairly common in the niche of VW diesel performance (ha!). That engine revs higher and faster than either stock TD, at the expense of miserable cold-weather starting. The biggest hangup is going to be addressing the gear ratios--if you swap in a VW transaxle, aside from huge amounts of fabricating, you give up your AWD. If you keep the suby transaxle, the gear ratio difference gas>diesel will stop you cold. I second just getting a VW diesel if that's what you want. They made a passat quatro for a while (that didn't, to my knowledge, come diesel, but would be a fairly reasonable swap) and I've seen swaps of AWD hardware into older VWs, but it was a *major* swap that definitely wasn't justified by any kind of financial logic. Luke (owning an old diesel rabbit and a 98 forester) Ps-- as a rule, diesels run COLDER, not hotter, than a gas engine, despite needing heat to ignite the fuel. If somebody's rabbit was running hot, overheating, etc, it was because of mechanical engine issues or the gas trans/diesel engine combo. The old diesel rabbits are crude beasts, but they run like clocks.

Thanks everyone for your help. This was pretty much my first time getting into this car (aside from a knock sensor and oil etc) and I learned a ton about it. I have to say, I think I really like these little boxer engines... maybe it's the similarity to the old aircooled vws I learned to wrench on... Anyway, for posterity, it seems the CPS code was getting thrown because the timing had jumped several teeth out. Each bank's intake/exhaust were vaguely in sync, so even though the left and right weren't in harmony, nothing got crunched. I blame the mouse hide I found under the timing belt cover, but maybe it was just luck. I think the fuel trim code was a red herring, perhaps due to an aging 02 sensor or dirty injector or who knows what. Hopefully it stays gone. Got it buttoned up, took it for a spin--nice and smooth--and it threw a CEL! I then learned that you have to recalibrate the TPS if you remove it (which I which I had done for clearance when locking the flywheel to tighten the crank pulley bolt). That's old news, apparently, according to the search function. New news, though, is that my $69 Actron CP9575 code reader also reads the TPS signal as a %, allowing you to really easily dial it in without having to mess with pinning the ECM etc. Of course I didn't realize that until I was mostly through it, but it's still good to know. Anyway, thanks for all the help. I look forward to remaining a part of this board. Luke

Skipped timing belt it is! I'm amazed it can even RUN this way. Another tooth or so and I imagine we'd have trashed the engine. When I lined up the notch on the left/drivers intake cam with the notch on the timing belt backplate, this is how things look: Double hash marks on driver's intake/exhaust cams slightly out of line: ...and both passenger cams are way out of wack! If I turn the crank until the hash mark on the PASSENGER side lines up with it's notch, the passenger exhaust cam is correct, but the DRIVER sides look like this: I don't have the timing belt covers all the way off yet--came in for some guidance on how to free up the crank bolt and am going to use the starter trick--but I did find THIS underneath the driver TB cover: I think maybe he was a mouse at one time. Hard to believe he could get that dessicated that quick, but I guess if he passed under the timing belt he would have been pretty well tenderized! We have issues with mice up in our engines all the time because we live on a farm... I recently tore apart the dash on my vw to find a huge mouse house inside my heater blower... I'm back out to try to remove everything and see what might be seeping and need replacing. Looks like it's TB time after all. Luke

If I can't isolate the problem to an injector or wiring/plug combo, I think a jumped timing belt will be my last hope before giving up. I'd planned to do the belt later this winter because the PO couldn't be 100% sure it'd been done. Is there a way to visually confirm the cams and crank are still lined up right without removing all the stuff you have to yank to actually change the thing? Luke

Help. I'm running out of ideas over here. No surprise, new CPS changed nothing. New OEM front 02 sensor changed nothing. Fuel pressure tests ok. Checked harness to CPS--which is still the only code reliably being thrown--and it checks out ok. New fuel and air filters. Cleaned MAF--which looked spotless--with no change. Code reader says ECU is accurately understanding coolant temp. No detectable exhaust or intake leaks, no loose hoses. Car continues to reek of raw gas and miss horridly. It won't run well enough to even drive to a shop with my tail between my legs--I'd have to get it towed, and we live in the sticks. Really don't wanna do that. Intuition is still saying it's related to the seafoam a tank ago, maybe loosened some crap up that's clogged or blocking something... maybe causing an injector to not close all the way or I don't know what. Am hesitant to feed it more cleaner though until it's happy... a rough running engine is a lot easier to diagnose than a non-running one. All suggestions welcome. Thanks. Luke

I'm working on getting my hands on a fuel pressure tester. In the meantime, I ordered the CPS as well as a front oxygen sensor--kind of a lot of money, but I need to have this car back on the road, and if it doesn't need it now, it likely will some day. CPS made no difference to the car at all. Big surprise. I also sprayed off the MAF sensor with a can of MAF cleaner fluid, which made no difference. Went to install oxygen sensor and Liberty Subaru sent me the wrong part--the one they sent has a square connector and the car has a triangular one. I think they sent the rear sensor instead of the front? Waiting on a call back from their guy to make that right. While I was warming it up a little to ease removing the old sensor, I was watching the data on the scanner and noticed the car starts out in open loop mode, then switches to closed as it warms up.... but it's running sloppy rich and missing right from the get-go. Does this mean the 02 sensor definitely isn't responsible, or does the car base its open-loop settings off previous 02 sensor input? I cleared the codes on the ECU prior to observing this, but I don't know if that wipes off everything or not. Thanks. I'm off after a pressure tester. This is getting old. Luke EDIT: Got a fuel pressure gauge on it. Reads 30psi at idle with everything hooked up (FSM spec is 23-30psi), 39psi at idle if I disconnect the regulator vacuum hose (FSM spec is 33-40). Happy for opinions on where to poke next, as well as whether open-loop mode runs off factory defaults or off learned trim settings (even with cleared codes). I think next I'll try disconnecting injectors to see if I can isolate a particular cylinder missing, and then start swapping around injectors. Wondering if maybe the seafoam could have loosed some crap resulting in a blocked and dripping injector or something.

So I got my hands on the FSM and ran through the relevant tests. Not a lot to the CPS--either the sensor's bad or the wiring's bad. I *still* have trouble believing that's the issue. While I was at it, I went through the diagnostic for the 0172. Diagnostic says with the car at operating temp, the MAF should be reading 2.2-4.2 g/s at idle, and 8.6-14.5 g/sec at 2500rpm. My scanner only reads lb/min, but the internet converts those to .29-.56 lb/min and 1.14-1.92 lbs/min respectively (calculator here). My little scanner shows ~.95 lb/min at 1000rpm and ~2.00 lb/min at 2500 rpm, which is about twice what the FSM says... which means the MAF thinks the car is breathing a lot more air, so the ECU would dump a lot more fuel, creating a super rich environment, no? I was off to the store to get some spray can MAF cleaner, but my VW decided now was the perfect time to toss it's alt belt, and it's a nightmare to access so that pretty much tied me up. Can anyone weigh in on whether that g/sec > lb/min conversion is fair? Are the ranges my scanner picked up far enough out to blame? Can I trust this Actron scanner to accurately read the MAF via the OBDII port? Do I need OEM for the MAF--the only junkyard anywhere near here is closed for the winter (or anyone got a good one they wanna sell?). Is it reasonable that the MAF could be that far out of wack and the ECU not know it? Also: In the diagnostic, I had to skip the bit about testing the fuel rail pressure b/c I don't have a gauge for that. Is that a pretty standard universal thing I can pick up at NAPA or autozone? I'm happy to own it if it's not super expensive and has other applications; if it's a zillion dollars and suby specific maybe I don't need one. Also: While trouble shooting, I started the car with the MAF disconnected to see if it would limp along. Ran like crap, then stalled. It also tripped the AT fluid temp light, which is now flashing incessantly. WTF? Thanks. I won't be able to work on this thing til Friday night or Saturday at best; wish I could have sprayed down the MAF and tried that, but I'll have to do that before I spend $ on a new one. Luke in NY EDIT--for clarity, the car hasn't thrown 0172 in a couple hundred miles, but is registering the CPS code pretty much immediately.

Yea, I've been looking. I tried to download a copy from an eBay seller and it won't uncompress correctly. I'd be happy to pay for a paper copy used or new--I'm a big fan of having the right info--but I can't even find one. I'm leaning towards just ordering the part, since that's what the car says it wants... Luke

Had the wife turn the car over while I monitored the CPS with the meter. It definitely is pulsing, but the voltage it's putting out is way too low for me to read it on the meter... but that's what I'd expect from a hall sensor like that. My intuition still tells me this isn't the problem... Is it possible that a fueling issue is causing the engine to idle so low--nearing a stall, or about to stall--that the time between pulses on the CPS is long enough to trigger the ECU thinking its got no signal? I only ask b/c the freeze data shows the code was thrown at 888rpm, which is way below the car's normal idle I believe... and because I'm having trouble believing this is my issue. Also, it's taking a while for it to throw the code after it's been wiped off, whereas I'd think an actual faulty CPS would toss immediately. FYI, the fuel pressure regulator is all happily hooked up with no signs of leaking; engine doesn't respond to tweaking any of the vacuum lines, and none are disconnected or loose that I can see. Local dealer doesn't have it in stock anyway, so I'll have to order it online. I'm going to keep thinking on it, but I have to commit by this evening as I'm going out of town for 3 days working and need this part waiting when I get home. Anything else to check??? EDIT--Yea, funny on the Fluke, I wouldn't think a sensor like that would need an analog meter... and I do trust my life to that thing somewhat regularly, though not usually reading ohms. The wife already took off for work tonight, so I can't try testing the CPS while turning over with the digi--I wouldn't think it would respond in a readable way, though... new analog metr which is correctly zeroing trembled appropriately, I think.

Unfortunately the meter is just a rat shack multimeter and doesn't have a scope, so I don't have access to a way to see the sine. EDIT: Reinstalled sensors and took it for a ride to try to throw a code again. Car can barely get out of it's own way--I needed a rolling start to pull up the gentle bump into my garage. Shut car off, turned it back on to hook up scanner and it finally threw a CPS code again. Freeze data says: Code P0341 RPM: 888 calc load 5.9% MAP 17.4 Hg Coolant temp 169*F ST FTRM1 0.0% LT FTRM1 0.0% veh speed 0 fuel sys 1 open fuel sys 2 n/a I guess I ought to call the stealer and go pick up a CPS huh? Still doesn't make any sense to me, but oh well. All help welcome. Luke

Went and picked up a new analog meter to double check. Both crank and cam position sensor are coming in at 2k Ohms, which I gather from this forum is correct. Can't explain why it's throwing a code unless the circuitry is wonky somewhere. Connections seem clean, tried a dab of dialectric on the terminals with no change. I don't understand why it would spit a cam sensor code, nor why that would act like this and I have to wonder if it's not a red herring one off. I tend to think the P0170 is more helpful even though it's not throwing that one anymore--the nose confirms it's running *really* rich, like raw-gas rich. I don't want to run it this gassy longer than necessary but I think I'm going to button it up and idle it until it spits a code again. Does 0170 imply a front oxygen sensor on these cars? Luke

Hello all. Backstory: Wife's 98 forester had lit the CEL a couple weeks ago with a P0170 (fuel trim malfunction)--I dumped in a can of sea foam, cleared it, and it hasn't come back in a few hundred miles. I picked up fuel/air/oil filters because the car was due, but hadn't yet installed them. Today the car started on only 2 cylinders, running horridly, and smelling VERY rich. No CEL yet. Put in the new fuel and air filters because why not, started it up, same symptoms, and it lit the CEL with a P0341--cam position sensor. Popped the CPS out and tested it with a good digital meter and it's reading infinity across the terminals... I found it hard to believe the car could even RUN that way, so I dug out my old analog meter, which is reading .2 ohms (almost total continuity). BUT, I can't get the old analog meter to zero properly, so it might be FUBAR. The digi is a Fluke that I use for work regularly and literally trust with my life. Questions: Does the CPS care if it's tested with a digital (low voltage) meter or an analog? Do I need to buy OEM or brand-name on this (prices seem to range from ~$20 to over $100)? What else should I be checking? Car has a *very* slight exhaust leak, mostly muffled by an infuriating loose heat shield... can't imagine it's nearly enough to contribute. We've only had it since late last winter, a little less than a year... PO is "pretty sure" the timing belt got done 20k ago, but I planned on doing it all this winter to be safe = no real knowledge on when belt/tensioner/etc were done. Help. Thanks. Luke EDITED: I had the P0170 typed as 0172.

GeneralDisorder-- Thanks for the info. I got a new knock sensor in the mail today and, as you describe, it's a two wire plug with only one terminal in it. I'd prefer to do it right and go cut a harness plug at a pick-n-pull, but NY has some pretty nanny state insurance laws that often prevent you from getting into the junkyard yourself... and I doubt they'd be interested in dealing with the hassle of digging in and cutting off a plug for me at a reasonable price. Before I go ahead and solder I'll make some calls though. If I have to solder it, I think I'll try to trace it back to the big harness plug on the passenger side and try to splice in there. Does anyone have a useful wiring diagram that explains the pins on that plug, or am I stuck poking through it with an ohmeter? I don't mind the meter tactic, just worried if it's an intermittent wiring issue and not the sensor that maybe I won't have continuity to begin with. Thanks! Luke

I know it's an EJ25, not 22--says so on the block. I don't know enough about these engines yet to even know if it's Phase I or II or R2D2. All new to me. Before we bought it I lay under it with a rag and a flashlight to confirm it has the new style HG, other than that I've hardly sat in the thing til it threw this code. I don't even know if the thing is SOHC or DOHC. It's weird to me to have a car and not a workshop manual. Is the smart move to buy a FSM for the earlier legacy/OBW for the engine, as mentioned above, and a haynes/chilton for the later Forester for body etc? I'd love this car to not need a huge amount of mechanical attention from me--my plate's pretty full with a 30 year old diesel vw as a daily driver--but i'd love to have the info available without harrassing people on the net to look things up on my behalf. So... if the car has the single-wire sensor and the OEM phase I EJ25, then if I just resoldered everything fine maybe it's alright? The light hasn't come back on yet and the car drives fine. Luke

Yeah, whoever did this first just cut the plug off entirely, and he did REALLY close to the loom so there's no way in hell I can get at it without major disassembly. I saw that main harness plug you're talking about and had the same thought--it'll be hard to figure out which pins I'm working with, though, since I don't have the other end available to put a meter on... just ONE of the other ends (if I'm correct in understanding I need two wires to the sensor). I can't find a workbook for the car but am thinking of buying one for the slightly later models, which I see available online. I don't have time to deal with it right now so I just soldered it all back up--who knows, maybe it was working and just came loose?--and will deal with it soon. The car DOES need a two-wire sensor, right? If the sensor is on there is only attached with the inner wire, could the outer sheath just be a ground that's being taken care of by the sensor being bolted to the engine? I haven't played with these before. Thanks. Luke

Hi. We bought a 98 Forester a couple months ago and I haven't had much reason to interact with it yet... I've actually only even driven it a couple of times, since it's primarily by girlfriend's car. It threw a trouble code for the knock sensor circuit. Figured I'd pull it out and clean up the connections... lo and behold, after removing all the airbox junk to see clearly, it's clear someone has cut the plug off the god d*mn harness and used a solderless crimp to attach the oxygen sensor!? More digging makes it look like maybe this happened TWICE?! The sensor I pulled out (by accident, thinking the solderless crimp was a bullet connector) was connected to a thin blue wire with a white tracer. Some more digging shows that a 1/4" later that thin blue wire is wrapped in tape, and seems to join a thicker grey wire. What is it with people? Further, the knock sensor that's on there seems to be two wires--a core, and then a sheath that's separated with insulation from the core. The sheath was stripped back, so only the core wire entered the solderless connector. Digging on the net implies this car OUGHT to have a 2 wire sensor. Any confirmation? It was only hooked to 1 wire, and I've got next to no room in there to get at the harness if I want to solder to the original wire and not the blue/white one. Is that sheath just a shield or something? ie, can I resolder just the inner wire, or do I have to tear things out until I can strip enough of the harness away to properly resolder a new connector out of a junkyard or something? What a PITA. I've thought the car was a little down on power, but I just figured a big wagon with AWD might just be a bit more conservative than I expected. Thanks. Luke

We finally managed to check the car out today. Thanks to everyone here, I'm pretty sure the head gaskets are the new style... but I'd love anyone's confirmation on that. Here's pics (I used a scrap of rag to clean them off a bit). The car runs and drives nice, the only thing that caught my eye was a significant amount of wetness on the rear differential/transaxle. The current owner had it checked out at one of those quickie lube places 700 miles ago and his receipt says they checked the rear differential fluid and it's ok. I don't trust those places any further than I could throw one, but the fill plug was in there tight as hell (impact wrench?) and I couldn't get enough leverage to open it without jacking the car way up and using a cheater... so I didn't. No weird noises when driving, though. I'll check it ASAP if we buy the vehicle. It's going to need tires soon--might even fail inspection--and the windshield has a few chips, and I still need to see a receipt for the timing belt... but I think we'll get it. Wet transaxle: (tell me it's no big deal) Thanks everyone. Looking forward to being part of the board... and if anyone wants to confirm that HG is a new one, I'd love to hear it. Luke

Tom, We're in northern Columbia County, a touch southeast of Albany, so it'd be a bit of a trip for you--but thanks for the offer. Thanks all for the input. Something came up for the guy selling it and he couldn't meet us today (and I'm working tomorrow) so we're trying to find a time to see the car this week. I'm going to print out one of the pictures from that link, that looks really helpful. Looking for round vs rectangular punch marks will probably be the ticket for me--longer vs shorter ears is a hard call if it's the first and only one you're looking at, and I imagine the whole scene will be a bit grimy. I wouldn't buy a car without slithering under it anyway. I'll post back and let you all know how it goes. One way or another I expect we're getting a subaru, so I ought to be around here a touch. Thanks, Luke

Hi all. I'm somewhat new to subaru's but not to working on cars or online forums. I've found a ton of information on here from searching and am looking forward to being a part of the board. The question: We're looking to get a used but modern (last ~10 years) subaru. A friend of a friend is moving across the country and needs to sell his 98 Forester in the next couple few weeks. Because we're friends and he's under pressure and he got it for a steal to begin with, he's offering it to us for a bargain ($1500). I'm seeing the car this weekend, so I'll know much more about it then. The story as I understand it is that the car started life as a rental (I know, red flags), at 40k it was bought by a subaru dealer in Colorado where he was living. The daughter of this subaru dealer, who's a friend of the current owner, owned the car through college. When she graduated she received a brand new car as a gift, and this friend bought the Forester from her. Before the car came to NY 2 years ago it had a bunch of preventative maintenance done (timing belt and some other stuff--I'm seeing receipts this weekend). It's been dealer maintained its whole life. The car has 150k on it currently. I get what to look for for a LEAKING head gasket--bubbles in the overflow, milky oil, froth in the oil cap, sludgey coolant tank. If it isn't currently blown, how can I tell if the head gasket HAS already been changed? IE, how do I tell if it's got a new-syle gasket that'll last forever, or somehow magically hasn't blown the old one and is a time bomb waiting to happen??? Also, if anyone wants to weigh in and offer a reality check on purchasing a car that you know was a rental at one point, I'm open. It raised a huge red flag for me, but the price seems like a steal. The current owner I trust to be a completely stand up guy who's being totally honest with what he knows about the car, but he's not a car guy at all. Thanks for any input. Luke in NY