dcolemanca

I mean that when am moving in 2nd gear or 3rd gear, lift off the accelerator, then try to ease the gas on again, I get a bucking of the car, really horrible unsmooth pickup. My solution to avoid it is use the clutch when I want to accelerate again to ease the power in even more, but never had to do that on previous cars. Usually you have enough control with the throttle alone to ease the power back and have smooth pickup without any jerkiness

I have 97 Outback Legacy 2.5 MT, 110k, new clutch at 100k I have seen many reports on Subaru forums about this problem, namely engine/transmission rocks on throttle lift off and on again to accelerate, worst in lower gears. I have this problem, been driving manuals for years and this the worst I have had in any car. I have to declutch when resuming acceleration in 2nd and 3rd, never had to do that before. There seems to be varying opinions on whether to change the engine and transmission mounts for harder STI ones. The ones on my car appear to be OK visually but I suppose they could be worn after that many years and miles. The question is should I change tranny mounts, engine mounts or both, and should I go for OEM or the STI stiffer ones? I find this problem to really spoil my owenrship of this car so want to get it fixed. I don't want to go OEM if it's not going to get much better BUT I don't want lots of noise, harshness and vibration if that's what you get from STI ones. Hoping some helpful folks here can help me out of this dilemma. I plan to do the job myself, I think the tranny mount is straightforward but reading the forums seems like the engine mount on Subarus can be hard due to one bolt being hard to reach, but hopefully not such a problem on Legacy as it has bigger engine bay area than other models?

I went ahead and installed just the slave and kept the orginal hose cos was unsure about the different hose connection on the new one. Was pretty easy, I bled using the clutch pedal and then I let some fluid drain thru by itself (gravity bleed) to make double sure. The result is excellent - the clutch is noticeably lighter. I can't comment on if the sticking pedal problem is gone cos I haven't done a lot of driving in hot weather.

So I purchased the parts and was about to start installing when I discovered the new clutch hose has the wrong fitting at one end. The original has the same fitting at both ends, sort of a cylinder with hole in the middle and a narrow opening towards the hose itself, maybe you would call it an eye fitting. The new cable has this type at one end but a threaded female connector at the other end and it is a little shorter. It definitely won't work. I double checked the part #'s and I definitely got the correct one for my car according to the TSB. So now I am stuck as to what to do, I am considering just installing the slave cylinder for now and leave the hose. Is the hose really a likely source of the pedal sticking problem? Anyone have this experience? What did you do? The clutch hose part # I got was 37251AC001

I tested the resistance from middle connector pin to the outer ones, approx 9 ohms on both. I decided to tackle removing and cleaning, glad I did because I found the lower bolt was loose so I'm sure I was getting air leak. The valve itself had some carbon deposit, not to bad and seemed to be operating freely. I got as much deposit off as I could with carb cleaner and reassembled. Can't really tell any difference but then it was running fine when it wasn't throwing the CEL anyway. I had also been getting the misfire P0303 and P0304 from time to time as well and maybe that was related to the IAC. Fingers crossed that this takes care of these problems ...

Thanks for the info and advice. I have read somewhere in one of the Subaru forums that the clutch has to be "gravity" bled. Is that correct and does that change the procedure? For example to you open the bleed point a little and leave it for say an hour?

Outback Legacy 97, 109k miles, new clutch (104k) I have the infamous sticking clutch pedal problem when its hot and plan to replace the slave cylinder as per the TSB on the subject. (http://www.scoobymods.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2041)) Since I had a new clutch I don't need to put new fluid in, but have a few questions since I never did anything like this before? 1) can I replace the slave and hose without spilling fluid everywhere? 2) can I bleed the system, after changing the slave and hose, by myself? 3) what is the best way to do the bleed? 4) should I bite the bullet and get new master cylinder too? TIA

UPDATE I was driving home from work, no hills, after approx 3 miles CEL came on again, this time I got P1507 and P1540. The latter is to do with the VSS. The speedo is working normally. I cleared both codes and they haven't come back so far. Any other ideas on what could be the root cause and even better a fix? I did change the PCV valve, I haven't cleaned the IAC valve yet.

Thans for the advice. changed the PCV valve last night, the old one had a lot of carbon build up although seemed to operate freely, but for $4 wasn't going to quibble. Not sure next time I will be coming down steep hill but when I do I will post back with the results.

Recently I have had this check engine light code on my Subie Outback Legacy 1997, 109k miles. I have an OBDI-II reader so have read the code then cleared on both occasions. The first time it happened I was returning to San Jose from Santa Cruz Mountains (SF Bay Area) so about 6 miles of steepish, descending winding roads. The light came on whilst descending and the engine stalled, and I had to bump start to get it going as the car wouldn't turnover - wierd. After that it ran normally all the way home. I checked the connector on the IAC valve but took no further action. The battery did not appear to be discharged when I got back. The second time it happened was a similar scenario, downhill winding roads for about 6 miles, but this time there was a big loss of power, I am guessing that I had lost 2 cylinders - maybe it was running fail safe? When I read the code and cleared it the car again runs normally with full power. I plan to take the IAC valve off next weekend to clean it as I am hoping I don't need to buy a new one, I hear it costs around $330! Any other suggestions as to what could be wrong, or steps to take to find the root cause? It just seems wierd that it coincided both times with descending steep winding roads at around 30mph. Anyone have a working IAC valve for sale by chance? TIA

Thanks for all the responses - I'll try the resistor trick and post back with the results later.

I have 97 Legacy Outback and think I may have the infamous knock sensor issue being too sensitive and retarding the ignition leading to some slight hesitation at lower revs. I live in SF bay area and always use 87 octane gas. It's not really obvious but it does feel like a slight hesitation when I accelerate. I don't have a check engine light on so the sensor is probably working OK. I was wondering if I can test this condition by disconnecting the knock sensor and see if the hesitation goes away? I would just do this for a test run so minimal chance of any damage. What is the latest thinking on the solution to this problem? Has there been any improvement to the sensor so I should buy a new one? What's the best way to reduce the sensitivity? I see the use of a teflon spacer being recommended, does that work?

I am thinking this might be the engine / transmission mounts since the car has 101k miles. I am doing smooth gearchanges for the most part - must be training myself to the car. The problem I can do nothing about is when moving slowly, clutch out, and accelerating in first, second or third (depending on speed), the car often bucks for a few seconds until it settles. This is really spoiling my enjoyment of the car which is great apart from this. Do these symptoms sound like worn mounts? Any way to verify they are gone without removal? Can they be changed by one man? Any links to guide on how to do it - I do have the Haynes manual but they are often lacking in the specifics to a particular car. Which mounts should I change? Where is a good place to buy them online?

bummer, any chance the clutch will get better with time? I think I am going to have a hard time getting them to change the clutch. I will take it back for them to check but I know this is going to be hard work, I can just hear the weasle words now ...

Just had a new clutch installed in car just bought privately. The old one was slipping badly and gearchanges were difficult etc. Way better with new clutch but still not perfect. The biggest problem is with the clutch out. If I have lifted off in second or third mostly and then try to give some gas to accelerate again I am not getting smooth pickup. Instead the car lurches a bit for maybe 2 seconds and then I have smooth transmission. This is not just a problem when the car is cold and I can't really get it to be smooth no matter how gingerly I apply the power. It's definetely ruining the driving pleasure. Also it's kind of hard to do smooth gear changes and the clutch pedal is still stiffer to depress than my old Nissan NX2000. At first I thought this might be worn engine mounts (101,000 miles) but then I started reading about all the clutch woes on Subarus. The clutch was not done at a dealer and the garage used an Exedy clutch I believe. They did machine the flywheel as part of this work. What are the possible causes of this problem and can I resaonably get the garage to fix. I have a 6 month 6000 mile warranty. TIA