jeryst

Ok, I'm a little confused. If a thermostat opens at 160 and lets the water circulate through the system, wont the entire engine be cooler than if the themostat opens at 190?

I havent taken them out so I'm a little confused on how to replace them. Does the light assembly come apart in order to get the screws and clips out? I've looked on ebay and cant find replacements. And there's no way I'm paying $200+ for new assemblies just to adjust my lights. If they can be taken apart to remove the screws and clips, wouldnt it be possible to rig up some type of replacement, or is it a special thread?

So, is there a comprehensive list somewhere, of engines/production years/car models/engine weaknesses? I would think something like that would be extremely valuable, at least to me it would be.

I tried to adjust my headlights because they are aiming way too low, but the adjustment screws are rusted solid. I've tried soaking them with Blaster for a couple days, and then rock them back and forth with some small vicegrips, but no luck. If I take the headlights out, can the adjustment screws be replaced? If so, where can I get them? If not, what else can I do?

The guy said some relative of his worked for Subaru but I cant remember what he said he did there. He said the lower temps reduce the range of expansion and contraction, which translates to longer life. I agree that some people's will say anything. I dont know this guy from Adam. We struck up a conversation at a gas station because we both had older Subarus. He asked me if I had my HGs replaced yet. He told me that he had over 300k on his 2.5 and never needed to have his HGs replaced because of using lower temp thermostats. Said the only downside was that the heater did not work all that well. From an engineering perspective, I suppose it makes some sense. If you took two pieces of metal and you repeatedly bent one back and forth at a 10 degree angle while you bent the second piece at a 70 degree angle, you could probably bend the 10 degree piece more times before it broke. I try to keep an open mind, but I was still pretty skeptical, so I was just wondering if anyone else has heard anything like that, or if the guy was just blowing smoke (no pun intended).

So no one feels that a bad water pump could be causing this?

I was talking to a guy that told me that keeping a lower degree thermostat in the car would significantly increase HG life in the 2.5 motor. Anyone heard about that or believe it?

On this car, there is an identical lock/unlock switch on both the driver and passenger doors. 1.The switch on the passenger door will lock and unlock all doors including the drivers door. 2. The switch on the drivers door acts completely dead. No noise or activity at all. 3. Locking and/or unlocking the drivers door with the key should correspondingly lock/unlock all doors, but this function is also dead. No noise or activity at all.

Yes, I agree with a possible broken wire. The drivers door lock does work fine if you use the switch on the passenger door, so that leads me to believe that it is electrical instead of mechanical.

When you use the key or the button on the drivers door, nothing happens at all. No noise of any type. If it was a link or retainer of some type, wouldnt it still make some type of noise, like its trying to work?

I just picked up a 98 Outback with the 2.5 motor without knowing that certain 2.5 motors have an almost 100% HG failure rate. The car runs great, no engine noise, and 124k miles. How can I tell if this is the 2.5 version that has the HG issues, or did all of the 98 Outback wagons come with the bad version?

That is an educated guess. I am looking to find a way to prove it. If I increase the RPM's without increasing forward speed, wouldnt the engine overheat further if it is a head gasket? Higher RPM's make the engine cool down almost instantly. I can watch the needle fall.

Ok, its not a fuse issue because the power locks work when using the switch on the passenger door. They do not work when using the switch on the drivers door, and they do not work automatically when using the key. Would it be just the switch in the drivers door that is doing this, or is there some type of module involved?

I just picked up a 98 Legacy Outback wagon. Everything works but the power locks. Is there a fuse just for the locks? What else can I check?

Update. Replaced plugs, wires, and air filter, without much effect. Disconnected the EGR valve and the car started running much better, so I am replacing the EGR valve. Now, the only issue that exists is the overheating, so I am going to start a new topic just for that.

1997 Impreza Outback Sport 2.2 with 216k miles. Automatic. Symptoms: Slow loss of coolant. Cannot find any leaks. Overheating when running in drive, but cools down when pulling back into third, and increasing RPM's. No smoke of any kind from exhaust. Car does not overheat when idling for long periods of time. No oil in coolant. No coolant in oil. The water pump was replaced about 5k miles ago along with timing belt components. When up on the lift, we noticed a drop of coolant on the bottom of the water pump, but cannot see it leaking when watching while car is running. Cant hear any noise that would be indicative of a bad water pump. The car is leaking oil, and it is believed to be either the crank seal, or a cam seal. So here is my situation. The car itself is in pretty good shape, and runs well. If I can keep it running, that would be great, but I am on a tight budget. Although the local garages will replace a water pump and timing belt kit, none of them will attempt replacing head gaskets. Taking it to a regular Subaru dealer is not an option because I cant pay $1000-$2000 to get a head gasket replaced. If it is a head gasket, I will try to sell the car for parts or junk it. It will cost me about $350 to get the water pump and leaking seals replaced. I cant afford to spend the $350 and then find out that the problem still exists because it was a head gasket all along. In addition, the car needs tires for inspection ($300), so if I knew for sure that a head gasket is bad, I could put the $650 towards another car. Is there any definitive way to tell if I have a blown head gasket? Is there any test to determine if the overheating is coming from the water pump or a blown head gasket?

According to the diagnostic scanner, the sensor is reporting temperature to the ECM. They said the fans should come on when the AC comes on, but they dont. They're saying the ECM is not turning the fans on.

New wrinkle. Took it to a friends garage to do a little troubleshooting. We discovered that the cooling fans are not turning on. Jumpered the fans and they came on, so they work. But we cannot get them to come on any other way. We turned the AC on hich is supposed to kick on the fans, but they didnt come on. All the wiring seems good. Diagnostic tool shows that telp sensor is working. They are starting to think that maybe the ECM is bad and is not letting (or telling) the fans to come on. Anyone agree or disagree that the ECM could be causing the problem.

My crank seal is leaking. Wouldnt it slip even more at a higher RPM though?

I forgot to mention that going downhill, cruising along a straight stretch, or running at higher RPM's no problem. It will idle all day without heating up at all.

My car is having some problem and I'm trying to figure out what is going on. Vehicle: 1997 Impreza Outback Sport, 2.2 engine, 215k miles. Timing belt, components, water pump replaced around 210k Recently replaced Throttle positioning sensor and Knock sensor NGK Plugs and wires have about 50k on them Behavior: When starting cold, the car starts immediately, but runs very roughly for about 10-15 seconds, then smooths out. Doesnt seem to do it when the car is warm. When driving around in "Drive", the car has very poor throttle response, almost dead. It's like you press the gas pedal, and nothing happens until the car downshifts. When driving around in "Drive" and I put a load on the engine, like going up a hill, the temperature rapidly starts to climb, however, if I manually pull it back into "3", and the RPM's jump up, the car immediately cools down, like within a few seconds. You can actually watch the needle fall. Anyone have any idea as to what is going on?

The transmission does not behave like this when the ABS is disconnected, that's why I was wondering if it is normal behavior. With the ABS disconnected,the transmission does not disengage when the brake pedal is pressed.

Can anyone tell me if it is normal for the auto trans to Disengage when the brake pedal is pressed, on a car with ABS?

I didn't see the condition of the old pads as they were Changed by the garage doing the inspection. I don't believe any of the brake hoses were changed.

The car has new pads, calipers, and rotors for inspection. This behavior started occurring before everything was replaced, so replacing everything had no effect. The ABS light comes on when the ABS is disconnected, so the light works, but does not come on when the issue is happening. With the ABS disconnected, everything works normally and the Issues do not occur. I've had the car hooked up to a code scanner and there were no ABS codes. The garage told me it's probably an ABS sensor or the ABS unit itself, but without any codes, they can't say what the problem is. I've searched the site and have seen reference to a couple of taped up Wires that can be used to generate some ABS codes, but wasn't able to follow very well as the wires seem to be different for different years, and none Of the examples were for a 97. I'm looking for a detailed procedure that I can follow to troubleshoot the system and try to pinpoint the problem because I'm not very mechanically inclined.