bikesmut

thanks for the suggestion! Ill give that a shot. hope i can find a decent mechanic

right, now to explore the various auto mechanic options in Portland. but would sticky breaks cause the very off-and-on problems im experiencing?

I havn't been able to locate the Hill Holder yet. A part of me thinks that the calipers are not releasing properly, as the brakes have had some specious behavior now and again. But it is intermittent, which is making diagnosis challenging.

extreme cold shouldnt have been a problem, it might have dipped below freezing at some point, but really, this 1st happened in Oakland in mild temperatures. In both cases the car had been driven in the late morning/early afternoon for about 30-60 min around town. no high speeds, but a bit of start and stop.

those all are possible solutions, I hadnt thought about the liklyhood of a plastic bag causing it, which would be quite a coincidence. as i said before, my mechanic checked and adjusted all the levels after the 1st time it happened. we spent many hours going over the systems. he figured it was just a pool of some unimportant fluid, as there is a small oil leak but i have my doubts. off to see if i can find/disable the hill holder

the title is clean, no wrecks im aware of. i had my friend, an experienced amateur mechanic, take a look at it days after the 1st smoke out. we changed the oxygen sensors, master/slave cylinder and adjusted the fluids . He is the person who originally told me about the Hill Holder feature. I was not able to smell the fumes when I was driving, but my partner described it as a "clutchy, gas-y, plastic-y" by CEL do you mean warning lights on the dashboard? The Check Engine light was lit during the majority of time we were traveling, but it went off after we changed the O2 sensors. Presently no lights on the dash are lit.

Hey, I've taken my 98 Outback Legacy 8 thousand miles around the US, and in just the past 600 miles a plume of white smoke came out from the hood need the windshield on the drivers side. Not just a puff, but 30-90 seconds of "holy s#!+" It happened once I was driving, the 2nd time my partner was driving. In both cases, we noticed strange behavior when starting from a complete stop. It felt like the parking break was engaged, and that sensation quickly got worse until the engine was smoking. In both cases we were alone, freaked out, shut the car down, then were able to restart without incident. I had the clutch replaced about 6 thousand miles ago. The owners manual does mention the Hill Holder, and that would explain the annoying lurching and "sticky brake" feeling i get when starting from a complete stop. Looking under the brake fluid reservoir, where the manual suggested I found nothing that resembles the diagram (no spring) but maybe it was deeper inside and looked more like what this guy has: http://www.lackhead.org/2008/09/disabling-my-subarus-hill-holder-clutch/ Still, would that explain the smoke? The Hill Holder is always a little annoying, but why would it occasionally get worse, then magically get better by shutting down and restarting the engine? It might never happen again, or in another 400 miles i might get my third scare. Thoughts?