ChrisInVT

I checked that thread, but there's no mention of the 00-04 LGT rear brakes, just standard legacy or 05+ LGT. The master cyl is for the clutch, not the brakes. They look interchangeable, but not having one in my hand to compare with my car doesn't help.

I can't find anywhere if the rear calipers between the LGT with vented rotors are interchangeable with the ones from the standard Legacy or Baja that use solid rear rotors. I don't have either to make a comparison, and I'm not sure if the difference of the rotor thickness is so great that it matters that much. This is for a brake upgrade on my '98 OBW that has several bad calipers, gotta replace 'em so I'm taking the time to upgrade while I'm at it with LGT rear calipers/rotors and WRX front calipers/rotors. Also, while I'm at it, what clutch masters are able to interchange? I was looking at a used master from an 02-05 WRX and it looks almost identical to the one in my '98 OBW. I need to replace my master because the one I purchased as a replacement is a piece of crap and the price of a new OEM one is ridiculous.

It was the hill holder. The return spring was rusted and broken, and the cable was rusted with hardly any play. Removed the cable, zip tied it open, and it's great.

My money is really on the hill holder, the girl didn't even know the car had one until I mentioned it to her. I'm going to disconnect it when I get home tonight and see if that makes a difference. If not I'm trying to figure out what else it could possibly be. To me it sounds like the hill holder is sticking, but I want to cover all of my bases before she picks up the car tonight (She's picking it up around the time I get home from work, so I don't have much time to mess with it). Fairtax4me is correct in what he stated.

So this girl brought me her car (1996 Legacy wagon 5MT) to look at the other day because it needed some rear brake lines replaced. Well, after replacing the bad lines and bleeding the system I noticed the front left and rear right calipers were completely locked up. I know the opposite ends of the care are linked to the same "side" of the master cyl, so this became interesting. If you press down on the brakes the calipers work as normal, but when you release the brakes the calipers do NOT release, and you need to let the pressure out by opening the bleeder valve. Apparently, the car wouldn't release the brakes once the pedal was pressed, so her [now ex] boyfriend replaced the right rear hard line from the junction to the caliper, all the calipers, flex lines and rotors; with the exception of the hard lines and flex line that run the left rear caliper (I replaced those). He also completely removed all the parking brake components from the drums. This work was done by someone that should NEVER touch a vehicle, and shouldn't even be allowed to LOOK AT a Subaru after seeing his handy work on this car (I have some VERY interesting pictures). So the only thing I can think of, is that maybe something is screwed up in the ABS pump? The pedal isn't spongy so I don't think it's air, and if you hit the brakes a few times after using them, the calipers will release. After replacing the line and bleeding the system the car has a VERY firm brake pedal and has no problem locking up all four tires (the ABS doesn't work at all, but there's no ABS light illuminated - probably disconnected or burnt out). I don't think the master cyl is bad because normally when that happens you lose pressure, this is the exact opposite. It seems like a valve is sticking somewhere, and my thought goes right to the car having a hill holder but I didn't dare bypass it and risk getting air in the ABS pump. I'm going to disconnect the cable when I get home tonight if she doesn't pick the car up and see if that makes a difference. I also think there might be a bleeder screw on there IIRC, I'll check that too. But if that doesn't work... Looking for some thoughts on this one.

Ground on the OBD2 port came back all by itself while I was checking grounds at the ECM. The Black/Yellow wires have NO chassis ground. I made a jumper from the Black/Red wires on the ECM to the Black/Yellow wires and the car fired up. The fuel pump relay was clicking on/off at idle in regards to the RPM of the engine, if I give it more throttle it stops clicking. That seemed to be a problem with the ECM from the 2.2 Outback, plugging my ECM back in solved that issue. Car has been idling now for the past 5 minutes, only code I'm getting is P0462 FUEL LEVEL SENSOR CIRCUIT A LOW INPUT. That explains why my gas gauge only half works. The FSM is useless telling me where these grounds run back to, and all the pinouts for the ECM that I'm finding, are completely wrong in regards to what goes to where. I'm going to splice into the Black/Yellow wires, solder in and create my own chassis ground on the mounting plate for the ECM. I'll look into finding where the ground went bad later when I tear out my interior to replace my parking brake cables. I'm going to rip the interior out of the 2.2 Outback and strip that car down to a shell, so then I'll know where all the electrical connection are for me to find this bad ground.

Here's what I'm thinking, wherever the ground for the OBD2 port has failed, the other end will probably be for the ECM's injector pulse to ground. Going to trace that wire and see what I can find, wish I had my tone generator from work - that would make my life a bit easier.

I've removed the main relay (what a job that was) and jumped both sets of terminals with the same issues. I've also tested downstream of it, and am getting good voltage at the ECM and at various sensors that the 2nd terminal powers. Just gotta track down this fuel injector problem now.

The fuel injectors aren't firing still, but I do have spark and can pull codes off the ECM (getting code P0505 now, I removed the IAC and cleaned it, checked continuity to the ECM and 12v on the plug, but the code is still coming up). The car will run off starting fluid, so now I just need to figure out why the injectors aren't firing. I haven't traced the ground wire back yet, for now I just have another wire plugged in and grounded while I continue to troubleshoot.

This might provide some insight... The battery is at 13.3v with the charger on it. The OBD2 port has a good 13.16v if I test from pin 16 to a chassis ground. If I use the chassis ground on the OBD2 port, I get 13.03. When I put the ignition in the ACC position, it drops to 12.38. When I put the ignition to ON it drops to 4.41v! With the ingition on, if I move from the chassis ground on the OBD2 port to an actual chassis ground I get 12.53v. This is with the scanner disconnected. If I try to ohm out the chassis ground wire to an actual chassis ground, I get NOTHING. I'm going to trace the chassis ground on the OBD2 connector - and GOOD NEWS - if I measure the amp draw between the chassis ground on the OBD2 connector and an actual chassis ground, I get a .30A reading AND THE ECM POWERS ON AND I CAN PULL CODES!!! I'm getting closer....

Main relay is OK, fuel pump is running. Unplugging the temp sensor makes no difference. ECM getting .15v less than I see at the battery. Ignition coil has power also, tach does not move when cranking. Injectors have power, but not getting a pulse from the ECM. I have lots of crap disconnected under the dash (everything that's connected to the lower plastic piece) but the following fuses have no power: 15A Radio, 10A Illumi, 20A Wiper Washer, 20A Cigar Mirror, 10A Tail Clearance.

98 Outback, and the fans are already unplugged because i was sick of hearing them. I didn't get to test much today, I had to fix my girlfriend's car and then do some work to my truck, since I'll be driving those while this car is dead. My friend was nice enough to bring over his $2,500 Snap-On OBD-II computer reader (he has lots of drool-worthy tools) and it kept coming up "Failure to communicate with ECM". As soon as the ignition was turned from ACC to ON, it would power off his reader. He did a manual bypass (booted his reader off the internal battery) and it wouldn't see the ECM at all (in the ACC position, the car would power the reader, but when turned to ON it would cut power to the reader, even though there was a steady 12v power). Doesn't matter if the engine is even electrically connected to the car, the ECM isn't talking to anything (we even tried the other ECMs). He's coming over Thursday night with some more tools and we're going to tear the electrical system apart. He knows people at the Subaru dealership and some other people that work on Subarus so he's going to run the issue past him. I got "In my 40+ years of automotive repair I've NEVER seen anything like this before"

I've done the troubleshooting with both a battery charger connected and just the battery alone. The power to the diagnostics port doesn't drop when the key is turned to ON (when the fans are disconnected). Voltage on the battery is slightly above 12v, when the charger is connected it's slightly above 14v. Getting the same readings at the diagnostics port. I didn't check the voltage at the computer yet, I'll do that today.

I don't see how I could've made anything worse by verifying the ignitor and ECM work in another Legacy. If the cam or crank sensor went bad that still doesn't explain why the ECM isn't functioning correctly when the ignition is turned on, and the cooling fans are kicking on high. Timing belt has about 5k on it, I would hope it didn't jump timing, but if it did that still doesn't explain the ECM not communicating. The car has always sounded like that when it cranks, the 2.5 in my 2.5GT sounded the same, as does the 2.2 that's in there now. Must be the phone and the fact the car was in the shop, kinda makes everything sound strange. I can swap both out tomorrow with two known good ones from an EJ25 I have kicking around, but I don't think that's going to solve my ECM communications problem. If it does, I'll buy you a beer next time I'm down on the island! I'm getting closer and closer to pulling this engine and putting it in the 2.5GT that I just swapped a 2.2 into, then replacing the non-functional auto with a 5MT and calling it a day.

I changed the oil myself. I don't think it's the crank sensor, I've never seen a single mention of the crank sensor failing and causing the diagnostics port to die and the cooling fans to turn on when you put the ignition in the ON position. It's just so strange... And you do get your OBD-II codes in the ON position, that's the only time you can get them. Even OBD-I cars the only time you can pull codes is when the ignition is in the ON position (but OBD-I doesn't support that while the car is running like OBD-II does). Here's some videos... This is with everything plugged back in: https://www.cubby.com/p/_bcb53300b15649a986b3b4643100bef3/IMG_9425.mov Everything plugged back in and a quick cranking: https://www.cubby.com/p/_649c919a926c49ee97ff647efa409371/IMG_9427.mov This is an on/off cycle with the temp sensor unplugged, watch the thermostat: https://www.cubby.com/p/_79d3e3511dec499f96dcd37d8034d16f/IMG_9429.mov