cannonball

There's a good chance the the freon is low and the low pressure switch is telling the compressor to kick on and compress. A mechanic can put a die in the system to find a leak. The rotten egg smell is usually related to the catalytic converter, but I think this can be normal.

Oops, that's what I meant. The line not the top. The last few days it seems to be holding steady. Motor mount. That might be the culprit. If I get under there and discover that's what it is, I may go ballistic. I just don't get it. I guess I had bad kharma that day. At least that's an easy fix.

Yea I was thinking that's what they might be. It just boggles my brain as to why he had to disconnect those for the work he did.

LOL. I'll kick his tail when I get him out of there.

Thanx for the your kind words. I used to do all the work on my S-10 cause I wasn't worried about screwing up. Now with a wife and kid I don't have as much time as I'd like, but it looks like it's time for me to reconsider. I like the indy guy I go to now, but I know in this neck of the woods he doesn't see a lot of Subies. I think I need to put a little more faith in him for majors cause I think he would probably take time and care to learn what he doesn't know.

I have a 2000 OBWL that has 106,000 miles on it. I have used independant shops historically for basic maintenance. I have only been to the local dealer once before, and that was for the coolant additive recall. I decided that I wanted the dealer to change my timing belt and water pump, because I wasn't too comfortable with my local guy taking this on. Also I got the dealer to service my cooling system so that the additive could be added again. I also had them do the recall for the rear subframe assembly. They went ahead and replaced the cam seal while they were at it and checked the burring noise that was coming out from my rear end (tire/bearing noise issue). When I picked up my car they told me that they checked the bearings on the lift with a stethoscope and that the bearings sounded fine. They said my tires were cupping and that the alignment was off. Interesting I thought cause my indy guy had done the alignment earlier this year when I bought a new set of tires, and the noise was there with the old tires. Well when I left the dealer I noticed that the was a hot oil smell coming into the cabin. I thought that it was related to them changing the cam seal, and that some oil had leaked out during the job. After a week the smell didn't go away so I decided to check the oil. To my suprise it was overfull. The oil came up to the curve on the dipstick. This was a little upsetting since the next day I had a 400 mile round trip. I decided to get under there and drain the extra oil. At this point I wasn't too mad because it gave me the oppurtunity to get under the engine and see what this boxer engine looked like from the bottom. Everyone here is right about how easy it is to change the oil and filter. I must have laid there for 30 minutes thinking how cool this engine was. Anyway I got to looking at the bottom of the heads and noticed a darker spot at the head/case juncture toward the front of the passenger side. I didn't know if this was the head gasket issue because I have never lost any fluid since I got the car at 55,000. So I drain the oil and called it a night. The next day on my long drive it seemed at higher speed (75-90) the car didn't feel quite right. It felt like a slight tire balancing issue althought I had the tire rebalanced at the end of december. I also noticed that the oil smell was not completely gone. The next morning I decided to crank the car up and let the heat run full blast (I hadn't run it yet). My thinking was that this would dissipate the smell. Not only did it smell like oil, it smelled strongly of gas fumes. I started getting pissed and really got to inspecting engine. I knew there had to be something loose for this to happen. Low and behold I found two hoses that were disconnected. I don't know the names, but one went to the left lower side of the air box and the other one went to the top left of the case. That latter hose had a small drip hanging of of it. I reconnected the hoses and the smell went away. Problem solved. Still there was another issue. I had also noticed that the coolant wasn't to the top of the resevoir tank. I attributed this to a little air being in the system after the coolant work. At his point I'm thinking how I'm going to write a long rant here, and how I'm going to deal with the service manager. So to get back to the thread header, after all this I've noticed now that when I take off fast in first gear there is a knocking noise coming from the front end about halfway through realeasing the clutch. Just one knock and that's it. It doesn't do it in any other gear just first, and if I take off quickly. It kinda sounds like it's coming from the drivers side in front of the floor. My thinking is that the tech left something (a tool) in the engine compartment that knocks on hard acceleration. The car seems to run fine now, but the thoughts of what the service tech did to my car is not... well let's just say I'm probably not going to take it back to them. I can't neccesarily say that all of this is related to the dealer, but it sure is fishy. Sorry for the long rant. Thanx for reading.

When Cruising along. I don't think it's the culprit, but I was thinking how disc brake pads ride the rotor all the time. I will note that the last brake pads I had installed sounded like they were grinding right before the car stopped, and they were brand new.

2000 OBWL. Can some brake pad materials be louder than others? I have what I consider excessive tire noise coming from the rear, but it may be bearing noise. The thought kinda hit me today as a possible culprit. Any thoughts?

Could you by chance post a picture where the drain holes should be or rather where on the rear the water would come out. I read that the earlier OB had this design. I can't test your theory today because it of course is raining. Just went back out to inspect a little more. I personally will test this out. I'm taking my car to the dealer to get the timing belt changed next week and plan on having them look at it.

I've inspected the roof/ hatch joint for just that and it appears there is no passage from that to the hatch. My thinking is in the hatch itself. The one thing that concerns me there doesn't appear to be any molding from the rear light fixture. I don't have any leakage from the actual roof itself. In the attached pictures you will notice that the only place from the roof to the hatch is the wire harnesses. The 1st picture shows the places where the light fixture doesn't have a seal. I have looked at another wagon and it look sthe same to me. The 2nd picture shows where I found so some debris and my thinking was that the water coming down the side channels was backing up and breaching the hatch seal. It's got me baffled. I really don't want to tear the hatch down. Sorry for kinda high jacking the thread. Also you can barely see red lines I have drawn on 1 and 3.

I feel your pain. Water somehow accumulates in my hatch when it rains or if I wash my car. When I open up the hatch water will pour out into the rear bay area from the hatch. I thought I had found where water was probably not being drained properly and cleaned out some debris on the upper side of the rear light fixture but that did not help. I downloaded a bunch of the repair manual thinking that the pictures would be good help but alas they didn't help. It would be nice to know where all the appropriate drain holes are located. If anyone has this info it sure would be nice. Hope you get your problem fixed. I know how much a PITA it is.

I was perusing around nasioc.com and found this pisture a few days ago. I was hoping that it was a photo chop job that some prankster had put out. The front end doesn't look like the drawing. The headlights are ugly. I was really looking forward to this being my next vehicle and it probably will. I just have a little hope that when it is officially introduced that the front end will be a little more stylish. I love the styling of the Infinity. The Murano is another matter. I think the front of it is ugly too. I will say this, and I think a lot of you will agree. I don't nessecarily drive subies for the looks. It's in the boxer engine and AWD system. If Subaru went to an I or V engine then they would probably loose my business.

There's nothing cooler then the feeling of flooring my Subie on ice.

Hmmm.. You have definitely piqued my curiosity with this method. Have yo u personally tried this method?

I have used the Ding King with some success. It should work pretty well on a fist size dent that hasn't creased to badly. It still will pull out the dent, but the crease marks will still be there. I used it on some hail damage, and it definitely removed some of the larger dents. Be carleful with the adhesive. If you put too much on it can pull the dent out the opposite direction.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here. It's the O2 sensors(front and back). I had the same scenario on my 00 OBW at around 80,000. Car seemed to run fine, but that blasted light drove me nuts. Got them replaced and problem solved. Go to your local Advanced Auto and have them pull the codes.

The only problem is I'm not sure exactly where to clean. Is the sensor in the hole on the front of the mirror or on the face near where the green light is?

I'm sorry could you repeat the question. Your avatar got the best of my attention. Seriously though, I don't think it's a good idea, but I don't see why it would damage it. It's still a ratchet wrench. Charles

2000 OBW. I have determined that my autodim function is not working. Does anyone have any suggestions on what possible problems to look for or do I need to buy a new one and where. I know I have power to it because the compass works, and the green light comes on. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Charles

Mine are H rated.

From info gathered here 97-98 and possibly part 99 had the infamous internal head gasket failures. 2000-2002 had the external head gasket failure potential. Thus the recall. I think by 2003 the problem was corrected, but those cars may still be to new to determine long term effect.

I have these tires as well. They are great tires, but they are loud if you like to pump your tires up. I have the pressure set at 32/31 f/b and it seems to be a happy medium. I have about 10,000 on them now, and it doesn't appear that they have worn any. I would imagine they would work great in light to medium snow just looking at the tread pattern. I haven't found out yet. Dang I can't wait til it snows. Anyways they are great all-rounders.

M2000 OBW Limited. I had a few alignment issues as well as a crooked steering wheel that drove me nuts. The first 2 alignments did not help the crooked wheel. I took it to another mechanic, and he got the alignment correct. He told me that there was not a camber or castor adjustment on the wheels. I can't remeber which one. I thought this was odd, but then again he corrected my problem so I wasn't going to push the issue.

I have a 2000 OBW. Mine does 2 quick flashes at a time. I believe this is normal. Mine's done it the whole time I've owned it.

Thanx for the info.