idosubaru

this is about as easy as it gets, just have the code read and find out. no point in guessing, particularly this case. it could be any sensor in the vehicle that the ECU monitors, which is quite a few. and at your age mileage any number of the common issues could exist. for $30 you can buy your own scanner off ebay or go to any of the auto parts stores that do it for free.

very common, most likely the ignition wire is compromised. Note - do not replace it with anything but Subaru wires. Aftermarket wires are crap. If you have to replace it with something like that now, plan on getting a set of Subaru wires as soon as possible. I've seen brand new aftermarket wires right out of the box cause cylinder mis-fires. This isn't true of all Subaru's, but this engine it is. Wouldnt' surprise me if the existing wires are old or non-Subaru replacements. Usual cylinder misfire causes: Plugs/wires Ignition coil

now we're getting somewhere. that is typical Subaru head gasket symptoms. sounds like a good chance you have headgasket issues.

thanks for posting, good reference. sounds like a lot of the older EJ25's....head gasket and internal bearing issues later in life. not that rare, but i'd suspect subaru has attempted to make changes to alleviate these. be nice to know what that is exactly.

his 98 EJ22, not having come with EGR, won't have a plug in the wiring harness. it'll need to be hard wired to the right pin outs of the engine harness plugs right? unless the EGR isn't part of the engine harness, but i thought it was.

yep, i've done it too. for the metal EGR pipes you can just take a small metal ball and weld it into the pipes. or remove the pipes and pick up some suitable adapters, seal the threads with sealant, and plug the hole. and make a plate to cover the intake manifold. that's how it is on the EJ stuff, don't think the EA is that much different. i'd plug the vacuum lines. you might be able to just unplug the solenoid and that might default it to "no flow"....i haven't looked though, i just remove them entirely.

did you start another thread or did our responses get deleted? confused? knock sensor, you're in luck. they fail and often need replaced, it's not because of the swap. check the sensor, if the base is cracked/corroded at all, it needs replaced. probably use the one off the EJ25. keep in mind they have a funky installation procedure. clean the area the KS sets on the engine block, line up exactly how it's supposed to be and torque it properly. all of that info is here (with great pictures!), just do a search. for now i'd retain the 96 ECU and deal with those codes, that isolates all the problems to only the engine harness. the EGR code will be the trickiest to deal with. as i mentioned in the other thread.

woah - you got a 1998 EJ22 without an EGR valve? that's awesome. well, sucks right now for you. those are rare, i have one as well but it's the only one i've ever seen. there's really no simple solution for you, it's a pain all the way around. swapping ECU's is probably not going to work, without more tweaking anyway. for instance, it's not as simple as "getting an ECU for a non-EGR vehicle", it's not that easy unfortunately. i recommend ignoring it. you could try wiring an EGR valve into the proper pin for the ECU to see it, even if the valve isn't hooked up to anything. just give it what it's looking for so to speak. if you got an EJ22 manifold with the EGR set up on it, you can tap into the exhaust and create your own plumbing to it, rather than routing it to the head. custom work, but not the end of the world. and of course you could go the whole bang and swap the drivers side head and intake manifold, that's the only "bolt on" straight forward solution.

just about any regular EJ transmission will work (not including the STi 6 speeds, and other crazy expensive stuff you're not going to buy anyway). two points to take note of: some have hydraulic clutches, some have cable. the final drive ratio's differ between 3.9 and 4.11 between various models. there's charts out there that show which models are which. get a trans that matches or you can even just swap the rear diff too and use either. take care of those two issues above and swap away. 98+ has the same bolt pattern. prior years work too, but the bell housing bolts aren't identical.

you only loose with a dealer. you can still buy cars at dealers that have been beat to death. the only difference is you loose all possibility of having prior maintenance records, and they clean it up well. remember - they don't have a magic supply on the moon. they're buying cars that have been dumped by a previous owner. in my opinion, particularly with a newer car, someone selling it outright is very confident in the condition they have kept it. a car that has issues or has been beat is more likely to be traded in.

speaking of hijack -looks like you got a Kubota skip? i got one this summer, man that thing is awesome!

yeah trade in is the best way to get the worst deal, so you're kind of going about it all wrong. buy your new car and sell the old. i wouldn't buy from a dealer either. at least you're looking for a very new vehicle, but in general buying from the owner is the best way to get a better vehicle and far cheaper. dealers are just buying this crap at auction for next to nothing and then selling it for far more.

just ignore the codes, that's what i do. if you need them gone, you need to tell us if you have an EGR valve or not. takes about 4 seconds to pop the hood and look. the 98 EJ22 should have an EGR valve actually, rare for that year not to.

agreed on what he said. this doesn't sound like a head gasket to me. there's plenty of old oil on the car that could be mixing with the coolant as it leaks. could be, but could be lots of other things. timing belts aren't hard to do at all, fix the belt and stuff and drive it and see what happens. if money is tight, then you do what you must. drain your oil into an open container and see if there's coolant in it (good chance there isn't).

Here's some notes I took a long time ago will, though i just had to sift through them due to the server/name change that happened since then. These might help: Oddly still on the .net domain: http://www.ultimatesubaru.net/80s/mick/gear-ratios.htm http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6439&page=2&pp=10&highlight=gear+final+drive http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=8979&highlight=ratio http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=19124&highlight=gear+ratio Also still on the .net domain: http://www.ultimatesubaru.net/USRM2/Transmission/gear85fsm.jpg

+1 in the past 15+ years of owning dozens of subaru's i've never had the rear rotors resurfaced or even replaced. they rarely need it.

start a thread in the "parts wanted section". people have them, just need to find someone that has an extra and will ship. make sure it's clean and no dangerous parts, wrap a label around it and they will ship it, if anyone is worried about shipping such a part. a reminder, you probably know that a 1995 EJ22 will not require the y-pipe. only other years will. yards are funny about selling the ypipes. need to just stop by some smaller joint loaded with soobs and they may sell you one.

too bad you can't get it to do it while idling, be nice to know where the sound is originating from. make sure the oil filter isn't dented or something. the pressure sounds good, but isn't the whole story. the mickey mouse seal on the oil pump usually gets deformed in EA/ER series engines and causes air bubbles to get in the oil, which is bad mojo for HLA's. it would be very odd to have internal engine issues, like rod knock on an EA82....unless it's had some prior serious issue.

i wouldn't waste all of this time and money on an aftermarket axle. do a search here and you'll find that aftermarket axles are junk. you'll be doing this all over again in a year probably. it's even common for a brand new aftermarket axle to have problems. find a used subaru axle or go with CCR out of colorado and order it.

working over an internet connection hampers us, so fill us in on: mileage and overall condition of motor? what is the status on tune up stuff - plugs, wires, cap, rotor, oil pump seals? First step should be to change the oil. On these HLA equipped motors you can't really change the oil too often. If it's discolored at all, change it. The more often you keep fresh honey colored oil in there the better off the HLA's and your sanity will be! Tapping up hill sounds like an axle issue to me, but I would think you could tell if that was an axle or engine problem. You think there's any chance it could be an axle? It is odd that it's uphill. If it's the engine then I'd want to know: Any oil leaks? Has the oil pump ever been resealed? Does it vary at all or always sounds exactly the same? If it is the engine you'll want to find out if it's HLA, oil pump, or something worse related.

i would continue shopping around, or order it in the mail if you have to.

yep, very common and it's not just EJ25's that do it, all motors i've worked on do that. easy on the oiling. it's easy to get too much oil, which then pushes out of the hole and gets onto the block/head and headgasket mating surface. i'm guessing that's not a good thing.

i would try NABISCO, those folks do the opposite - EJ22 - EJ22T swaps all the time. that should easily clue you in on what is involved. comparing wiring diagrams of the ECU would be helpful as well. i did a turbo to non-turbo swap on an old gen vehicle. there were a few additional sensors and such but the wiring was nearly identical. i'd think you will want to go with a non-turbo ECU, assuming of course it's compatible. in the EA series stuff the non turbo and turbo ECU was interchangeable and i didn't need to do any wiring. although i never did get it running %100, but that's not swap related issues.

Yeah XT's and XT6's have electric head light motors to open/close the headlights.

in addition to HG and delayed forward engagement issues the 99's have a speedometer issue as well. like the trans issue, it's almost exclusive to the 99 model year. as far as headgaskets go SOHC is better than DOHC. SOHC EJ25 is available in 2000+ legacy/outbacks and in 99+ Foresters i've seen 2003 soobs with head gasket issues...so it's rather late before they are "fixed". i'd just look for one that's already been replaced. yesterday for kicks i looked in Denver and found 5 EJ25 Subaru's for sale that mentioned already having the headgaskets replaced, listed since Dec 28. 5 in 5 days.