Cougar

With the lights staying on after you pulled the illumination fuse you had just proved that power is getting to the lights from another path other than the illumination fuse, on the protected side of the light circuit. I would see if you can duplicate the situation, and if you can, remove other fuses to see if you can find the other path that way. Since the car was off it sounds to me though that this mysterious connection is directly from the battery. If so, then pulling any fuses accept for some main ones may not help. The problem may be on the other side of the of the fuse panel or in the wire harness. Somehow you have a bridged connection to the courtesy lights. Though it is not a good solid connection and hense the dim lights at times. You should also check the courtesy light switch (dimmer switch) area if the other spots don't show up anything. Another thought would be to suspect any directly wired accessories that have been added to the car.

Thanks for the link to the info on the tire ratings RWEDDY. After looking at the reviews on the Triple Tread I wouldn't hesitate to purchase a set of these for my car. I will keep these in mind for when I need another set of tires later, and I use summer and winter tires.

Your welcome for the help. It seems kind of strange to me that the knock sensor caused the kind of problems the car had. This is a good Soob site as you stated.

I'm not sure what you did by pulling the wire. It sounds like the orignal problem you had though was due to the crank sensor not picking up on one of the position tabs somehow. This is why I asked you to check those tabs. The sensor itself seems to be working ok to me. It is picking up positions, but one of the position tabs doesn't seem to register for some reason. Whether this is due to a broken tab or sensor adjustment I can't say. Since it worked for a little bit perhaps the tab is ok.

This problem still sounds like you have a broken tab on the crank sensor gear. Have you checked that to make sure that none of the tabs are broken off? It would be nice to have a oscilloscope to look at the input signal to the ECU. My bet is the input signal has a missing pulse(s). Going from Josh's wiring diagram it looks like you have verified all the circuitry from the ECU to the plugs. That just leaves the input to the ECU or am I missing something? Josh, do you know how many signal tabs are on the gear? From your pictures you can't see the whole perimeter.

Thanks for your efforts Josh.

You might look at the airflow sensor also. It may not be signalling for more fuel for the amount of air intake.

Jimshih, You might check the components in the ECU if you do electronic repair and the problem turns out to be with the ECU. I would suspect that since the two output leads are the same then the circuits would be a mirror image. There may be a bad driver transistor stage at or near the output connections. I have fixed some ECU's with this kind of problem before. I still wonder about the crank sensor tabs though as the cause of this problem. You might try doing a resistance test on the ECU leads while connected to the ignitor to see if they read the same. Doing a diode check may help also. If the resistances are the same then the problem is elsewhere I would say or at the input to the ECU.

Thanks for the clarification on this and your help Josh. I was a little confused on this alright. Hopefully some of this side discussion will help Jimshih also. Another question I have since we are on the subject is, it seems to me that this timing cog is for the cams; or is it really for the crank? I would assume the crank sensor would be located on the flywheel. I am going to have to actually work on one of these newer style engines someday so I can learn a little more. So far I only have touched the EA82T. It really helps to have hands-on experience with these things and I know you've been there.

Thanks for the pictures Josh, they are a big help. I guess my confusion was about the tabs that are on the outside edge of the small gear. It is these tabs I was thinking of that can get broken. These are what the sensor uses to check the timing, the way I understand it anyway. Is that correct?

I think the trouble he is having is because either pin 9 or 10 has no signal output. He tried reversing the connections and the other bank fired then.

Thanks for the info about the procedure Ed.

I'm with you on the pulses Josh but I think these are generated by four magnets on a gear for the CAS, one for each cylinder naturally. I have heard of these magnets being damaged and causing problems. Snotrocket, you may be correct, I really don't know as much as I would like to on how the ignition really works. The ignitor is a little mystery to me. Anybody know the fine details on this to explain why one bank would be disabled? He did swap the leads to the coil pack and the opposite plugs fired.

Just curious what you mean by modulator. Is this something for the ignition?

Hi Josh, You may be correct but my reasoning on this is; if two of the four CAS sensor magnets were damaged wouldn't that cause a problem like this? It seems to me that without those trigger signals you have no signal to the ECU to fire the ignition pulses. Or is my logic out of whack somewhere?

After looking over Joshs' thoughtfully provided diagrams I noticed there is not only a crank angle sensor but also a cam angle sensor. Verrry interesting; as Arte Johnson would say. Sometimes the magnet of the sensor can get broken off and this will prevent the signal for firing the ignition to happen. Before doing anything I would check the ECU for some trouble codes. My hunch is there is a problem with a sensor. Hopefully there is a code indicating that.

If the two wires go back to the ECU then there may be a problem with it. The crank angle sensor may be a problem also. Are there any trouble codes stored?

Those specs you gave sound right to me going by what my '88 GL-10 MPFI was.

Sorry to hear about the leak. It does sound like a HG job is in order with that amount of water found inside. Have you done a compression check on all the cylinders to check their status? You may need to do both sides. Recommend you only use genuine Subaru gaskets. I would also change out the oil and water pumps, along with the timing belts if they have over 30k miles on them. If the radiator is original you may want to replace it also. Out of curiosity, what kind of electrical problem did you have?

I have to wonder how the coolant got into the cylinder. This would mean the turbo is probably ok and the coolant leaked through the gasket somehow. Hopefully, another engine run test will be ok the next time. As far as the turbo goes I think there is a shaft seal between the two fluids that can fail.

I like Nokian and Michelin line of tires but there are lots of other good ones available. Doing some research may help you decide on what to get.

1. The dealer advice sounds reasonable. 2. No use in paying for an expensive job until you really have to. Just keep an eye out for signs of any problems. 3. Great price. This will give you some room to pay for gaskets or whatever is needed down the road. A couple of years from now you will know how good the price really was. 4. Change the oil, coolant, and fluids with the correct replacements and time schedule. Enjoy the ride. Drive on!

CCR rocks in my opinion. I don't need an engine right now but they would be the first I would go to if I did.

I have to agree with using only Subaru gaskets as the same thing happened to me using Flepro. Just another thought in case #4 turns out ok. The turbo has oil and water going to it.

I think you've got the idea now about being safe. A lot of people would still be be around if they stopped what they are doing, looked things over, and asked themselves "what if" before they started the activity. I'm glad you were shaken by this incident as you will probably think about this for the rest of your life in whatever you do that could cause an injury or worse. I think it is also a good idea to have someone else around when doing things like this just in case something does happen. Hopefully a rescue will get the person out of the situation without injury. Folks have died because there was nobody around to get them out of the situation. A commom thing I hate to see is people trying to work on cars on the side of the road close to the traffic lane. Especially on a highway. I think most of us have seen videos of close calls with non-attentive drivers. The person who does this is risking their life. They are counting on all the drivers seeing and a avoiding them. Is it worth the risk?