yarikoptic

I had pulsing in the brakes for a while before I changed the abuser disks. Then the noise started to come from the brake pad clips (on which brake pads are installed and clips are installed on the "support" or "craddle"). I've changed pad clips but It seems that probably both brake pads and supports got a bit worn and now after brakes warm up, whenever I brake, clips start touching rotors (mainly seems to be touching radially outside sides of them) making quite nasty sounds, especially if I am going very slowly and slightly depressing the brakes. The perfect solution would be probably to exchange the whole beast -- calipers with supports and brake pads -- just one of those remanufactured caliper sets I believe. But may be I can fixate clips better somehow? stupid idea -- may be some red (high temp) silicone underneath would keep them staying better on the craddle? ;-)

Thank you Josh, that is probably what I will do -- there are a few nice US members who has them "in stock". I doubt that I will be able to find it locally to "test". I doubt that any store would accept the return if I "try it". But meanwhile I think it is still worth replacing vacuum hoses since they seems to be quite old. I would appreciate some recommendations/references.

Dear All Subaroids, I have reported a while ago in http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=30204 about my problems. The issue was gone in winter (once in a month or even less) but it came back in spring. Let me summarize 1995 Legacy L AT after I've changed transmission and diff oils to break the binding I started mentioning occasional halts and dropped RPMs: if RPMs are low (idling) then it would simply halt, if RPMs are high (driving), they would drop for 1-2 sec (so car starts to slow down) and then come back normal some times after stall AT light is blinking to signal the problem. TCU reports codes 22 and 23 -- MAF signal and speed sensor signal some times (very very rarely, just 1 in 20 stalls or so) CEL lights up, ECU states MAF error code my attempts to check wiring didn't lead to any improvement the issue was gone during winter and came back heavily during spring -- it would drop RPMs or stall every 5-6 miles in city driving and about 30-40 on highway Since MAF code is reported first I did cleaning of MAF sensor with electronics contact cleaner, I believe that didn't do any good. Now I am considering replacing it... Yesterday after I've read TCU error codes (the same 22 and 23), and "touched" all vacuum and fuel hoses under the hood, also touched the wiring leading from MAF. also opened/closed air filter compartment --- the problem was gone for this 24 hours although I was driving a lot and usually the problem definetly would have appear at least few times. This morning when I started the car and let it warm up little bit (1-3 minutes) I mentioned that RPMs were slightly fluctuating -- barely visible on a scale but you could feel it. I started to think may be it would be wise to change vacuum hoses before investing in a new/used MAF. What hoses would you recommend? are there ready sets for the models anywhere or I should just stop by at any car store and do it one by one buying more hoses if necessary? Thank you in advance for ideas

Hmmm... Actually there was a code about MAF loong ago, but indeed after the problem start appearing... It came together with the code for oxy sensor I believe. But then I changed oxy sensor, cleared out the codes and MAF code never came back, so selfish/blind me - I rulled out that possibility of bad MAF Some electric parts cleaner with no residue guaranteed. I even didn't take it out of the box because the screwes are too rusted and when I tried to extract one of them I just broke its head. So I took the sensors "in the box" and sprayed with cleaner from both sides, let it dry and placed it back in. What I'm thinking bad about is may be one of the wires - it was too bended - may be it is bad... but tweaking it more didn't influence engine while it was idling... I was trying to monitor parameters while driving this morning but the interface I'm using is not chipped one, so computer kept loosing the connection and it didn't capture the single moment when the thing happened so I still can't say what MAF was saying at that point. I will try to do the same on the way home.

I didn't but I believe I've changed air filter at that moment after which it start occuring... then later on I was cleaning MAF sensor as well... There is one of the wires which is too twisted as to me but I was trying to kinda "mangle" a bit and it didn't react to that. Also I don't have any codes stored about MAF, which I would assume should be there if it is MAF. Did you have any codes? I will try to monitor MAF signal as well to diagnoze the problem

Thank you Joe AKA scoobdude for ideas It seems to be not a cable issue because generaly pedal feel is ok. It gets spongy just during that rpm drop The problem seems to reappear more often with each week. Also interesting fact: today I was driving maitaining speed around 30mph and then without any slow down feel of the car (ie rpms probably were fine) I felt spongy pedal and saw that RPMs are about 100-200 ie almost 0. I depressed it more and it may be that caused it to don't stall but come back to normal rpms Can it be somehow linked to transmission? or I can rule that out because really I seems to don't loose the gear. But this problem start appearing after I overfilled transmission fluid a bit after I drained it... I'm just thinking what could I bend/disturb for this problem to appear... I will be more than happy to do so :-)

That 1. "resistence" of the pedal drops, ie you can depress it with smaller pressure applied than usually, 2. depressing it more doesn't really react in immediately increased rpm It seems that I can but then sampling rate of the other parameter will drop correspondingly. Which parameters would you recommend to monitor?

it seems to be happening more during more of sprited driving or just driving in a traffic jam, ie when there is a lot of rapid alternation between gas and break. Some times it just happens right after I depress gas pedal and then switch to breaking... Please advise on what to look for???

well... mine is not turbo but gets the same mpg as yours: I'm happy when it does 23-24 on a highway. I have no idea what might be the reason... everything seems to be more or less tuned, tires pumped up, no binding... so no clue -- may be constant frontal wind? :-) I remember we've got around 45 mpg on my old Sentra with wind blowing our way on the trip through the Texas... on they way back I couldn't speed up more than 60 mph due to the same f..ing wind ;-)

please don't be shy, please any advice or idea are welcome ;-) I have no clue what to start from

Sounds like a tale... Indeed - this is what I've got to from google on it I bet if it worked - any manufacture would "adjust" it, patent it, introduce in its cars and claimed "first-ever" fuel-generous car

Dear Subaricans, The problem I've reported before persists: some times it drops RPM by about 500 rpms for a sec or two, gas pedal feels spongy. Then it comes back to normal. If I drive slowly at that moment (small rpms) then car just stalls and on next start AT TEMP blinks. When I read the codes from TCU -- it reports 23 -- lost speed signal. That code doesn't come up if car doesn't stall - ie if rpm was high enough to don't stall really. TCU doesn't report any codes in any situation. No Freeze Frame data (now I have OBD-II interface :-P) Please advise on what to look for. I've mentioned that it mostly happens if I have a lot of sharp starts and sudden stops, like if I drive in a traffic jam for instance. Once it was right after I started a car and tried to speed up almost rapidly (right after I left parallel parkin spot) -- pedal became spongy for a sec... May be I should monitor some parameters I can through OBD-II? I'm not sure if that would help though :-/

nope - it is not too late :-) I just moved to cold NJ in hill-less area :-) So in general it seems to be ok and a good trick to use. I do not have shims on fronts because as it came - it was with aftermarket pads, so next time I will try to tape them (just a single layer? ) Rear pads seems to have shims, so I will just reuse them on the new ones.

Do you mean silver-colored tape? which states that it is not thermo-resistant? I mean, will it not take on fire occasionally when I drive in mountains in dry New Mexico ? :-)

Where do you get such because squeal is my enemy and simple liquidish silicons don't do good job for me

16 blinks is just that there is a problem registered by TCU - it is nothing specific yet. Guys already described the procedure on how to pull the codes, although in my case (1995 Legacy) I have to connect diagnostic No.5 terminal under the dash to do magical code reading. Updated: attachement with information you need to start troubleshooting via TCU on 1996 Legacy MSA5TCD96L6421.pdf

Thank you for bits of usefull info but if I decided to change whole shaft then it shouldn't matter, right? Anyway - this time I didn't succeed to take the axle out so I went with split boot generousely enriched with "Seal All" on the "split" area. Lets see how long this beast will last. And then I will come back to taking axle out ;-) So if anyone reads this post in 1/2 -1 year and wants to know if split boot lasted be anytime -- drop me PM and I will tell the story ;-)

Besides that I don't recall anyone saying that it did have negative implications. Myself, I was driving with it in for a few months... then fixed binding (new tires, oil, distance on highway, 8 figures in the reverse) - now it is fine working :-)

instead of 1000miles try to do 10 "8-figures" driving backwards

he he heh it seems that I need quick boot for now :-/ or as it was recommended -- durable zip-lock (now it is just durable grey tape but it doesn't hold well) Probably I need to make good friends with some of the mechanics near by who has press-machine :-) you think that it is far from sufficient to mark alignment bolt position and assemble having that in mind? (I didn't knock it out from the knob, so I say it should be positioned exactly as before right now)

Uff - what a day... So - I grabbed both - new "universal" boot and reman cv halfshaft from autozone and got to my friends dead-end where I could safely perform repair... BTW - I needed 32mm instead of 36mm so I just bought it - didn't have time to drive to autozone to rent it... The problem is that I couldn't knock the joint from the wheel bearing or whatever it is... so -- the outer side. I even tried small puller but I was afraid that it would bend my rusty base if not brake it then I will be doomed. I've tried to knock if with hammer... hammer broke... ok - it wasn't that great one, but it served me long before that :-) but it wasn't really heavy weight one. At the end I gave up. Also I've tried to knock out the pin from the inner side with no luck - I didn't have access from bottom (although there is a muffler there so I'm not sure if I would get more clearance). So I've tried to knock it out with leftovers of the hammer but it didn't even move... Well - any advice? Or a bigger hammer would do a trick in both cases? would driving back and forward couple of times before taking CV joint, help to loosen it? (just crazy idea with obvious answer - No) P.S. Why the hell they hidden oxy sensor so deep underneath CV joint? it was miserable to change it with CV in place... I wanted to accomplish at least something today :-)

You can have codes stored even without CEL light on.

Well - anyway I'm going to clean old greese away so I will have chance to look at the thing.... Does anyone know if autozone rents out 36mm socket?

you never said if binding is gone with fuse in... I drove mine with fuse in for a while - everything is fine ;-)

well.. I'm not sure if differential oil is what you need to change... it seems that most people are talking about flushing AT fluid while trying to fix binding. power flush of AT is quite expensive. As for change of differential oil - that darn simple - drain from the bottom, fill in from top :-) As for back differential - the only note is first to make sure that you can take of top bolt so you can measure the level, otherwise if you drain it and then discover that you can't fill it in now - sad experience For me it was enough to change tires + change AT fluid and front differential oil (just because I was doing all this crap) besides that - try to do some 8s in the reverse on some parking deck - it might brake your binding.