Gnuman

Make sure the kit is for California emissions, meaning a 105K mile timing belt instead of a 60K mile belt. Other than that, On a part that critical, I usually go OEM. I just trust a Genuine Subaru timing belt a bit more for some reason. . .

Sounds like the clutch is toast, or the clutch cable is. I'm betting that I could get it in gear. I had my clutch cable break on me and I drove the car home. You just have to shut the engine off when you come to a stop, then it is a question of knowing what one tach reading in one gear is in the next gear, and modulating the engine speed so it slips into the gear you want. I could upshift and downshift by the time I got home (about ten miles of city traffic). . .Try putting the car in first gear as you let slightly off of the parking brake to see if it slips in. Also look at where the clutch pedal sits. If it is all te way to the floor, make sure it is not simply really badly adjusted. I had one guy swear to me that his transmission was toast because he could not get into any gear. We went and pulled a tranny for him and when I got to his place with the "new" tranny, I took one look under the hood and fixed his problem on the spot. . . . I could have saved him three hundred dollars by going to the car first. I still feel bad about that. . . . Oh, and his problem was that the clutch was adjusted so loose that it was never disengagng from the flywheel. This may be what your person is expreiencing. . .

PnP in Rancho Cordova has a good selection of subies as they have a whole yard just for imports. Richmond PnP may take you longer to find a donor.. . I can help. We can have the engine out in 2~3 hours. . . Sounds like a combination of really badly burnt oil and a stuck PVC valve blowing oil into the intake . . . (the plastic part of the intake, right before the Throttle body, right?)

270K on the clock on Emily. . .so far. . .

ALL of my vehicles get named. 92 Legacy wagon : Emily (yes, female, and yes, a stick.) 90 Legacy wagon I picked up for the Ex wife: Pegasus 78 Overland (made by Dodge) 30' Class A Motorhome : Felicity My bicycle : Ocean, the depths that move us. As I said, all of my vehicles. . .

OK, that is what I get for posting in a hurry. . . Go to SP Autoparts in San Pablo. They have a machine shop that I trust real well (The do all the work for Albany Subaru). and get ethe heads decked and valves cut (should run about $160 for both heads). I get my parts from Jason at 1stsubaruparts.com as well. if you want the backup, give me a PM and I will reply with my phone # and you can call me to help if yyou need it. I have taken *lots* of these engines apart when I was pulling the EJ22's out of totaled Legacies for transplant into Vanagon's (refurbished the engines while they were out) and also the Phase I EJ25's in 1st gen Outbacks. Got all my work done at SP auto, and all my parts from Jason too. . .

Before we jump into a full "replace the engine or else" mode, lets see what we can do to determine if the old engine is actually bad. Try to turn teh engine with a 22mm socket on a 1/2" breaker bar. If it turns without any indication of binding, then we need to check out the battery. If the battery/alternator was bad, then it would be a good bet that the clicking was the sound of her trying to start with a flat battery. In these cases, you can get away with a lot less work than swapping out the engine. . . As for the green tint on the plugs, if you had been getting coolant in the compression chamber, the plugs would have looked steam cleaned, and that plug did not seem to look like that to me. Could have been the photography though

'03 is the year I heard also, in that from that year on, all engines were built to handle turbo-charging (boost). This beefed up the crankcase, and stopped the headgasket failures. This is only the info that I have heard. Any inacuracy to teh information goes to teh person who told it to me. . .

Just to cover all bases. . . You're sure that no one is locked in the boot?

Yeah, I was trying to get out of digging out the fuel pump, but it looks like that is where I'm headed with this. No the car was not sitting. It had an old weak battery, and when it was replaced the keyless entry went haywire (I was in the hospital and unable to fix this for her) so she had to remove the fuse that powers the door locks and windows, which also powers that keyless entry module. During this time the fuel pump started acting up (giving less and less fuel until it gave none at all ). Then I got out of the hospital and have been working catch as catch can to get her car back up.

theoretically it would last until disturbed. In practice, it works theoretically. . . Really, how long it lasts depends on how well or how thickly it was applied. Sometimes, a thin coat of permetex will be used to "renew" old seals. This does not work. At least not for long. . . . The other possibility is that they did replace the seals, and used substandard parts (like the ones you get off of ebay) or installed them incorrectly (for example valve cover gasket not in its slot all the way around and ends up being "folded over" in one place, which causes the leak)

How long ago was that? is there still any warranty on the work done? those seals should last something like 150,000 miles. Not 5,000. It sounds like the last plac3e to "replace your seals" took you for a ride. They were either installed wrong or not installed at all, is my guess. If you can, stick your head under the front of the car to where you can see the underside of the engine and see if you can see any "Permetex" or other rubber caulk looking substance under there. On your engine there should be none. While you are down there, see if you can discover where the oil is leaking from. the concentration of gunk will be greatest there.

Manual says I do. "2 remove the rear seat (sedan) or trunk liner (station wagon) to expose the fuel pump/sending unit access plate." from page 4-6, which has the fuel pump removal and replacement procedure. Reall want to pull the front seat in order to muck around with the fuse block (which the fuel pump relay is behind) as I'm not as young and flexible as I used to be. . .

Nipper, Blu is a DOHC. this car would be a SOHC which is a lot easier. I would do it myself. That way you get the experience. Also we are here to use as a reference while you do so. . .

Fuel pump is not even trying to run (no "whirr" at fuel pipe when the car is turned on while I'm listening). Related components are the fuel pump relay, fuse #16 or the fuel pump itself. Before I go ripping out the rear seat, which is fuse 16? on top or bottom? I'm guessing that it is the next to the end toward the rear of the car as fuse 14 is middle towards the front. anything I'm missing? Do I have the wrong fuse in mind? do the fuel pump relays go out often (my guess is not)

OK, the 97 legacy will likely have the EJ22 engine, so the parts I mentioned are the right ones. How many miles on it, and do you live in an area (and did the car come from an area that requires California emissions? Either way, I would get the 100k mile timing belt. it is the same price, and more reliable (just a bit thicker is all. . .) this can be done in the car, but it is a whole lot easier if you pull the engine to do the job. Will you be going to a shop to have this done, or will you be doing this yourself (do you have a place to do the job yourself, and the tools/skills to do so?) ?

If your exhaust is getting hot enough to catch the oil on fire, there is a serious problem with the engine and the cat converter is probably toast. Not likely, unless you see the exhaust slowing bright red when you stop, and possibly melting on the roadway. . . As for the reseal, yes, it is time. I usually recommend resealing the engine every time you change the timing belt (but I use the 100k mile timing belt, being in an area that requires California Emissions) or every other timing belt if you go with Federal Emissions. The reseal comprises of: cam seals, cam O-rings, front main seal, oil pump O-ring, valve cover gaskets, bolt seals for the valve covers, timing belt, and a thermostat and thermostat seal. I would also recommend a water pump, and optionally a set of idlers to be fully sure. All of this is for a 90-94 Legacy, as you have not mentioned what car and engine you hae yet. . .

Heh. Every time, every time I work on any other make of car, I love my Subaru all that much more. I actually had a similar problem to yours (clutch failed due to the oil separator leaking) and I ended up doing the whole job (pull the engine, pull the clutch and flywheel, installed a new rear main seal and a new oil separator, cleaned up the flywheel , and installed a new clutch , then reinstalled the engine, and had the car running) in 6 hours. Started at noon, in my driveway, and went out to dinner in the car that evening. . . OK, I'll grant you I do work on these cars for a living, and with those same tools I used. . OK, I'd also already had the engine out before, so seized components were not going to be an issue (resealed the engine at 200K miles) but really now. . . I'm firmly convinced that a good part of the reason that Subarus last so long is that they are jus so insanely easy to work on. . .

I also recomend the spark plug well seals, bolt seals, cam seals, crank seal and oil-pump O-ring, with the timing belt. Get the California belt if there is a difference, as it is a 100K mile belt where the fedreal belt (if there is a difference) is only a 60K belt. Water pump is a good idea, and you will want to replace the thermostat and gasket with genuine Subaru when you do this job. For reasons of space, you will likely want to pull the engine out to have more room to work. If your car has a manual transmission, now would be a good time to replace the clutch as well (get a full clutch kit, with TO berring, pilot berring, pressure plate and disc. Also get the two retaining clips to hold the TO berring onto the transmission shaft), as they usually last 120K~160K miles on average. . . Oh, and where do you live in NorCal? I'm just east of Antioch. . .

One question to get you thinking in one direction or the other: How many water pumps do you know that last 240,000 miles? At 140K that water pump is likely near the end of it's reasonable life expectancy. Do you want to do all that work to put a timing belt on, and then have to do it again because you did not change the water pump the first time? Also, if the WP goes, it can take the TB with it, and on your car, that is really really bad. On teh seals, I would also change the front crank seal, oil pump O-ring, and the valve cover gaskets (along with the valve cover bolt seals) as all of this sits in the oil, and will leak as well. Izzy will be a lot happier if you do, and the cost is not much more.

Easy, we take the one off my good running 92 Legacy, and see if that fixes things. . . Stumbling and bucking could be caused by the MAF, but I'm also concerned about you getting all those codes, particularly all four of the injectors at once, as well as the TPS. that really sounds like a harness problem to me. . . Oh, and the ECU on your model year is behind the drivers kick panel (behind the dash on the drivers side) If you have an automatic, it is the leftmost one. If you have a manual, it is the only one up there. . .

Sent you a PM, call me. I'm near you. I make my living repairing Subarus. With just the list of CEL codes, it almost sounds like a bad connector in the wiring harness. . . everything listed but the cam sensor goes through one connector by the battery.

OK, I see the lot of you talking about how to patch the o2 sensor back into this cat. Please note that the original threads were stripped "by something hitting it from inside, denting the o2 sensor" and knocking it out. The second o2 sensor was also knocked out from the inside. Something big is loose inside that cat, and this will continue to happen until that cat is replaced with one that has all the pieces firmly secured in place. Unless the cat is seperate from the header, and the o2 is actually in the header, not the cat, you will not be able to buy the piece that holds the o2 sensor used. By law, it cannot be sold used. you have to get new, if the o2 sensor is in the actual cat (as most I've seen are). Trying to get it fixed cheap is all fine and good, but let's actually get it fixed for good as well. We need to know what it was that knocked the old o2 sensor out of the threads in the first place in order to prevent it from happening again.

Yes, they are selling them in Europe, IIRC

This almost always points to a bad purge control solenoid. Call Jason at 1stsubaruparts.com ((866)528-5282 ) and get a new one. It is also fairly easy to replace. It lives under the intake manifold, on the passenger side. Hey, I just noticed that you are fairly near me. If you want help installing it, I can do that as well. . . PM me and I'll give you a number to call.