nipper

means you have a leak. It may be the oil pressure switch. May be the power steering fluid. Wash the engine and keep an eye on it. Heat- replace the t-stat and the radiator cap, your due. nipper

It was a dark and stormy night... Actually a chilly and sunny day off roading. Going doena path which wasnt too bad at 20-mph left front wheel went over a washboard bunp-bump-bump-bump and lo the CEL did light. My inspection isnt due till next Dec so i wasnt excited. i checked with the scangauge and it was our freind 420. Front O2 OE sensor (i didnt put it in) has 40,000 on it, rear has 10,000 on it. Scangauge wont reset it. i was fiddling with it today, and noticed when i stepped on the gas it was in closed loop, when i let up, it would go to open loop. This is instant. SO this tells me its not the cat (230,000 on the cat, 40,000 on the engine). My thought. The front O2 sensor is physically damaged. It may be cracked and have an exhaust leak issue. The car is not loud, noisey etc etc. Gas mileage has dropped more then it should for this time of year. nipper

Did anyone ever tell you that your a trouble maker?

Depends. If it is in a non wear part of the cylinder, yes you can weld it. Then it has to be machined properly to restor the flatness and sealing finish. The cylinder wall is made of a steel sleeve. Now will it work? really depends on how good the shop is. nipper

And just how many lumps of coal are we going to send you? nipper

Its a little blowby, nothing to get too excited about. First thing to do is clean as much of it as you can, replace the PCV valve, and then keep track of your oil level. nipper

Get a name brand 5 year battery. Just go in to the store tell them what you got and what you need. Now what bothers me, is a bad battery can kill an altenaotr. If its an altenator i wouls recomend getting it from a dealer (look at 1st subaru for prices and see if they will match it) as it can be cheaper then the store. A car doesnt usually die while running because of a bad battery, but because of a bad alt. Not that it doesnt happen. nipper

He could tell the differnce? hehehehe

It's winter, these things happen, just another thought. Water gets on thins, snow melts, etc. nipper

yay what did i win what did we find

Lets not forget how VW (used to) want to know the exact month your car was made to get parts. Engineering changes are a pain in the but, from the person who used to make those changes, its a fact of life. nipper

No your going to have to leave it with them and see it for themselves. They will hook up the Select monitor and fuel pressure gauges in the morning and will be able to see it better then us making educated guesses over the net. nipper

Are you leaking fluid anywhere? Back when transmissions had vacume modulators its possible to burn tranny fluid. Now that is no longer the case. Also trannies do NOT like to run low on fluid. How is your fluid level and what condition is it in? nipper

The pressure response is normal. Lets try one more thing tomorrow morning. When you get in the car first start, turn the car to on. count to five, then crank the engine see if it fires right off. nipper

Thats where i would go next, if it was my car, He can have a leaking fuel pressure regulator that takes extra long to build pressure back up. Lets do another Regulator test. Detach the vacumum hose from the regulator and watch the gauge. The fuel pressure should go up considerablly. If it doesnt go up check the vacuum to the regulator with a gauge. Leak down is normal, but your not complaining of a cold start issue which sounds like to me his regulator is lazy and taking a while to allow pressure to build back up. Another test would be to pinch off the return line and look for a quick rise in fuel pressure, as this would rule out the fuel pump. One other thing to look at, and i know its awfully cold to do this, is a compression test. I forget have plugs been changed on this car? nipper

DO the parking lights come on with the virgin switch? If it doesnt check the fuses. If it does its the relay. nipper

And there is your answer. nipper

Hill Holder has a simple cable adjustment at the clutch fork. It sometimes needs adjustment as the clutch wears. Fiddle with it untill you get it where you want it to be. nipper

From waht i understand there was a rules change, would require a dramatically re-engineered car, so i think they cut thier nose off in spite of thier face. Car companies just dont have the dollars to blow on this right now. nipper

And so it starts "here, hold my beer..............." hehehe nipper

This happened to me, the virgin switch was in the middle. Move the parking light switch back and forth first and see if that fixes it. nipper

im thinking maybe a vss failed for a moment. You may want to check the electrical connections. nipper

i'm curious, what condition is your fluid in? This is a relativly simple system, there is a VSS sensor in the tranny, one in the spedo head, the duty C solenoid, an internal spool vavlve, some clutches, and some input from the ECU. Maybe a vss sesnor flaked out on you. Putting the car in L will force a more aggresive AWD pattern. nipper

We cant tell you anything without knowing year and mileage. nipper

What kind of tires? nipper