nipper

well have you gotten under the car to investigate these things? We can give you a list all day, but we need you to investigate them and cross them off the list for us.... nipper

it can be that the TO bearing is dry, that will make noise too (from sitting). You can get a really good stero to deal with it low mileage is not always a good thing nipper

your mixed up. When the throwout bearing is under load it stops making noise. When it is not underload, since it is worn, the parts are rattling around causing the niose. nipper

should you really let your daughter dirve a car with a porn setting? It can be as simple as a bad tranny mount, or a weak universal joint. i would suspect a tranny mount. nipper

1983 oldsmobile wasnt an electronic transmission, that plus it was a GM, lucky it lasted that long There is no filter to change in this, just a screen that is good for the life of the tranny. You can cause more trouble by changing the screen then leaving it alone (like leaks). Lots of us have the fluid changed at high mileage. nipper

weird electrical problems can be traced to either the altenator or a light bulb. Check the alt and battery. if they are Ok then remove all the turn signal and brake lamps and see if it goes away. Slowly replace them untill it returns, and that is where your problem is. Can be a bad bulb or socket. nipper

change it, i did mine at 185,000 miles. The fear of new fluid ruining the seals isnt aplicable anymore, as there are far less seals in electronic transmissions. They rarely go bad because of the fluid change itself. nipper

Its a u joint in the center of the car most likely. Het under there and shake the driveshaft, there shold be no play in the u joints or bearing. It will get worse with time and make the car undriveable. Go to a junk yard OR a driveshaft shop and let them rebuild it. Dont go to subaru as its not worth the 400.00 + procetag. nipper

years and years of expeirience, the same way some people can look at a bolt and know what size it, the way others can just eye something then cut it.... just practice nipper

Technically knock and ping are two seperate animals. Ping can lead to knock, but not always. http://www.factorypipe.com/Technical/Tech_Articles/Deto/deto.html knock sensor can not compensate for unctrlled ignition. Light ping is not desirable but acceptable, and in comparison to knock is not a huge prioblem. Also changing where you buy gas may help. Another poassability is the timing belt getting a little sloppy. There are many many reasons for ping, unfortunitly. You can try decarbonizing the engine. You can try a cooler thermostat. Once you go over the major things, sometimes there is no solution for it. Ping under light throttle isnt all that bad, ping under heavy throlle, ot that does not go away when the humidity or weather changes is bad. http://www.chevrolet.com.au/articles/knock.html http://www.misterfixit.com/deton.htm something else i found Exhaust Gas Recirculating Valves What are they? What do they do? How do they fail?? EGR Valves have been around for a long time. Way back in 1972 GM used them in an attempt to reduce emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) which were a major cause of air pollution, mainly photochemical smog, that kind of smog which is formed when strong sunlight shines down on the exhaust gasses we puke out of our tailpipes by the billions of cubic feet a day. A short chemistry lesson is in order here. It was discovered way back when, that high combustion chamber peak temperatures (the really short duration high temperatures near the end of the combustion process) caused oxygen and nitrogen to combine chemically and form these oxides of nitrogen mentioned above. Most of the anti-pollution devices of the day did a pretty good job of reducing the other bad by-products of combustion, namely excessive hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide, however they tended to induce the formation of oxides of nitrogen. Something had to be done else we would all die of smog diseases. The automotive engineers figured that they needed to do something to lower the peak combustion temperatures which only occurred under certain high load driving conditions. They figured they could do so at the expense of power and fuel economy but what the heck, ya can't have everything! If they could only add something to the combustion chamber that would act like sort of a fire extinguisher to cool the combustion temperatures that would do it. So they invented a way to allow some very inert gas to get back into the combustion chamber only when needed. They needed a source of this gas - it wasn't air, cuz that contains oxygen and nitrogen which caused the problem in the first place. So they chose carbon dioxide. Where to get a supply of carbon dioxide . . . ??? Hmmmm, how about the exhaust system? That is mainly carbon dioxide and water (plus a zillion other noxious chemicals) Suppose we allow some of the exhaust gas to get back into the intake manifold under strict control and only when we need it? That would cool the combustion chamber and prevent the formation of the NoX. Maybe we should call it recirculated exhaust gas (REG??). But a guy named Reginald voted no cuz he didn't want his name associated with a car part, so they called it exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) since there was nobody around with that name. Now we understand why it is there. And we understand what it does. So what can go wrong with it and what are the symptoms?? It's really pretty simple - it can be open when it isn't supposed to be, or it can be closed when it is supposed to be open. Not rocket science, but it is science. If it is open when it is not supposed to be open, at idle for instance, It will act like one monster vacuum leak and the engine will not idle or will idle really roughly. If it doesn't open when it is supposed to open you will probably experience a symptom of "pinging" or "knocking" since the combustion chamber temperature will be higher than normal (one of the main causes of pinging in an engine). There are a zillion different types of EGR valves some of which work strictly on vacuum, and some which work on a combination of vacuum and pressure. Some have electronic controls, some have mechanical controls. I won't go into detail here about all the different types but suffice it to say that most can be checked by looking inside to see if the plunger shaft is stuck open or doesn't move when the engine is revved up (after it is warmed up). Replacement is probably the easiest part since most are held in by two small bolts and have a vacuum line connected to it. The hard part is whipping out your Visa card to pay for it since most of them will drain your reserves in a hurry!!

ping si that popcorn sound you sometimes hear under light acceleration. This ping is caused by too hot a spark plug, and is annoying. Knock is a much more deeper sound, and you can actually feel the cars performance suffer. Its hard to explain without pointing out the sound. knock is also much louder then ping. nipper

no two cars are exaclty alike when it comes to ping. There are common things to check. You make sure the EGR valve is operating properly, make sure the knock sensor is good (this is a knock sensor not a ping sensor), and make sure you have a good t-stat. The other thing you can do is try a vooler spark plug from the same mfg as is already in the car. Ping is a very complicated thing, and it is not considered abnormal, as annoying as it is. Cars run very lean, which menas higher combustion temps. The spark plug housing retains this heat, hence you have ping. Knock which is caused by bad timing, a engine funning hot, poor oil pressure (oil does cool the pistons) and excessive carbon buildup in the engine is bad. Carbon buildup isnt as bad a problem as it used to be due to better fuel control (super lean engines). Also something as simple as having the AC on can cause ping while having it off does not. This is within the acceptable range. nipper

a year is pushing it, ive seen then burn out anywhere in the 1-2 year range. The solenoid isnt that big a deal, but unless its a oyoung tranny, its going to take the clutch pack with it. nipper

subaru has a large assembly plant in the US, from which all american subarus come from. i dont rememebr exaclty but i think it may have been 1992 some models were made here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_Legacy is calling Subaru Of America (soa) Subaru in america. nipper

whew ... but im not crazy about your mechanic. check the idle air conrol motor, the ISC is the same thing pretty much. nipper

why is the egr gone? thats actually important these days to prevent ping. idle speed control can cause stalling, and fuel metering i think is related to map sesnor, but i would inspect the ISC first. nipper

Thats pretty much the standard for all gauges that have any real accuratcy (you get what you pay for again), 70% of full scale, drop the bottom 20 and top 10. Also you canonly eye up the center of two gradiants, meaning if you have a gauge that reads in 10 lb incruments, you can do 5 but not 7 ie 85 as oppsed to 87. nipper

im on my fifthe subaru, ive owned two VW, one a 1973 super beelte waith a semi automatic, and the other was a cabrolet (rabbit). That was a nightmare, with all the individual grounds, finally an electrical problem killed it. VW deisels are great cars, but it is what is attached to them of late that are below par. i advise people that they make great lease cars. nipper

im more worried about it not being the tranny, you doing all that work, and still having the noise nipper

drain the oil and run it into a funnel with a cheese cloth or a paint filter. If there is alot of particles, it may be the tranny, if not i would suspect maybe a broken clutch part. how does it sound on the 4-3 3-2 2-1 shift. How does it sound in reverse? nipper

and ive been driving cars with electric fuel pumps since 1978 and never replaced a pump, but have relays.... two in differnet subarus and one in a honda once again look in the manual. Test the pump for opens, test for power at the pump. If there is no signal from the electronic ignition, the fuel pump will only operate for a few seconds. The ecu also controls the fuel pump. (see its not that simple) This is not a hard thing to do, but if you want to buy a pump and replace it without even properly diagnosing the circuit, i know some mechanics that would love to have your business. page 12-4 fuel punp relay location page 12-27 wiring diagram Haynes says its fuse 16 in the box under the dash, not sure how that correlates to reality. nipper

go to the haynes manual in the electrical section they will show you where the relay is. Also the fuse operates the relay, as the pump circuit is always hot. Check the fusebox under the hood. nipper

the way the spedo works.. a cable from the tranny goes into the head. The head consists of the odometer and a spinning magnet. the magnet sits inside a bell shaped drum. The faster the magnet spins, the higher the needle goes. There is a clock spring that adds resistance so that the needle doesnt flop over. Sounds like your spring is busted, or you have a lot of junl in that drum. Either way the cluster has to come out, if the spring is broken you cant fix it, a spedo shop has to, so just get another unit. nipper

sheesh i should be in the part business, the way people replace parts without proper testing... not only is there a fuse, but there is also a relay. Usually the relay has gone bad. Get yourself a haynes manual. Subaru fuel pumps are extreemly reliable and thats the last thing i would suspect. i bet you dont even have power going to the pump. nipper

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force damn i love mechanical engineering....... too bad its all outsourced now. heheheh