nipper

hehehe i was going to say that, i can just picture the car smoking a cigerete afterwards. Only thing is we are talking a cow here, so ,er , um last time i checked, the car would have to, well um, this is a g rated list Now if it happens twice, you havent lost a car, you gained a cow. nipper

And this is where you need a factory service manual. If i remeber correctly (somone correct me please) you dont need oil. Some compressors use oil in the freon to lubricate, other compressors are sealed and use internal lubrication (like a crankcase). Now IF you have the kind that circulates oil (i dont see an oil spec in the haynes manual so i am assuming subarus dont need it), the oil stays in as long as the AC is functioning. This is one of the reasons some older AC compressors will self destruct if they loose pressure and keep runing. There should be a label someplace on the ac compressor or under the hood stating how much refridgerant the system takes. If it needs oil, it will state how much there too. Refrigerant really only comes from one company, dupont, and is re packaged by different companies. Honeywell makes refrigerant too, but not for automotive use. Now do you have the right refrigerant for your car. Nothing personal but you are not giving me the warm fuzzies in the area of confidence that you know what your doing. i just don't want to see anyone hurt. nipper

Your going to have to wait till next month, when i am due for my next oil change:) . i have to let my mechanic look at it. The add insult to injury thing is is the driver sid healight os out now. i think the last time i did changed that i moved the battery to make life easier. i don't think thats happening this time around. nipper

if your car is going to slide backwards with the brakes aplllied after coming to a halt from a forward direction, you have a much bigger problem. Your supposed to stop behind the drawbridge gates, not in front of them. If you loose traction and slide backwards on two wheels, your not going to have the traction to pull forward either. nipper

heheh out of curisoity, was the car white by any chance? nipper

From amisols own web site http://www.advanced-synthetics.com/amsoil_what_products.htm NOTE: If your vehicle has over 100 or 110,000 miles on it or is more than 9 or 10 years old, and you are not currently using another synthetic oil, you may not wish to switch over to AMSOIL. Vehicles with such high mileage may have dry, cracked seals and gaskets. Having used conventional oils for so long (even with 3,000 mile oil changes), the sludge and deposits from oil burn-off may have caused a build-up to occur which is plugging the gaps around these seals and gaskets and preventing leaks. What I never agree with is using an engine flush, or any chenical flush in an engine. If the engine is running fine, why mess with it. For some reason they say to use an egnie flush first, and thats the first i heard of it. Secondly they say even if you dont flush it, the oil may still disolve the gunk holding the seals together and cause leaks. nipper

The hill holder is a really simple little device. Basically its a check valve that is actuated by a large steel ball. WHen the car is pointing up, the ball rolls back and closes the valve in conjunction with the cable that comes off the clutch fork. The hill holder only actuates one front brake. This cable needs to be adjusted. The cable is too tight, so the valve is never fully releasing. i don't understand the 2 hour part, unless you have some internal leakage in the hill holder. Another possability is that the retun spring is broken on the hill holder. nipper

and you didnt take a picture? tsktsktsk nipper

What he said with one other point. If you have a car that is heavily laden with electronics (like power glove box doors ... dont laugh its only a matter of time). ac on or all the winter heaters on and your sitting in traffic for a long time and have not moved, put the car in neutral and give it a little gas for a few minutes every so often. The altenator starts making full power about 1000 rpm. It is possible to kill the battery while the car is idling in traffice for the reasons stated above. What you may think are cars pulled over due to overheating is becoming more and more are dead batteries. Altenator 101 http://www.1stconnect.com/anozira/SiteTops/energy/Alternator/alternator.htm nipper

That is alot of boost for a little engine. The engine would need a rebuild to start off with, an oil cooler. i would get a adjustable waste gate and play with the boost. Try and research the geo metro turbo and see what they did to that to beef it up. nipper

one side can be frosty cold, and the other side cool, and depending where your grabbing hoses, the one side of the compressor is going to be hot, so be careful. WARNINIG .. thermodynamics lesson ahead http://www.chemistry.wustl.edu/~edudev/LabTutorials/Thermochem/Fridge.html nipper

The 97 and 98 short cycled and blew cold air. When i had gauges on it it was fine. There must be an error in the haynes manual. Actually the hoses should be cold and colder, and it takes a few minutes for the lines to reach their true temperature. http://www.rationalautorepair.com/AC.html You cant really compare differnt makes of cars, as it depends upon the refridgerant too, the design of the system etc etc. nipper

two words "reverse flush" . i flush via the heater hose (get a kit). Its amazing what comes out. DId you use a OE t-stat? The pipes in the heater core are huge compared to the radiator, so heater cores dont clog as easily as they used too, if ever. nipper

they all short cycle, thats normal. It saves gas as opposed to having the ac on all time.. System sounds fine. Gauges do you no good unless you know how to read them properly. Use a thermometer to determaine what the temp is of the air coming out of the ac vents. Depensgin upon your refridgerant 40-50F when it is 70 outside is fine, though 50 would have nme concerned with freon.

Flush with water. DO NOT use a product. if you been flushing regularly there is no need for it. FLush products can remove everything holding your system together. nipper

you have a relay that may be bad, its under the hood in the relay/fuse box on the drivers side. It is also possibble you have bad switches. If you have no pressure in the system its not going to run. Double checking the haynes book there is only one pressure switch (sorry) Take a metter to that switch, if its open, thats why the ac wont work, and it means that most likely there is no pressure in the system. This is where it gets hard to explain things over the net. Start with checking the pressure switch. Jump that switch and see if the AC come on normally. If it still doesnt come on, check the AC Relay. WHen you turn on the ac do the cooling fans come on too? With the compressor engaged (do not do this longer then a minute) check to see if the AC is blowing any cool/cold air. If not you have no freon or are low. There is a site glass, its on the pass side where the pressure switch is.Its on a black can behind the strut tower and near the ww motor. WIth the ac on there should be fluid in there 1/2 full (hard to explain). nipper

am i just incredible lucky? i have never had an airpocket in the cooling systems, and ive changed raditaors, flushed em, changed T-stats and waterpumps, never an issue. nipper

Dont run the compressor too long. The refrigerant also lubricates the compressor, and thats not a cheap peice of metal to replace. nipper

you have two pressure switches, a low pressure and high pressure. After checking fuses and rlays and such, i would bet your low on refridgerant. nipper

This can truly put you in the er if you do not know what you are doing. I am an epa certified a/c tech, if you dont know what your doing STOP and let a shop do it, its much cheaper then the ER bill. You need the proper gauges, and a vacume pump. You have to pull a vaaccum on the system to make sure all humidity is out, and you know that there is exactly zero refridgerant in the system. Evacuation of the system does two things, it creates a vacuum within the system for a full recharge and reduces the boiling point of water from 212 to around 70, nominal temps., making it possible to remove the moisture. SOme links http://experts.about.com/q/Auto-Air-Conditioning-1591/AC-Recharge.htm http://www.allpar.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=20709&st=80 http://autos.yahoo.com/maintain/repairqa/fluids_heat_air_conditioning_general/ques023_0.html Wear saftey glasses, wear saftey glasses, did i mention saftey glasses? nipper

If its just the glass, take the car to a windsheild shop. i did that, they removed the rest of the old glass, and made a new mirror. Looked like OE when done. nipper

ive gottne as low as 12, but that is winter using the remote starter, i usually get 17-20 around town depending upon how i drive. Now town here is a stop sign on every corner, i still have no idea what the mileag is on the highway, anyone want to take my car on a run nipper

You can have belts break under normal circumstances and not have valves bend. This is not a normal circumstance, but the good thing may be that the car stalled because of the impact, just as the timing belt got screwed. i would go though the motins of replacing the timing belt and do a compression test. If you need to pull the heads at that oint you really havent done that much waisted work. nipper

My obw doesnt do it all the time, the wind has to be the right speed and right direction. nipper

Weights fall off. It is very very very rare to loose a driveshaft weight, but it does happen. If it has, you have two options. tru to guestimate the size of the weight by looking at the shadow and the other weight, or take it to driveshaft shop and let them balance it. nipper