George W

got a recommendation?

My next question: How to eliminate that tacky residue that forms on the dashboard from hydro-carbon sweating over 8 years....(rhetorical question).

Golucky66. I don't exactly know how, but it seems to have helped. I didn't even complete the procedure correctly because my fans wouldn't turn on(guess I should not have parked under the shade tree). After 30 minutes of 'no fan' idle, i turned on the A/C to force the fans on. I let the car idle this way for about a minute before turning the engine off. At first i thought I had messed things up because the A/C didn't blow cold air right away. After about 3 minutes it kicked in, and the idle is back to the way it used to be (So far). After a half-dozen stop lights, the idle kicks 'up' when the A/C cycles on, not 'down'. The RPM needle used to take a downward dip towards a stall, but now it goes north when the compressor turns on. The idle speed still reaches down to 500rpm, but now the load of A/C doesn't seem to drag anything down. THANK YOU THANK YOU for your help and generosity.

golucky66, Thank you for effort and time to link this procedure. I printed a copy to take to the auto shop this morning. Going to keep my fingers crossed...

Thank you for your experiences with your Subaru. Mine is still at the repair shop and won't see any further action until Monday. I will be on the phone asking their tech to try the throttle body cleaner. golucky66. If it is not an inconvenience, I'd would like to forward a snapshot of that procedure to the tech. Thank you.

I had a head gasket replacement on 2008 Legacy, 2.5L, automatic. The engine was out of car about one week. On test drive, the idle was lower than before. I have researched that the engine idle is factory set, but that the computer is supposed to adjust for load. This was never an issue before the gasket replacement. Using the air conditioner at idle wasn't a problem. Now, after the replacement, the engine idles so low that the AC compressor won't kick in. The RPM gauge shows idle exactly halfway between 0 and 1, I presume that represents around 500 rpm. The head gasket replacement was performed at an authorized Subaru shop. Since the battery was disconnected for an extended time, I understand the car has to relearn my driving habits. Why doesn't it 'learn' the idle is too low?