taskz

Thanks for the tips. The suspension is pretty worn but safe enough. Worn spring and shocks mostly. The brakes must be addressed and will be. I'll be mostly with a passenger but by myself otherwise. I live in an area with tons of trails within a half hour's reach that have cell coverage. I'm not doing anything really crazy for a good while. I love off-roading but I've usually been in the passenger seat. I know i'll have a learning curve. Yep, it's definitely valve knock. My son in law is finishing his course to be a tech and he confirmed it. A few days ago I diagnosed the noise. It's the water pump. Installing Forester struts seems a good cheap way to get a good amount of lift for cheap and I think I'll go that route once I can. I might be running into issues with a JDM engine swap but I'll post that in a separate post. The laws here might not allow for it. If anyone has input on that I'm in Salt Lake County, Utah USA

Yeah, I'm beginning to realize that. I don't have a lot of money and on the budget I said it would take about 2 years. If it takes longer that's fine but not great. If I get a JDM engine will I also need to swap the ECU and other components? There's some body rust but hardly any rust on the undercarriage. From what little I've been able to find out, that can be an issue with the OBS so I made sure. As far as the engine is concerned, It's sounding like it might be a good idea to get a JDM engine and get that running. Because the suspension is already marginal I'm not sure what to do. Spending money fixing the original suspension only to rip a lot of it out in a year or two seems redundant and I don't know if I can get any real amount of money from the used stock parts. I know these questions are kinda dumb but I'm slowly earning.

I recently acquired a 2000 Impreza Outback Sport with 230k miles for free from family. I've been thinking about what to do with this car and I've basically decided I want to make it an off-roader but keep it street legal. I have a lot of noob-ish questions. I have a little bit of a mechanical background but I haven't worked on cars in any serious way since the late 90's. A lot of this will be a re-learning/learning experience. The car has a solid trans but the engine needs some help. Lots of valve knock, some engine accessory is making a horrendous noise and it seems like it's lost a fair amount of power. Because I want to take this car on road trips I'm thinking it might be best to rebuild or swap. Either way this more about the learning experience and having something to do more than anything else. The suspension is also very worn. The ride quality is terrible. It also has a small water leak on top where the front window meets the roof. There's a couple rust spots on the body but nothing serious. That's basically it. Everything else about the car is fine. I have a budget of around $2-3k and I'm basically looking at revamping/lifting the suspension, possibly rebuilding the engine, fixing the leak and any other mods that will make it off-road worthy. Paint isn't part of it. I don't care how ugly it is. So far I've seen some interesting things about swapping in Forester suspension components and a DIY switch for locking the center diff. I plan to get skid plates. I'm not sure though about whether to DIY or purchase them. Also, what engine/exhaust mods can I do and still have the car pass emissions? What suggestions might people have for getting the best bang for my buck as far as amount of lift and performance? If you had the car and budget I do, what would you do?

I put the car back together earlier this evening and I'm just going to take it to the mechanic. Same trouble codes, same issue with the gauge cluster after replacing parts of it, Tried swapping the TCM as an ECM isn't available in my area unless I want to buy a brand new one and have the dealership program it. disconnected and reconnected all the connectors, tested them for continuity, etc, etc. Tested all the relays we could see under the dash, on and on. I agree it's probably an issue with the ground and/or the wiring and we just can't see it. I'd keep plugging away but it's one of my parent's cars, not mine and they kinda want it back. I appreciate the help, though. A few days ago I was given a free 2000 Impreza Outback as a project/learning experience and once I get going on that I'm sure I'll be back with more craziness.

Well, my son in law and I spent the day going over the wiring; fault checking and inspecting the connectors. Everything is fine there. Nothing out of place, broken or otherwise bad. We fixed the gauge cluster issue. Turns out some components burnt out and I'm going to the salvage yard tomorrow to get a donor one. We also tested (again) the sensors associated with the codes and they were fine. The computer is still throwing the same codes. I'm thinking my original theory is probably correct. When I reconnected the battery there must have been some sort of power surge. I'm trying to figure out the next step. Should I try swapping the ECM and/or TCM? Is there something else I'm not considering?

I actually plan to do just that tomorrow. I checked for any loose grounds. That all looks good. I have a son in law whose studying to be a certified tech and I'll definitely bring him in. When I was replacing the heater core, I carefully pulled out the strut that runs across under the dash, on the passenger side, just enough to get the heater box out. I tried to remove the fuse box on the driver side but I couldn't find a way to uncouple the strut from the fuse box. . There wasn't a predefined procedure in the manual I'm using. Basically said "Remove the strut". Couldn't find any info on the internet on how. Yup. Took a ton of pics on disassembly and when I went to the salvage yard to compare the wiring. . I'm 100% certain everything is connected right. Like I told montana tom, I'll bring in a fresh pair of eyes tomorrow and see what he thinks. I'm also going to look for bad connections (fun) and I'll make a note to look at the transmission harness first. Thanks for your help, folks. I'll keep you posted

I don't remember seeing any real major grounds except for a couple that bolted to the frame near the airbag controller (not sure of the term) but I'll definitely take a closer look. It's been a few years since I did anything more on a car than change the oil and I'm probably in over my head a little. Definitely a big job and electrical isn't my strong suit. Thanks for you reply!

Hi, I recently replaced the heater core in my 2001 Forester L. Everything basically went to plan, but I'm having some issues. 1. There are several trouble codes: P0500 Vehicle speed sensor malfunction P1540 Vehicle speed sensor malfunction 2 P1591 Neutral position switch circuit low input P1518 Starter switch circuit low input P0512 Starter switch circuit high input P0316 Misfire Occurred in the First 1000 Engine Revolutions 2. The gauge cluster is acting strange. Normally the lights behave but once I turn on the headlights only some of the gauges are lit and the backlights for the LCD displays turn off. I've inspected the wiring a bunch of times. I went to a salvage yard and tore into the dashes of 3 foresters to make some detailed comparisons. Took a ton of pictures. Long story short, I'm pretty sure the wiring in my Forester was properly connected. I checked the fuses and they are fine. There are two connectors I can't seem to find mates for. There's a single black wire that attaches to something somewhere around the cigarette lighter I can't find a mate for. In the same location there's a connector with 3 prongs in the same area I can't find a connection to. I have the cig lighter and whatnot properly wired up, though. I'm pretty stumped and any advice is appreciated. The service manual I've been reading is clear as mud as far where components are in the car that I can test. Any guidance with any of this is massively appreciated. The car otherwise runs and drives seemingly fine. TIA