RallyKeith

Car that occasionally won't start. It has a good battery and alternator, and and brand new REBUILT starter. Sometimes when you try to start the car, you hear the click of the starter solinoid engaging, but the starter doens't spin. You can read some more about it in this thread that I chimed in on, and Skip provided a possible solution to: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=81467&page=2 I've cleaned all the connections and was still having a problem. The wire inside the crimps on the wires to my battery were looking corroded, so I swapped the cables with ones on my 95 that has no starting issues. Since It's only an occasional thing only time will tell if this fixed it. In the mean time I was hoping to replace the relay I thought would be between the key and the starter solinoid. Another thought, I think this car had an alarm module in it that I ripped out, so if that had a starter inhibit relay in it that could be causing problems as well. Well, since I'm getting married in two days and then going on a little vaca It will be a few weeks until I can dig into this. Thanks for your thoughts guys! Keith

Nobody knows where it is? I know it's not in the engine bay... Is it up under the dash somewhere?

Where can I find the starter relay on a 96 Legacy GT? This would be the relay between the key and the little connection to the solinoid of the starter. Thanks, Keith

I've used the Mity Vac on several cars with pretty much no issues. If the goober that fits onto the bleeder nipple doesn't seal well it will suck air in and make you think you're getting lots of air out of the brake lines when you aren't, so be aware of that. Keith

If you get the car running and have a volt meter, measure the voltage across the battery. If you get something close to 14 Volts DC, then the alternator is working and you have a bad battery. If you don't get 14 volts, then the alternator is shot. I've had more issues with batteries going bad than alternators in newer subarus. Keith

My 88 RX came with a key that has an LED, so there is defenitely a part number that will work on a 94 Loyale, just not this one.

I'm not sure, since I've now sold my '05 at 24,000 miles, but I believe a tranny fluid change on the 5EAT is recommended at 30,000. Seems awefully low to me, but then again I'm not used to automatics. I had a friend that was having issues with a used '05 he bought that had 38,000 miles on it. The dealership told him his problems were becuase he never changed the fluid at 30,000. When he told them he bought it with 38,000 from them, they quickly changed his fluid and charged him nothing. Keith

Interesting. I'll be doing some voltage measurements on the wires first to see what's up. If the little wire can't supply enough power I should see a drop in voltage.

Funny you ask.... Replacement starter behaves the same. All the connections are clean, but the wire looks corroded. It's a 96 and lived the first 10 years of it's life in NH salt. I'm going to swap the power and ground wires with the ones on my 95 and see what happens.

I have to chime in for a moment and say not always true, only because I just did this last night and it did not fix my starter. I got contacts from the dealer, installed them, and cleaned and resurfaced the copper washer on the plunger. My starter still occasionally won't make proper contact and spin. (Yes, the coil is being actuated and the plunger is being pulled in) I will be installing the $79 lifetime warrenty rebuild from Advance Auto. I'm in electronics by trade so this one baffles me a bit, but it didn't work. I've actually had it apart twice now to make sure I did everything correctly and it still acts up. Since this is a car my other half drives, I want something reliable. Keith

What years and models / variants of the 2nd gen Legacy got heated seats? I've got a 96 LGT wagon with leather seats that my fiancé drives during the winter. Her only complaint about the car is the cold leather seats. If I could find a donor car to get the setup off of I would gladly install bun warmers for her. Also, what all is involved in the setup? Switch, Relay, heating coils, wiring harness? Thanks, Keith

I've never seen a car hit so hard that it was no bigger than a .

I'm not a professional mechanic, but I always put my old plugs back in the packaging the new ones came in, including the cardboard thingys. I do it because I always save the last set I pull out in case of an emergency. Also, I'm pretty sure that all new subarus since at least '05 come with platinum plugs, so they would be the corrcet replacement. BUT Check your owners manual. The platinum plugs are supposed to be a 100,000 mile item. If they changed them at 30,000 then something is fishy. Keith

Have you been able to do compression or leakdown tests on the rebuilt motor?

First off, go re-read what I said I don't believe. Secondly, the only cars that do not return immediatley to idle are the new DBW throttle cars, and even those drop to regular idle after 1-2 seconds, regaurdless of speed.

My vote rest on fuel filter or fuel line freeze. If it starts at all then the pump is running. Something is blocking the flow. Keith

Uh... I have a hard time believing that. Let me list the cars I've owned that have NEVER exhibited this: 88 RX 5spd 97 Impreza 2.2 5spd 95 Legacy 5spd 2 x 91 Legacy 5spd 93 Impreza 4EAT 96 Legacy 4EAT 96 Impreza 5spd 2 x 02 WRX 5spd 04 STi 6spd 05 LGT 5EAT Also, Mine will do the random revving with the car at a stop and my foot on the brakes. Keith

The EJ22 from an automatic 95 Legacy will swap right in. Must be an automatic donor car as the only the Automatics had EGR in 95. This is pretty well documented on the board.

I swapped an EJ22 into a 96 that had an EJ25. I swapped the ECU to one from a 96 with a 2.2 ONLY because the 2.2 had a lower RPM Limit and I thought it might be nice to not over rev the engine. It made no difference in performance, gas mileage, or starting. I'm probably going to switch it back because the TCU is still looking for the extraRPMs during a WOT pull-out.

No, I got something intersting now...... I just traded in my '05 Legacy GT 5EAT on an '06 2.5i Impreza Wagon 5MT...... It's has throttle issues..... Nothing severe, and nothing you notice while driving, but at idle it will randomly rev up and slowly drop back down. This morning the car started up and was idling aroung 2500rpm!!!! I drive for two blocks without touching the gas pedal! After that it seemed normal. When I take the car out of gear around 20mph as I come to a stop sign the rpms drop to normal idle, but then as if it thought it was an automatic, at about 10mph the rpms blip up to 1200rpm and slowly come back down. This car was used with 16,000 miles on it, but there was nothing reported in the service department about an issue. I hope you get to some resolution on yours. I personally feel it must have something to do with the sensor that senses the gas pedal position. Keith

I wouldn't be so sure of that. There is no external spring that you can see, but I gaurentee there is one inside of the electronic throttle unit. So if there was a code for the broken return spring, what did they do to fix it? Also, have they driven the car and experienced the issue? If they haven't you should offer to take them for a drive to reproduce the issue. A car that doens't decelerate when you lift off the gas is a safetly liability and I would think if you got into an accident because of it, and you had taken the car there already to have it fixed, then they would be somehow liable. I don't know though.

I know all about pedal dancing and Rev Matching and so on. I don't need to justify my knowledge there. The '06 did it with no pedal dancing or excessive force or rev matching. It surprised me how easy it was, unlike any other subaru I had driven before, including the 6spd STi.

I know my '04 the STi had a drive by wire throttle, my '05 Legacy GT had one, and the '06 2.5i Impreza I just got has it as well. So I would assume that your '05 has the drive by wire throttle. That means it could be an issue with the sensor on the gas pedal, or it could also be an issue with the electronic throttle unit itself. With the way you say you can "kick it down" it makes me think it could be something with whatever senses the gas pedal position. Also, The system is setup in such a way that when you lift off the gas it leave the throttle open a tiny bit for something like a second. Basically it doesn't drop to idle immediately like a "normal" car. Your car is obviously doing something it shouldn't do, but I thought I'd throw that out there as something for people to think about. Keith

I guess I forgot that it depends on what year of car you have. The Early AWD 5 speeds do not like going into 1st gear unless at a crawl. I don't have much experiance past that 97, which did not like going in above about 10mph. However... I just picked up an '06 2.5i Impreza monday night and decided to try down shifting to first at speed last night. It went right in at 30mph.... So they've defenitely made some changes on that. Keith

We've tried EBC pads on our rally car and didn't like them. We currently rally with the same pads I drive on the street and they perform awesome. Axxis/PBR Metal Master pads. Great initial feel and very fade resistant. I just ran a fresh set of these at Black River Stages and had smoke coming off the pads, but very little brake fade.