Cret

Yep it's a 4 cam. Bah! As I expected.

Can't answer you I'm afraid. I've had a couple of the Aus Liberty RS owners saying they've had belts slip and been ok so does that mean the engine is probably non interfering or that they were just extremely lucky? I take it that interfering means that the valves & pistons WILL hit if the belt goes, and non interfering meaning that they clear each other? If that's the case I'd naturally very much like to know which one it is! It's an EJ20G engine by the way. Have a new cambelt on the way now so I'll know one way or the other before too long......

Thanks for the responses guys but the belt definitely has slipped. When I took the covers off it last night the belt was in one piece but in a right state. I'm not sure if the tensioner had failed maybe but the belt was slack in some points and tight in others. Turning the crank by hand it was very obvious to see it slipping quite badly so I' don't hold out much hope for the engine at the moment. First thing I'll do is fit a new belt, line it all up and see if it starts. There's a small chance it might not have damaged itself but I think it most likely has. Presumably this means at the very least bent valves, and possibly holed pistons, cracked valve guides etc etc. If it doesn't run with the new belt I imagine I'll take the whole engine out rather than just removing the heads, and I'll then have to decide whether to rebuild it or find a replacement engine. A dark hour for me indeed though.:boohoo:

Thanks for all the help so far. Sadly, things aren't looking good..... Well folks, it's time for depression factor 11 Mr Sulu. The good news is that my fuel pump is just tickety boo. This at least gives me the tiny bit of satisfaction that I was telling my mate it sounded like it was fine all along. I like being right. The bad news is that my timing belt has slipped. I don't know how much, but it's not hopeful as nice things like it only being a tooth or two out are things that happen to other people. I guess now my only option is to get a new belt (anyone know what they cost & a good place to order one? I know they aren't cheap), time it all up properly with the new belt on & see if it's been lucky enough for the pistons & valves to have avoided that most unholiest of unions that I'm dreading/expecting, or if the engine is now a cambelt murder victim. :( If anyone has any cunning suggestions on other ways of finding out if it's wrecked before I fork out for a new & potentially useless cambelt I'd be obliged as I'm hardly flush at the moment having just spent loads of money on getting the car all shipshape and treating it to lots of goodies. Merry ****ing Christmas to me - ho ho ho. The best bit of all is that I just finished paying my mum back last month the money I borrowed off her to buy the treacherous chunk of crap. Well, I'm off to get drunk now, and sulk. A lot. Anyone know what a second hand scoob engine goes for roughly? Time to get saving. :|

Thanks guys (especially Alias for that big long post!) I'll be heading down there after work this evening to see what I can test and rule out now that I've a better idea how to approach it. I'll let you know what I find out - fingers crossed it's just the pump or something. I can't see that I'd have managed any kind of catastrophic engine failure just idling it like that out of the blue...........

Thanks very much the advice. I really hope you're right as it will hopefully then mean it's going to be a simple & not too costly fix if any parts do need replacing. If it's a matter of a wiring fault then I can easily do that myself, so I think I'll be heading down there tomorrow with my multimeter..... Whereabout in the engine bay do the fuel lines come in/the fuel filter be found? I'm sure I'll spot it but it's just that bit easier if I know where to head straight away. Just remembered something else my mate mentioned as well. When I was cranking the engine over he stuck his face up the backbox and said he couldn't smell any fuel through the exhaust, so that's another indicator that the fault is indeed fuelling & not ignition. Here's hoping.....

Thanks for the suggestion but I can rule that out straight away as the welding was done with exhaust off the car not on it (didn't fancy doing welding near the fuel tank!!).

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I had wondered about coil packs as it was recently misfiring when cold but an ECU reset seems to have cured that. Not really sure how I can check for sparks on account of where the plugs are, hidden away like they are. I'm quite happy to do my own mechanics as I'm pretty handy with the spanners but I've not needed to do any work on the scoob before so the engine bay looks a bit intimidating. My mate suggested the exact same thing that maybe I'd sabotaged a fuel pump wire and that it was running on the last bit of juice in the system, but I checked under the car and could even find any wiring or even see the pump itself. Do I get to it from inside the boot? We did have a listen and I suspect the pump may be ok as I can hear a slight whirring noise from near the back that goes for maybe 5 seconds when the ignition is turned on, then stops. I would imagine that's the fuel pump priming the system maybe, which makes me think that it's probably ok. Is there any way that I can check in the engine bay if fuel is actually making it to the engine? Likewise any tips on how I can check for sparks without the aggro of removing the plugs, and where exactly the dizzy is hidden in the engine bay. Anything like that would be most useful, or any kind of links to how to's for common jobs like that on a scoob. All the fuses in the driver footwell box were fine, and all the ones by the battery were ok as well but I've no idea which would be the fuse for the fuel pump anyway as everything's in japanese and I've no kind of haynes book or anything like that. I'm really grateful for any ideas as I'm a bit stuck without the car. More than that I'm just really gutted that something like this has happened just after I've spent a load of money on the car to get it really nice. Cheers!

Horror of horrors, yesterday afternoon the unthinkable happened and after 2 years of not missing a beat my beloved motor has decided to go on strike. Was in the middle of fitting my new backbox after driving it down to my mum's garage to do the job, when the unmentionable happened. Half way through cutting & welding the backbox (off the car) I started up the car and it sounded rough, ran for about 10 seconds or so, stalled, and now refuses to start. I'm completely certain the exhaust has nothing to do with the problem as it was the same on the car when it conked as it was before. It turns over normally but will not fire in the slightest. There's plenty of fuel in it and no fuses appear to be blown so I'm really not sure what can have packed in to make it do this. If anyone has any cunning ideas of likely causes I'd be incredibly grateful as having just spent loads of money on various things for the damn car, and getting some bodywork done etc I'm cleaned out, meaning a hideously expensive trip to a garage is not really an option right now. I'm really p1ssed of about it as I was meant to be going karting today but instead I'll be scouring the web for possible causes and leaning over my engine bay getting backache. What an utter bummer.

It would help a little if you said what subaru you have!! Lots of impreza parts fit the legacy - they're very similar cars really. On mine (89 RS) I've got coilover suspension from a WRX, and some engine bits & pieces that are meant for the impreza too. If you want upgrades for the impreza I'm afraid I'm not helping as there are literally kazillions of websites that cater for them! For the legacy though you could do a lot worse than to look on here: http://www.rslibertyclub.org/forums/ Legacies (or Liberties as they're otherwise known) seem much more common in AUS & NZ. Good luck! :-) PS - It's AWD!!! FWD means FRONT wheel drive!:moon: (Even says it on the outside of my car so nyerrrr!

Josh, you're correct about the model/intercooler setup. After installing a chip recently I'm getting pinking/knocking probs when on full boost (blitz boost controller on it's way now), but I don't really think it's a heat problem as such as someone has advised me that the chip I got may well be running a lot more ignition advance than is sensible. Nonetheless, that problem aside I figured a little extra intercooling capacity certainly shouldn't do any harm as we all know that the cooler the charge the better when it comes to turbos. Flow wise, I can only guess it's up to the job as the pipes to it are about the same diameter as the ones feeding the intercooler. I'd like to test that my intercooler pump is working ok but not sure how I can test it without simply disconnecting a pipe and seeing how much coolant comes blasting out! I've removed the intercooler cap when the car is running and I can hear the pump running but the coolant doesn't appear to be moving or at all turbulent and if it's being pumped through surely it ought to be moving about a bit? Just figured that this might be a relatively simple mod to attempt with something that's cost me nothing at all. People spend fortunes on buying huge intercoolers so I figured it must be worth adding a bit extra to mine. The only other thing is if I try this, I'm not sure what the best way to test how much difference it's made (or not). I'd like to be able to monitor intake temperatures but I'm guessing the only way to do this is to invest in horribly expensive equipment? Cheers for any advice anyway!

Whilst clearing out a shed full of junk I've come across a small motorbike radiator that measures about 9inches by 7inches. I'm wondering if this would be worth adding in line with the existing intercooler radiator on my RS? I'd plan to mount it at the front of the car somewhere where it'd hopefully add a little extra cooling to the water in the intercooler, plus add a little extra coolant to the system which might help keep it that little bit cooler also. Does this sound to anyone like it'd be worth adding? I can't see it being much hassle, just really a couple of extra pipes and a bracket. Worth doing or a waste of time? Cheers!

Frag - I owe you a pint! I'd noticed the joint before down by the turbo chimney, but it didn't seem to have play in it. What I hadn't realised however until yu mentioned it, is that there are two joints there. Bingo! The lower one which I hadn't spotted had the slack in it so it's been tightened up tonight in a couple of minutes and has made the steering go from horrible to perfect in a few turns of a ratchet! Top marks to that man!

Excellent plan Frag, cheers! I'm sure it's the rack or something above it as the play in the wheel seems to have no resistance at all connected to it (i.e. the slack bit is before its really moving anything), so I guess a UJ could be the culprit! Do these just tighten up then or willit be something like a rubber bush in the joint that might need changing? BTW - just driven the car with the new chip in it and all I can say is WOW!! The difference is amazing - feels like a different car completely! The best thing is that the chip cost me just NZ$179 (about US$110 or so) so power for money it's incredible. In case anyone else has an older Legacy like mine (that uses the 8bit ecu) and wants a chip I would highly recommend these guys, they've been very helpful and I'm delighted with the chip even though I've only had about 30 minutes of driving on it so far. http://www.dynamicrace.com/

That sounds hopeful then - cheers Josh. I want to get my car as spick & span as I can right now. There's a chip going in tonight, brakes from a 22B going on in a week or so, a new 3" straight through exhaust, and then I'll maybe get the dent in the front wing sorted out and give it a clean! An Impreza guy I know thinks he might be able to find me an impreza rack as a possible freebie so that'd solve the main remaining problem with the car then. Yay!