Today I received my new air controller from Subaru. The old might have been OK, but the car has been a hair sluggish lately and its one of only a couple things that haven't been replaced on my '99 Forester.

I put the shiny new one on, and at start up the rpms are all over the place!

Turn off the engine and disconnect the battery. Next start up is much more stable, but: The car now accelerates on it own up to about 30 mph(something it never did before) and it idles a bit faster then usual. It did however, significantly

improve the performance, much smoother.

As of now battery is disconnected for the night. My question: does anyone have any other pointers- Do these things have to break in? Though totally identical, I notice the pin that comes out of this device is a little tighter than the old one.

Would WD40 help? Does the computer take awhile to relearn a new part such as this?

Thanks friends!

DO you mean the idle air control ?

 

nipper

DO you mean the idle air control ?

 

nipper

 

Subaru lists it on the receipt as: Valve Assembly Air Control

Must be the idle air control valve. Are you sure you didnt miss any vacum hoses anywhere. The purpose of this valve is to control the idle speed. Its acting like there is a disconnected vac line someplace.

 

 

nipper

Must be the idle air control valve. Are you sure you didnt miss any vacum hoses anywhere. The purpose of this valve is to control the idle speed. Its acting like there is a disconnected vac line someplace.

 

 

nipper

Nope this bell shaped device is only plug and play. That is it goes into the throttle body and is plugged into the wiring harness. No hoses of any kind attach

to it. And everything else looks tight in regards to the rest of the throttle body.

Nope this bell shaped device is only plug and play. That is it goes into the throttle body and is plugged into the wiring harness. No hoses of any kind attach

to it. And everything else looks tight in regards to the rest of the throttle body.

 

Nooooooooo

 

What i meant was check and make sure you didnt knock off any vacum hoses

 

nipper

Nooooooooo

 

What i meant was check and make sure you didnt knock off any vacum hoses

 

nipper

I don't think that is the case, but I will double check it tomorrow.

Thanks.

It does seem like a vacuum leak. Do you hear any sucking noises under the hood at idle? Did you use a new IACV gasket as well? Do not spray it with wd-40, that just makes an oily surface that dirt can stick to and gum the thing up again.

It does seem like a vacuum leak. Do you hear any sucking noises under the hood at idle? Did you use a new IACV gasket as well? Do not spray it with wd-40, that just makes an oily surface that dirt can stick to and gum the thing up again.

 

Good News! I took it back out and sprayed the inside with WD(sorry I couldn't help myself), checked all the hoses which were tight, and put it back in. Reconnected the battery, and poof all is well. It runs better then ever.Yes, Subaru sent me a new gasket and I put it in the first time.

Ok great! Maybe the battery was not disconnected long enough. There was an article on endwrench for certain Soobs that could develop a poor idle if the battery was not left disconnected long enough.