fishy

Since I do youtube videos as a hobby I shot a bit of video for this plugwire repair process if anyone's interested:

Good news, everyone! The wire was the culprit. Instead of risking the other brittle old wires by trying to make the misfire move to another cylinder I pull the suspect wire and put my multimeter on it. THere was ZERO continuity passing through that sucker. I checked local wrecking yards and the only ones that had any Subaru wires had them for the wrong generation (too short for this side of the motor). At this point I didn't have much to lose so I yanked the coil end of the wire apart and the conductor was literally burned to dust. I trimmed the wire back a little to fresh conductor part and reassembled the end. Presto! 4 out of 4 cylinders again!

Good call. I'll do that especially once the new wires arrive. I did find my tube of dialectric grease though so I should be in OK shape tomorrow if I can locate a cheap and/or used wire to chuck on the thing temporarily.

Ah ha! I was suspecting wires too because they are of unknown age... the #2 wire doesn't appear to have any continuity when I check it with my meter and it was baked onto the coil post so badly that I almost had a hernia trying to get it free. The metal part inside the coil end of the wire was unbelievably dry and appear to be partially cracked from where I had to work it off the post. There was clearly never any dialectric grease used on it. I can't even find mine in the shop right now to try putting some on there but I think the wire is pooched anyway. I wonder if I can get a wire or two from a local junkyard to hold me over till my already-ordered NGK set gets here. I'd hate to have to buy two sets of wires within a week or so.

Hey guys, I've treated myself to a brand new 8 year old car that has its own brand new problems. vitals: 2005 Outback 2.5 4eat The car ran perfectly two days ago and then some sasquatch (me) was prodding around under the hood looking over the new car. Then the car sat for a day and today it's running as rough as an old tractor and throwing a p0302 misfire code. I know this is a cylinder 2 misfire so I pulled plug #2 and it was in excellent condition. Plugs and wires are at LEAST 30,000kms old, maybe more. I've already ordered new NGK replacements but they aren't here yet. I cleaned the MAF just for fun and reset the ECU. The code cleared briefly but the rough running was still present and the p0302 came back within a minute or two. This time while watching it run with the hood up I noticed a pronounced SNAPSNAPSNAPSNAPSNAP sound coming from the area of the coil pack. The snapping noise speeds up with RPM... Am I hearing my spark jumping from a damaged coil pack to a nearby ground? I'll watch it again in the dark later to see if sparks are evident but I'd sure like the group opinion on this one. PS. It IS possible that I poked at, leaned on, or otherwise molested the coil pack while I was looking around at the motor the other day.

I'm not sure where those numbers are. Do I need to have anything removed to find them? Car is still slapping and rattling along down the road. I estimate at least several thousand kilometers since the noise has gotten on my nerves.

Hey guys, minor update: The slap/knock continues... I checked the timing belt tensioner and could NOT see it jumping around anywhere. I also changed the oil (due anyway) and put in some Castrol(I think it was) "High Mileage Engines" type stuff that I saw on sale. That seems to have made zero improvement(as expected). I couldn't see any silver/gold flake in the old oil so I take that as a sign that there wasn't.

Thanks for the input, guys. When I think harder about it I guess the noise hasn't exactly started suddenly. This car sat in my garage being worked on over last winter and when I finally fired it up in the spring to get it on the road it was knocky then too. I think a combination of exhaust leak and warm weather kept the knock from being noticable for a while. This fall I got the exhaust patched up and then the temperatures started to drop. We've had a pretty cold winter here so maybe it IS just a really horny case of piston slap. Here's hoping. I broke off one of the 10mm inspection cover bolts the other day trying to get in there for a peek. I'll have to try the other two when I get a chance again. If I break them all off at least I'll be able to take the cover off! I could always goop the cover back on with a few blobs of RTV or something I suppose. I'm curious what a cracked flexplate does to the operation and longevity of the engine/car. Does anyone have experience with those?

Hey gang, Help me diagnose this one if you can, please. Here's a video of my 98 ej22 making a racket. I'm hoping for piston slap because I don't believe that to be fatal... Facts that I know: 1. The noise gets quieter as the car warms up but never completely goes away. 2. The colder the morning the louder the startup 3. I have no knowledge of the car ever being overheated but I've only owned it for about 14,000kms (forgot to say: the car is currently at about 235,000kms) 4. It does have oil in it.

Definitely check ahead of the right rear tire where the lines come out of the body and love to collect rust. I just had a fantastic brown-shorts moment last week when the lines on my Impreza blew out exactly in that location. Since it's a fun story: I was approaching a round-a-bout at enthusiat speeds when another car appeared from a blind entrance and was going to be in the same place as me very soon. I jabbed the whoa-peddle and POP! no brakes! Luckily the other guy saw me coming in too hot and backed off a bit so I made that split-second call and welded my right foot to the floor and beat him through the round-a-bout. I'm sure he thought I was a collossal A-hole for cutting him off like that but he would have thought even less of me if I had parked my Impreza in the side of his Cavalier. That's my "cool story, bro". Check for weeping rusted lines before they become a high-velocity problem.

I have to agree here. The knock sensor in my 98 2.2 was flaking out badly under acceleration load causing massive bucking and surging and all that crap without throwing a code. I ebay'd a sensor for about $15 and replaced it myself for an amazing result.

This past fall I jammed a set of Forester seats into my Impreza for a bit of an upgrade for very cheap. The rails had to be swapped so the seats would mount in with the correct height. As with many things I do I made a little video about it explaining some of the finer points:

I had this happening on my 94 2.2t. It was always a gamble if the thing would start when it was hot without me matting the gas pedal. In fact when I read Original Poster's post there this immediately sprang to mind but I don't know enough to volunteer it before others do

My '94 turbo leggo wagon rotted in the exact same spot. I've been car shopping for a little while and I saw a nice looking 04 outback with lots of pictures in the listing and it also had this rust spot starting on it. Is this maybe just a legacy body thing? On my impreza the whole rear quarters and rockers were so see-through that the water didn't get trapped in that little corner. The last 12 inches of both rocker panels had been converted to drain holes.

From my experience with old Subarus living in rustland I would also be waiting for the filler neck to leak or tank to split at the seam any day now. The even worse possiblity is that the rear crossmember is also not far behind. Maybe you're alright but you might want to get a good look at that crossmember before doing any high speed rally cornering or anything

Interesting discussion... Maybe I should keep anti-freeze stuff on hand and try running 'er low more often to clear the grunge out.

I'm pretty sure we have up to 15% ethanol in our fuels around here (which also helps destroy small engine carb diaphrams for us). Not sure if I'd get any evilnol-free or 'boat fuel' around my parts. I'll have to ask around.

You're correct. I should have presented that better. I likely had cruddy watery fuel at the bottom of the tank that got sucked into the lines/injectors and froze.

If it makes you feel any better my 98 Impreza Brighton wagon has no rear door speakers. It doesn't even have the moulded in plastic grills in the door cards.

Apologies for the long read but I think it's a fun enough story to be worth it: Last Thursday on the way home from work my low fuel light came on (98 ImpreTza) so I made a mental note to fill up the next day and that was that... nope. Next morning it was -9 Celsius with a -18 windchill when I buckled my toddler into his seat and hopped into the car. *crankcrankcrank* no fire. Crap. The cranking seemed a bit slow but since mommy was gone with her car already I ran into the garage to grab a booster pack. *crankcrankcrank* no fire. Damnit! It seemed to crank about the same so I thought my booster pack was bogus so I grabbed the spare: *crankcrankcrank* no fire. Maybe neither pack was charged or something. Double Crap. By now the Toddler is starting to whine about freezing to death. At this point I eye up my 99 Legacy that I haven't daily driven for about 6 months with 100k more kms on it, a broken exhaust, and a leaking everything... I hop into that and it fires up like it was already warmed up. Okay now I KNOW I have a good battery but that car's blocked in by the dead Impreza so I run into the garage again for a pair of gloves and a 10mm deep socket on a rachet and yank the battery. I try boosting off of the good battery and get *crankcrankcrank* no fire. Toddler is now a bawling popsicle. In my last possible move I put the battery back in the Legacy and pull the toddler out of his seat, pull the seat out of that car, search frantically for the differently-positioned seat anchor in the legacy, install the car seat, install the toddler and head off in the loudmobile with crusty brakes. *whew* When I got home that afternoon I sloshed a bunch of gasline antifreeze stuff into the impreza with some nice stabilized mower gas out of the shed and waited till the next day to try it: *crankcrankcrank* no fire. $&^$! So I waited for the next day when it was +3 degrees out: *crankcrankcrank* no fire. This morning it was +10 degrees and the Impreza fired up instantly, puked out all of the colours of the smoke rainbow and settled down just fine. I put some fresh supreme fuel in it and have high hopes for the future cold winter days... The morals of the story are: Don't let them run too low on fuel in cold weather just in case, make SURE your booster packs are charged, and if you're set on driving old junk cars... keep a spare handy

My first car was a 1988 Pontiac Firefly (Suzuki swift, chevy sprint, geo metro, etc). I think that was about 1900lbs of car with it's pavement-shredding 1 litre 3cylinder that made a whole 53hp It was fun to drive... as long as you didn't think about safety Overall I'm pretty happy with the feel and performance of under-3000lbs subarus though. There's enough car around you that you don't feel like a beer can pilot but it's not a big wallowing SUV either.

I think I can go one better: I'm currently driving a 2.2 Impreza Brighton... :headbang:2750lbs of distilled "Subaruness". Unfortunately it's an autotragic instead of a stick but I _am_ only about $650 into the car at this point so I didn't have much choice when shopping. It's light, nimble, and efficient. That article was an interesting read though. I think most 'car guys' can agree that cars are getting bigger, fatter and softer as time goes on though. For example: I used to have a 97 civic: 2400lbs... my wife now has an 07 civic: 2800lbs I guess we have to fit all those extra airbags, power everything, and big swoopy dashes into the cars now so they get bigger and heavier.

FYI: I weighed the stock flywheel from that ej25 today and it came in right around 26lbs

Maybe the trend here is that we have to be tough guys to own Subarus... because we're always carrying parts

I know I've seen threads in the past asking and debating how much these engines weigh. I happened to have an ej25 block (loaded with innards, flywheel and oil pan but no heads, accessories, or manifolds). That's a short block, right? Anyway I was moving it inside off my lawn due to impending rain and unsightly premises complaints(j/k) and I put it on a scale: 140lbs No wonder it seemed kinda heavy to lift... Hope that helps someone with their quest for knowledge some other day.