hankosolder2

GG- I'm pretty sure the reason for the heated throttle body and IAC is to prevent ice build up and what the manufacturers euphamistically call "failure to return to idle speed." Due to the venturi effect near a restriction in the intake air (i.e. the throttle plate or valve part of the IAC) there will tend to be a local temperature drop which can cause icing. I'm sure you can get away without the heated parts in some parts of the country, but I'd hesitate to do it, especially on an AT equipped vehicle. Nathan

Thanks! Good to know I'm not the only one with an oozing outback.

GD- I doubt it was upgraded, but who knows? It's a 12 year old, 200K mile multi owner car, so things may have occurred. The rest of the suspension is definitely stock, it even had OEM struts until I recently replaced them. I asked Dr. Google and supposedly some Foresters also had fluid filled A-arm bushings, so Subaru doesn't reserve them exclusively for hi-po applications. I'll probably just order an OEM bushing and install whatever they send me- I can't imagine an empty fluid filled bushing is going to perform properly. Nathan Oh, I see you were saying that the WRXes had fluid filled motor mounts, not A-arm bushings. I'll just give a good inspection- should be able to tell where it's leaking from with a bit of inspection.

Having solved the brake fluid leak (!) I'm now moving on to the next mystery fluid leak. 98 OBW, 5MT, 200+ K miles. The car is dripping spots of what appears to be extremely viscous silicone fluid. The worst concentration is near the front right inner lower A-arm bushings. Are the A-arm bushings or the motor mounts fluid filled? I know some cars have this. I haven't run over any Hooters waitresses lately. Nathan

You mentioned that you have multiple vehicles and sets of tires. Is there any possibility that at some point sets were mixed up, or a more worn full size spare of the same make and model was swapped on and perhaps you forgot about it? Furthermore, is it possible that another driver of the car nailed a pothole or a curb and replaced the tire with a good (but more worn) used one of the same make and model without you knowing? I'm not suggesting that you're senile or anything...it's just such an unusual problem that it's worth considering all the unusual possibilities. Nathan

Two thoughts: Perhaps the static alignment is good, but a bad bushing (or some such thing) is causing the wheel to sharply toe in or out under power or braking. I'd think you'd feel it acting squirrely, but who knows? Does this car have VDC? Assuming it works like the other traction/stability controls out there, it can brake on an individual wheel. Say you're whipping around right hand turns and the car wants to plow the front (understeer) due to being nose heavy (even worse with the H6.) The stability control is going to apply the right rear wheel to help the car pivot around that axis and in doing so might be causing some add'l tire wear to the right rear. Do you push the car hard in turns? Nathan

When I'm working on my BMW, I sometimes use my German torque wrench- "gutentight." Prior to having a torque wrench which read up to 200Ft-lbs, I used to use my body weight, a breaker bar and calculate the weight to length ratio. i.e. if I weight 150Lbs and stand 1ft from the end of the bar, presto, 150Ft-lbs. It always seemed to work pretty well. If you weight less than the required torque and are bad at math, you can always borrow a pet, a kid or a sack of cement for some additional weight.

A bad o2 sensor cannot damage your fuel pressure regulator, so no worries on that front. A fresh o2 sensor does sound like a very good idea though. It's sometimes good just to replace parts so you can cross them off your list of possiblities!

GD- yeah, but it's that 1% of the time they don't seal that can bite you in the rump roast! Kidding aside, I've never had a problem w/o changing them before on many different cars. New washers in, bled the system, nice firm pedal, no signs of leaks. Being slightly paranoid about it now, I'll keep a close eye on the fluid level for the next couple of weeks. Nathan

Maybe your torque wrench is out of calibration and you're over or undertorquing the axle nut?

Thanks for your replies. I'm pretty sure it was not leaking from the get-go (I did stand on the brakes with the engine running...even a small leak will result in the pedal sinking slowly....but who knows?) It'd have to have been a tiny leak to have not emptied the reservior to the add line in two weeks of stop and go city driving... I read that it's possible to re-use these copper washers by heating them with a torch until they glow... I tried it (was hoping to get the car on the road and the dealer was closed) and it did a nice job of restoring the non-divoted washer to a smooth finish. The one with the divot was too badly messed up. We got some fresh washers from the dealership today. I'll inspect the hose, banjo bolt and caliper finish very carefully prior to reassembly. Nathan

I recently disconnected the brake hoses on the '98 OBW to do a strut job. Reassembled, bled the brakes, car was fine for two weeks. Noticed a puddle under the car this morning... turns out it's leaking brake fluid from around the banjo bolt/ washers, despite the bolt being nice and snug. I will be replacing the washers, cleaning the surfaces and giving it a good test, but why did it last so long without leaking? I always thought that it either leaked or didn't, and I did apply good firm pedal pressure to check for leaks after the initial reassembly. As a side note, I noticed a tiny divot in one of the washers, so I suspect a piece of debris got in there... but once again, how could it have ever sealed at all? Nathan

Well done! I hope it gives you some good service. Nathan

That was a general anti "tip/triptronic" and SMG gearboxes comment and not referring to Subaru's CVTs. With the CVT, I can see that you'd never be able to beat the computer optimized "gear" selection and the only real reason for semi manual gear selection on a CVT would be for enhanced engine braking. I'd still take a 5/6MT even with a gas mileage penalty.... Nathan

Am I the only person who thinks that the sequential nature of modern semi-automatic gearboxes is a huge disadvantage? I frequently jump gears (i.e. cruising in 4th, use 2nd for a passing manouver with a rev-matched downshift.) Those tap to up/downshift controls are totally vexing. Never driven a floppy-paddle shifter equipped car, but it seems very easy to downshift to a gear other than the one you want. Sorry for the thread jack.

And when I say "ECM" I mean "ECU." I pretty much use them interchangeably to refer to the "engine control computer."

Did you find the break in the CTS wire or just bypass it and run a new wire? The reason I'm asking is (for example) if the wiring harness got damaged somehow (got any squirrels or other rodenty type creatures nearby?) other wires in the harness may have also been damaged at the same point. When you replaced the 02 sensor, did you use the kind you have to splice in or a plug in OEM part? I'm just wondering if you could have exchanged (for example) the +12V supply for the o2 sensor heater and a ground... created a short and taken out a fuse, the ECM etc. Did you ever verify that the +5 v the ECM sends out to most of the sensors is present? If you've got the pinout for the ECM you should be able to find it. The MAP sensor gets this, the MAF sensor gets it, the TPS, etc. (Most of these sensors have +5, signal output and ground terminals on them.)

Very odd. I can't find them on Tire Rack's website anymore. I also can't find my receipt for them. I think I bought mine last winter. What a drag! They were something like $5/$10 cheaper each than the Firestone Winterforces. Sorry for the false lead. It may have been a limited time offer or people were suspicious of non branded tires and didn't buy them? Nathan PS: I looked at the actual tires to jog my memory. They're branded "Winterforce" with no mention of Firestone.

I'll go you one better. And by better I mean cheaper! Tire Rack sells non branded Firestone Winterforces... it's the exact same tire, just doesn't say Firestone on the sidewall and costs less. They don't appear to be "seconds" either. My front drive Accord on the "Winterforces" does better than my wife's OBW on all seasons, with the exception of deep snow- it can get high centered sooner than the OBW. The Winterforces are noisy and the high speed handling is pretty meh, but I said the same thing about the Blizzak WS-50s I had for my old car. For suburban commuting, they are a godsend. Had 5 cars bouncing off of curbs in front of me on a slippery road... lady spun 90 deg and was watching me closing in on her. I was able to stop no problem. I also watched an Audi A4 quattro lose it on an entrance ramp and slide down an embankment... I went through the turn at the same speed as the Audi with no loss of control. Winter tires, I can't say enough for them. Worth every penny.

I wonder if you could have done something to disrupt the +5V supply the ECM sends out to all the sensors?

He's saying that rather than unplugging the ECM, you can use paper clips as probes and stick them in the back end of the connectors (the wire side.) You can then attach the paper clips to your meter. I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that they wanted the ECM electrically out of the circuit and that was the reason for unplugging it... but maybe the instructions tell you to unplug it just to make it easier for people to probe the connectors. The paperclip trick is easier yet, assuming you don't accidentally short one of them into any nearby metal.

I wonder if when you were jumping the cooling fan relay, you accidentally connected to one of the "coil" terminals of the relay socket rather than the "contact" terminals of the relay socket. If so, you may have fried the cooling fan relay driver circuit inside the main ECM. I'd also check all the fan fuses... I don't know about your particular car, but the earlier ones had at least two cooling fan fuses- one under the hood and one in the under dash fusebox. Nathan

There's no reason to physically remove the ECM (unless you can't get to the connectors.) Just unplug it. They don't want it electrically loading down the measurement, I guess.

There is a black tube (probably 1" or 3/4") from the main rubber/plastic air intake boot leading to the idle air valve. It is next to and kind of below the throttle body if memory serves. It has an electrical connector going to it (three wires?) and two tiny (1/4") coolant hoses going to it. Or you could google/search and probably find a picture.... Nathan

I think a bad TPS can also cause this code. It's like a potentiometer and can get "scratchy." You can check it with an ohmmeter. But my first guess is the idle air valve.