blitz

JB Weld & duct tape? Did you get that repair technique straight from a Subaru TSB?

My phase II 2.5 was doing this from time to time to various degrees. Sometimes it was a light continual bubbling with system pressure feeling normal in the top hose, other times it was a massive bubbling/frothing in the o-flow accompianied by a rise the level and no system pressure being built up. I chased this problem for two years always thinking it was a head gasket, but it was the rad-cap. Sometimes the cap would almost seal, other times it wouldn't seal at al.

Keith, squeeze the top hose to check if the system's building pressure.

In the past I used to force the fluid back up to the master cylinder, but now with anti-lock systems, it's best to open the caliper bleeder and force the cruddy old fluid out of the system into a jar. The ABS motor is sensitive to anything other than clean fluid.

The expiration date of gas is a different issue from the amount of time it should be left sitting in an engine's fuel system, especially a carburetor. IME, most engines will run fine on year-old gas, although starting might be a little more difficult (especially 2-strokes). In a pinch, adding 20-30% fresh stock to any troublesome year-old stuff will generally render it operable. This is for gas that's been stored in a closed can, in a cool area. If the can's been left open, or it's been left sitting out in the sun ...well...? Don't be tempted to seasonally store power equipment (e.g. snowblower) without first draining the fuel. Stabilizer helps prevent gumming and varnishing for intermediate strorage intervals, but shouldn't be thought of as substitute for seasonal draining. Especially if you've got a nice Robin Subaru generator.

Maybe someone still has the link handy, but some salesman had recently arrived 400K (or was it 500k?) miles on his '00 OBW. Anyone?

The lockup clutch isn't a huge, robust unit. If it's constantly dis-engaging and re-engaging it will wear out quickly. Use the the 3rd position to prevent it during low-speed, cut & thrust city driving. That's one of the reasons why the selector is there (the other reason is for hill descent control). It cracks me up, folks are afraid to use the gear selector. It's not there for decoration folks. Subaru wouldn't have included it if they didn't intend for it to be used. Use it to REDUCE the amount of needless shifting and braking.

If you live in a climate with frozen winters (like me) you've probably experienced another problem with those pads: After a long, hot summer of the pad scratching the crap out of the door glass, winter finally rolls around and the door glass settles the score by freezing itself to the pad and tearing it completely off.

The manuals for my 2.5 & 2.2 both list heat range #6, that was the reason for my question. I think that once it comes loose it tends to distort the key and the keyway enough to make it almost impossible to keep it from coming loose from there-on out. Maybe someone else can chime in.

There's a frontward-facing access hole located in the top of the bell-housing that you can use to jam your favorite screwdriver tool through the teeth of the flywheel/flexplate. Normally it's closed-off with a removable rubber plug.

4th digit in is the heat range. I'm sorta curious as to whether the correct part for your engine is a really 5 or actually a 6? (5 being hotter).

Yes exactly, but just so it's clear: the problems I had weren't with the main pressure spring and seal, but rather the little reverse check-valve and seal. The spring had too little tension, and the rubber seal material was too hard and irregular. One cap I had would sometimes "catch hold" allowing the pressure itself to hold the check-valve closed (the same way pressure holds a tire bead against the rim), but other times it would just boil away and froth-up the overflow tank. The other brand-new cap I bought to replace the "iffy" one, refused to build build pressure at all, and for the same reason. I'm wondering how many of these caps are out there contributing to boil-overs?

Alright then, I'll answer my own somewhat rhetorical line of questioning. Obviously yes. Well, either Subaru doesn't think it's important info, or they just don't think the purchasers of their vehicles are worthy of having a source of OFFICIAL data on the matter. I'm sick and tired of the constant re-hash, speculation on this matter. It's time that Subaru steps-up to the plate. I had the parts department at my local dealer chide me for my preventative replacement of the valve-gear on my '00 2.2 telling me that it's not an interference design, so in essence, I had "nothing to worry about". FOR CHRIST SAKE SUBARU, GET YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR ASSES ...YOUR DEALERS DON'T EVEN HAVE DATA ON THIS MATTER.

Two questions spring to mind. 1. Would knowing whether a specific Subaru engine is, or is-not interference, be considered valuable or important information to the owner of a Subaru vehicle? 2. Does Subaru consider this to be valuable or important information?

Bard, one thought comes to mind, there are some suspect radiator caps out there. The return-flow "button" in the center of the cap doesn't seal, so the system won't build pressure. The problem is the spring that holds the button valve closed is too weak. I had this happen with a couple genuine Subaru Fuji caps. Might wanna check that before you go ballistic on the dealer ...'cause there's no return once you embark on that route. Yet the fact remains, the guy initially let you test drive a car that had coolant steam coming from the exhaust. That's NOT insignificant.

99 has it summed up pretty good. Actually the entire motor looked to be clean as a whistle. Only the really high temp areas show the coking and varnishing. A lot of the newer non-turbo motors have a problem in the top ring area due to the practice of pushing the physical location as close to the top as possible. My advice to friends was to save the use of conventional 5W-30 for cold weather and use 10W-30 (or straight 30) in the summer. Sometimes the manufacturer recomendations aren't quite what they're cracked up to be. I keep wondering if these newer engines that spec 5W-20 aren't gonna suffer as the clearances open up with mileage. I guess time will tell.

Josh, those photos (Cylinders And Pistons DCP_4363.JPG) make a good case for staying away from oils containing VII. The early manufacturer recommendations of 5W-30 irrespective of ambient temp were an invitation to disaster. The supposed reason for recommending against 10W-40 was the high VII content, yet 5W-30 actually contained more. What was run in that motor to varnish and coke the pistons to that extent?

Ground clearance (raised suspension). In a nutshell, the RS is geared toward sportier handling than the OBS, but I don't know the specifics. I made some changes to the suspension my '02 OBS to tighten up the handling, but I still retain the extra ground clearance for the Michigan winter. You could also try posting to these forums: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/ http://www.rs25.com/forums/ There's a lot more performance-oriented talk at those locations.

Well, maybe I'm not the sharpest tack, but if the dealer was so willing to swap the engine, why was he so willing to try to stick you with the blown one? (p.s. the guy is a shyster). He's such a swell dude that he'll not screw you over if you happen to bust him in the process of screwing you over. It looks "different" from the other three. A H/C sniff test of the overflow would substitute for a system pressure test.

The OBS is .8 inches higher. I think the RS has a little larger rear sway bar. Why not just visit the official website and get the exact specs? http://www.subaru.com

It sure appears like a head gasket. Pulling the plugs to look for sign of coolant washed appearance would be a prudent move to tell if youve got a gasket and would also indicate which bank has the problem. Is it a DOHC or SOHC? A cooling system pressure test may also be in order.

You didn't mention, but have you tried correcting the belt error, then cranking it around with a breaker bar for at least two full revs? If that goes well try starting it up.

Even the bugeyes look kinda ugly to me, and I own one. IMO the original Impreza had the nicest lines of all, fortunately I own one of those too. Jamie & Carl, please dont regard my my dislike for the new car as a dislike of either of you.

I'll be the dissenting voice. The emperor has no clothes. The car looks like crap. 10 years from now that grill will be regarded as THE WORST design exercise ever done by Subaru. Apparently it was also impossible to not hop aboad the "jumble of reflectors" tailamp trend. Two words: Factory rice. In summary: the styling is gimicky and forced rather than natural and flowing. In case no one has been paying attention, this styling direction ("ugliture") plus novel repair paradigms (like offering up bar's leak instead of a genuine repair) are the same mistakes made by GM for successive years prior to their arriving at junk-bond status.

A lazy (read: bad) O2 sensor will result in a richer than normal fuel mixture which can mask spark knock. Now that you have the new sensor in and fuel mixture is back in "economy lean" territory you're hearing the knock. The rich fuel may also've caused a little carbon build-up in the combustion chambers. My advice would be to clean the chambers first and see what that does for your problem before going further.