porcupine73

Hopefully it's just the level, but that does _not_ sound good. The 'slow to engage to drive' issue seems to usually begin with it taking longer and longer to engage into drive, then to the point where it won't engage until it gets a little throttle ... and then more throttle etc. The TransX a lot of people have reported good results. I never had that issue on my '00obw at 200k miles but some bearing or something in the front diff ended up going out.

At least on the '90's and I assume others are similar, it's just a piece of plastic completely inside the fuel filler tube. So even if it's cracked I don't see that iin itself causing any codes. There's hundreds of reason the CEL/MIL could be on. If I were guessing you are getting P0440?

It was something like Dexron IIE or III, but you won't find that anymore since GM stopped renewing licenses for blenders for that many years ago. The bottles will usually say something like 'for applications formerly calling for Dexron III'. I think the bulk ATF would be fine at least for the flushes and especially if you can give a drain and fill periodically to keep it 'freshened'. I'd look for their older style ATF's, the new formulations are more heavily friction modified though they may claim to be backward compatible. Or if they're using bulk tank ATF with different additives for different applications that might work. Or you could get synthetic ATF if you are willing to pay out the cash for it, with 3 drain and refills it can add up.

I was having a similar problem on my '94 and '96 brakes just not working very well even if you were just about standing on the pedal. Yours might have other issues. On mine it was fixed with new rotors and pads on the fronts. The rotors were sort of ok but they had corrosion splotches on them and I think they just weren't up to the task. After the replacement they were really good.

Check engine light on and/or AT light flashing at startup?

Can you check to see if it has any codes set? There is the ignitor between the ECU and ignition coil, sometimes those go flaky, though if it's just one of the transistor pairs you would probably still get spark on 2 cyls and not on the other 2. The cam and crank position sensors might be involved but I forget which or either being faulty would make it have no spark. Though in that case I would expect to see code(s) set.

Are you sure the noise isn't from the idler pulley? Those are known to fail. You could remove the belt. Or possibly just loosen it up and unplug the compressor so it doesn't try to turn on. The defrost settings do make the a/c run as it does on most makes. It does make a difference on those weird days when the inside of the windshield gets condensation on it. I have a noisy a/c pulley on my '94 Legacy, but the a/c doesn't work anyway (condensor is leaking). Rather than just cut the belt I loosened it up so it's got just a little tension on it, and that keeps the pulley from making noise.

May not be your issue, but your statement "I just got it two weeks ago and from looking at the car and only replacing the air filter and cleaning the airbox and an oil change. it seems neglected. Drove fine untill I did that" makes me think about the valve cover breather hoses and other hoses that attach to the bottom of the air intake snorkus. On my '94 I have not once been able to replace the air filter without at least one of those hoses coming off. It's easy to miss since it's underneath.

Thank you :-) That's what it turned out to be, the black connectors were hooked up. I must have left them connected many months ago when I first read the code 42. Apparently if the black connectors are hooked up and there is no code it just makes long flashes continuously. Which would explain why it drives just fine even though it seems like there must be impending doom from the continuously flashing MIL. And which would also explain why I couldn't remember/find the connectors to flash out the codes - because they were already connected! After unhooking them it seems like everything is fine. I hadn't been driving it much at all and I think the TPS contacts might have just needed a few cycles to clean up a bit. Also I noticed there was a bit of corrosion on the end of the stop screw which I think might have not been letting the throttle go completely back to normal (and maybe close the idle contacts) though it couldn't have been more than .3mm or so of buildup.

Hi, '94 Legacy 2.2L AT AWD, 120k miles. Some time back the engine stumbled a little bit when coming to a stop and the CEL came on. It is code 42. The light was on solid for the last couple months. This month I have to get the CEL off to pass inspection. I unhooked the battery for a few hours. While the battery was unplugged I unplugged the TPS and plugged it back in in case there was a bad connection in the connector. I tapped the TPS with the butt of a screwdriver. Then I hooked the battery back up. Now as soon as I put the key to acc the CEL starts making long flashes before even trying to start it. I can't figure out why the ECU is so spooked? I couldn't remember what connectors to hook up to make it flash. I took a guess and put the little grounding wires into the connector I thought it was but that blew the horn/tail fuse. (It was doing the continuous long flashes before blowing the tail/horn fuse). It starts, idles and drives just fine but the CEL keeps making continuous long flashes. Just wondering what to check/do? The code 42 says something about TPS idle switch. Is this code normally a faulty TPS?

Oh right on '91 was one of the years where they had that add on ATF filter that looks sort of like the fuel filter. I think they (and other makes) had trouble with AT clutch and metal shavings clogging up the cooler in the radiator and blocking the ATF flow. This was the 'kit':

No definitely would not use it. Any little knicks or burrs will wear the timing belt. The sprockets and idlers should all be nice and smooth.

For one you'd have to verify they have the same final drive ratios. Some old info I was looking at shows '91 Legacy AT had a 4.11 ratio while '94 Legacy AT had a 3.9 ratio. If that's the case you'd have to swap the rear differentials as well. Not sure if there's any differences such as # of flywheel bolts but others will likely know all those details. Are you sure the '94 doesn't have the manual button? I have a '94 2.2L AT Legacy and it has the manual button. Also you might need to swap the TCU's if you want to get the right shift points.

You mentioned the CEL/MIl has been on for a while. What code(s) are flashed out?

Not sure on the light short of pulling the bulb, it's probably going to want to stay on pretty bad since that's it's purpose. Or like upnorthguy said ...

The service person saying the analog voltmeter could hurt the electrical system probably one time hooked up an analog ammeter like say 0-50 amps to something instead of a voltmeter and cooked something. But that would happen with a digital ammeter too. (I might have missed it), but what did the dealer say they checked? I would think they should have checked the parasitic current draw with nothing running and possibly done a battery load test.

I forget exactly how the tone wheel is set up on the '95, I think it is bolted to the back of the hub (that was before the tone ring was pressed onto the end of the axle). If it's bolted to the back of the hub I think you have to pull the hub to replace the tone ring (provided that's the issue). That's a small pain since it means you have to get the axle out of the hub, get the hub out of the bearing housing (I use a big honking slide hammer with an attachment that bolts onto the hub). Then you'll have to press the hub back into the housing (I use the Harbor Freight FWD wheel adapters kit). Basically if it were me and time/money were tight I'd probably just leave it, the brakes will still work you just won't have ABS. The Brighton models for example didn't have ABS anyway. The gold crap might have been copper antisieze or something like that, which right on, the grease hardens up over time. It seems to harden up eventually even with a good brake lube so antisieze probably hardens up even faster.

I think it's possible to get oil in the coolant but not exhaust if the HG somehow has a breach between the oil and coolant ports. If you added only water after the work it could have picked up a trace of yellow from the liquid remaining in the cooling system (assuming the previous coolant color was green/yellow). If you did add only water, that isn't good, you need coolant or at least something like water water for the corrosion inhibitors for the aluminum in the radiator and engine. Subaru has mentioned in the past using distilled water to make sure it is free of trace minerals.

I think only the caliper brackets are threaded, I think the holes in the bearing housing the bolts pass through are not tapped? If that's the case I think you could just grind the heads off the bolts and give them a bit of tapping to push the bolts out. I'm just thinking that might work because one time I had one of those bolts snap on me, but the bracket still came off and the broken bolt was in the caliper bracket (didn't get stuck in the bearing housing).

Thinking probably that won't work at least if it's an automatic trans, at least if having the CEL/MIL on is an issue such as for passing inspection if necessary. I would think you'd have to stay with the 2000 ECU to work with the TCU for that trans, since it would be the phase II 4EAT whereas the '94 would have had a phase I. But then I think the 2000 Forester would have had the speed density based calculated air flow (at least the 2000 Outback 2.5L was like that) whereas the '94 would have been MAF based. Also the '94 probably had the emissions canister under the hood rather than under the rear.

Hm ok, I'm thinking the throttle isn't completely closed or there is a vacuum leak now.

Hm, are you sure the throttle is completely closed? I'm guessing you mean you took off the intake snorkus tubing and not the intake manifold?

One thing is to check what type of rear suspension you have. Multilink started in 2000 but I thought I saw somewhere that some late build MY 99's got rear multilink too.

Usually after replacing the axle, after I tighten the axle nut, then I stop after driving the vehicle maybe 10-20 feet and check that the nut is still tight enough. Then I check it again a few times after progressively longer trips. Though I have forgotten to stake the nut and had it loosen up a year later and trash the bearing.

Wouldn't the oil filter catch any rtv chunks? Though if the oil filter bypass opens i.e. when the oil is cold and thick then the rtv chunks could get by.