clamshell4

I've spent close to $600 trying to get a problem diagnosed with my 98 Outback wagon. I live in the mountains in Vermont and much of my driving involves hills. Uphill is fine, long gradual hills are another story. The engine light comes on and the car has a tendency to run very rough when I get to the bottom of the hill. Restarting it solves the problem. I have changed the plug wires, battery, gas filter, etc. Someone suggested cleaning the battery terminals after the car stalled during one of these downhill events. That seemed to make it better temporarily. Last week I stopped for gas. The gauge showed that I had more than a 1/4 tank. It took 13 gallons to fill so I realized that the gauge is wrong. I thought that maybe I was unknowingly running it with very little gas and it was somehow screwing up on the downhills, but now the tank is full and there are still problems. I took a trip recently and drove 1000 miles and had no problems because it was flat. Other than moving, any ideas?

I think I may have gotten the code wrong. I had no pen with me and may have screwed up the numbers. The car has never been in an accident, to my knowledge anyway. I really should paint it bright YELLOW!

I had the engine rebuilt in January when the car had only 81,000 mile. My former mechanic did the timing belt and water pump in the fall. Then I had it towed to his shop in December because it wouldn't start. He replaced the timing belt tensioner. I picked the car up after paying him $400 for the tensioner, ignition coil pack, plugs, wires, etc. I drove less than 2 miles and the head gasket went. He had ti towed back to his shop and told me that I had some sort of timing issue. When he realized the extent of the damage, he changed it to a head gasket issue. I am not convinced that the head gasket caused my problems. I feel that there was something else going on. It runs like crap - ticks like a sewing machine, belts (all replaced) make a lot of noise. I have to keep this car for a few more months.

The engine light came on this morning as I was driving to work. Once again it came up with an undocumented code - P1406 or 1407 - can't remember which it was. Any ideas?

I have a 98 Outback wagon. Is it bad to drive it in FWD? I put in the 15 amp fuse to try and improve gas mileage. How often should I remove it and run it in AWD?

Thanks! I'll ask for the code the next time it happens. I really hope that I can get to the bottom of this within the next 10 day. I have a long road trip coming up.

I've been reading other posts....what about carbon buildup? What about an o2 sensor? I really don't want to spend more money on this car, but I would like to solve this problem myself.

Battery was just changed 2 weeks ago along with alternator.

I have a '98 Outback Legacy wagon that has caused nothing but problems for the past 9 months. It will go though periods where it runs just fine and the all of sudden will run extremely rough, It happened today. I started it up at the end of the day to drive downhill on my way from work. The engine light came on and then it started to run very rough. I pulled over and continued on my way. The only problem was that I couldn't get it to go over 45 m.p.h. I pulled over, turned it off, restarted it, and it ran fine. Something similar happened a few weeks ago when I first ran the air conditioner. It completely died when I went downhill. Cleaning the battery terminals took care of this. The plugs and wires are new, gas filter replaced, along with a laundry list of other things. Oh, if my mechanic could only give me frequent flier miles, I'd be writing this from a beach in Tahiti. I'm at his shop more than the parts delivery guy! When the engine light comes on, it comes back with an undocumented code. What's going on?