crash321

2.2 it:banana:

yes. disconnect battery for about ten minutes. that will reset your ecm. good luck:)

I agree on grounds and alternator. Strange things happen with a failing alternator, but check your ground from the trans to chassis, that caused all sorts of problems in my car, and consider every connection suspect even if it looks clean. Remove them, clean them and use a corrosion inhibitor on every connection. You would be surprised what a connection will hide sometimes. Good luck.

Could be a fuel pump starting to go. If it is original at that age then that would be suspect. The only reason a car would not run would be because you don't have air (engine condition), fuel (pump, pressure, filter, injectors), or spark (bad coil, plugs, wires) Subies don't like other brand plugs and wires but the OEM type, a bit more money up front but worth not dealing with performance problems.

mmmmmmm how are the plugs, wires, and coil. NGK plugs, OEM wires? You eliminated the fuel prime question. Maybe the injectors are sticking. How is the fuel pressure?

Air suspentions are very expensive to repair. I have done work on a Chysler product with air suspention, and all I can say is dynamite would have brought great sanity to me on that one. Find a leak, fix it, chase down another. Over and over again. Air struts are very pricey also. I would do what welder says, convert to coil spring and conventional struts.:-\

Chugging sounds like it went into a limp home mode. Maybe a flight test would be in order by a mechanic, unless you have those tools. Mine did the same things when my car went through a cluster failure, A mouse chewed up alot of wiring to several sensors ($$$$$$$$), but my chugging issue stemmed from an idle air control circuit and had to replace that particular valve. All good now.

I just did this on my 98 lego outback to the cruise an hazard switches. Super simple to replace. the sockets simple screw out 1/8 of a turn and pop out. The hardest part was finding the bulbs. Radio shack didn't even have them????????????? Even had the part # some of other posts contained and the guy looked at me as if I had lobsters crawling out of my ears! A local stereo shop in town had what I needed. Works great now.

I don't have any experience with a jeep but my blazer had the same problem and it was a combination of bad vacuum switch on the transfer case and the vacuum actuator that engages the front axle.

actually cougar, muffman mentioned broken wire, I would think that a broken wire would be unlikely.......But I think you were the one who called broken ground on my car when it had a cluster failure!

To answer question about draining coolant, no you don't but you have to unscrew the sensor fast and screw in the new one fast , you will lose little coolant this way, just top off if need be, second, no one has mentioned whether the condition of the wires are good or not, pull the wires off of the coil and look for burnt discolored terminals. They should be a brassy color with no discoloration. Also are you using NGK plugs. Subarus are finicky with their plugs and wires, make sure they are Subaru OEM. Also coolant temp sensor was mentioned, If it has gone bad, the car may think it is cold when it actually is warm and dump more fuel into the cylinder cause black smoke out the tailpipe. It is easy to test with an OHM meter. The OHM values may be in a haynes manual. Also, you may have a bad fuel injector, but that would only affect one cylinder, so not likely your problem if your are fouling all your plugs. Check these items and more than likely you will find your problem. Good luck:)

Could be just gravity putting it to the passenger side. But like the other guys said, check the water pump.

Test the CTS with an ohm meter and measure the resistance in relation to the engines temp. Stone cold would be easiest so you know what temp it would be, and full operating temp around 190 degrees, with what value you are measuring against. I believe a haynes manual has the values for this test and you don't need to remove to sensor to do the the test. If the values are out of wack, replace the sensor.

Head Gasget is fine, that leak is coming from behind the timing cover, Most likely a cam seal. You need to address this as soon as you can because oil on the timing belt will cause the belt to weaken and break. Do what Grossgary said and have all those bits replaced and you will be good for another 100,000 miles:)

You will have to put it into perspective though. GM has had its issues also. Subaru, for all intents and purposes is a great car with a great reliability record. Just look at consumer reports. GM has had problems forever with its 3.1, 3.4 intake manifold gaskets leaking coolant (or oil, take your pick)into the engine crankcase. This can be fatal to that engine. But if found early on and fixed, these engine are bulletproof and reliable and will run to 300,000 miles. Same goes for these Subaru engines. Take care of them and they will run just as long. Many people will usually give up on any engine or car when a problem pops up because to many people believe in the disposable car even from brand new. GM, Ford, and Chysler fertilized this mindset (leasing come to mind). So don't freak out and dump your subees because some had a bad experience, friends of mine have forester with close to 200,000 miles with no problems, and their parents have one with over 100,000 miles with no problems. :cool:

But no automaker makes a AWD wagon (ok volvo, but who wants to spend $40+ grand). I moved from a trailblazer to an outback because of the fuel mileage. So I guess I was one who made the switch. Also the Forrester, while considered a SUV, is based off of the impreza,which is small, fuel effiencent and fun to drive........hardly atributes for a SUV.

people are moving away from SUVs

Yea I agree with the pressure gauge idea, oil pressure switches are just that, Switches. Yours may just be worn out. put a gauge on to verify pressure, then decide whether to throw money at it.

And I thought I was the only one practiced canadian hunting:lol::lol: (Drives my wife NUTS:lol::lol::lol:

Man that looks like fun. My dad used to pull us around in the road behind the tractor when my sister and I were little!

Although They are not run on a subaru, My wife 's saturn LS has the michelin X radials which were a top pick by consumer reports when we bought them a few years ago. I guesstimate that we put 50,000 miles on these tires and they have 80% of the tread left on them. Great in the rain, dry ect. Good braking and the car does not have ABS. I believe the tires were only available through costo or sam's though. I will buy them for my subie when the time comes.

+1 on blend door

A goldwing powered subie.....That sounds really cool, post pics if you get er done:grin:

Just to update, the dealer called me a couple days ago, (I am on the road agian....Cedar Rapids IA currently) and told me they found the problem for the car speedo not working and why the car stalls out when coming to a stop. First off thanks for all the feedback I appreciate it alot. I have been under a lot of stress over this because I have not been making any money and these repairs are just killing me. So to Nipper, I apologize over being so sensitive over your comment. I look forward to your answers for people because I see you as a very knowledgable guy. I was told that the VSS was bad and had to be replaced. That is why the speedo was not working, although they said that the actual speedo could have been malfunctioning too and that could be the reason the tech over at the Indiana dealer said the speedo was malfunctioning. Who knows with all the mouse damage. The problem with the stalling issue was a bad Idle air control circuit motor. All in all, the fix will cost $764. That will be a few dollars short of $2000:-\ for this whole mess. I will be able to pick up the car this Satuarday as the parts won't be in until late thursday and I won't be home until late friday. I had to break out the "Sunday truck" which hadn't been started for three months to make my 5 hour cummute to work. 14.5 MPG wasn't to bad for a four wheel drive Z-71 in 1-2 degree F weather:lol: At least the car should last a while though as long as I keep the damn mice out from underneath the hood making it their buffet:grin: Thanks to all!