Pgh_Scoob

Sounds like a A/C clutch going bad... My 03 Baja did the same thing. I was thinking it was a low charge because the compressor will cycle if low on charge or while charging until properly filled but after knowing I had a proper fill it would do the same thing but if I popped the hod and hit the compressor clutch it would allow the magnet to engage and work for a limited time. They are not hard to replace at all but you need to get the system evacuated of any refrigerant prior to any service of the A/C system. Greg

do you hear the pump running when you pull to mist? If not then most likely the pump being bad.. if you do hear it run then look for a disconnected hose under the hood or possibly clogged nozzles. Hope this helps Greg

Wow been a while since I was on here but I do have 4 matching 7+ 32nds mid grade tires and the ABS works fine I'm just personally a fan of it al all. My 97 OBS drive so much better after cutting the ABS wheel spied wires when I swapped out struts. They wre to rusty to want to deal with but it want a matter of a leak. I obliviously haven't made it to the junk yard yet but will definitely just swap out the unit. Easy to access and looks pretty straight forward. Now my last dinemma is all that I've seen online were a square pattern for the lines going in and mine is in a straight line at how the brakes lines run into the unit. Is there a difference or would either work? Thanks as always Greg

Yeah this is the first time I've ever seen one fail and it's a very slight leak but could be the reasoning behind my not up to par brake pedal.... When I get a day off I'm gonna go pull one but is there any real difference between the inline to square inlets for brake lines.... If I find the square paytern( more recent ) abs unit could I just run the lines correctly for Lf lr rf rr and be good to go or did they change things around like how it controls the abs? Thanks as always Greg

yeah thats what I was afraid of. Im trying to be as cheap as possible with this repair and might just try and find a unit at the pick a part for a decent price. Thanks Greg

So I just found my slow brake fluid leak and its coming from the large seal on my ABS Pump/Unit. I started looking around online and all of the results all seem to be incorrect. My Lines are straight from front to back and everything I found have been in a square pattern..... But I am not a big fan of ABS at all. Although I do prefer this ABS systems as opposed to my 03 Baja which engaged on any tiny bump I would not mind bypassing it completely and saving a few bucks while im at it but not sure if its a simple bypass or would I have to run new lines directly off of the master and would it just be better to replace the ABS unit. Thanks Greg

ok cool will do. I was figuring it would be something like that but didnt have any motivation to check last night with sleet/rain coming down and working outside. I will let you know what I find later on today. thanks Greg

Hello All I am looking for some possible input on my girlfriends situation.... 05 Legacy 2.5 N/A Limited with Auto Trans After sitting for a few days outside with the consistent temps from 0-30 give or take and quite a bit of sleet/snow/ice she finally tried to run to the store today and had immediate loss of power. She only got a half a block before calling it quits and turning around.... Long story short and about 5 hours later I scanned it and got Cylinder 1&3 misfire. Started up and it ran fine.. took it for a quick test drive trying to get it to replicate... but it did not work. it had plenty of power and felt smooth but a quick talk to an old suby tech was saying that it could be a cat issue and under recall??? and would it show its defect more when the car has sat for a few days... because up until recently she was driving the car daily with no problem. She got this used a little over a year ago and everything has seemed to be up to date as far a plugs/wires maintenance goes and never missed a beat until now.... I was thinking possibly some moisture build up somewhere or maybe bad grounds... I did spray around with a squirt bottle to try and get an arch but had no success. I only took a quick look at it but was looking for any advice and will get it up to my shop tomorrow to get a better look at it. I am gonna drive it again tonight to see how it goes and will give any updates. Thanks, Greg

I had an 03 N/A 5 speed baja that I picked up with 182k. Although it was a N/A there still are some other problematic areas. In the rear door jams right where the door meets the body in the corner they are prone to show signs of rot. Mine had small bubbling on one side and a small hole on the other and after a year both sides were holes one almost the size of a baseball. Also someone went ahead and pulled their cladding to fix the body work and discovered the entire panel rotted in various spots. So if it show any signs of rust be prepared to invest in quite a bit of body work. Also I replaced my transmission due to the front Input Bearing (iirc) going bad. When driving and the clutch engaged there was a nasty growl but would go away when pushing in the clutch pedal. You dont have to replace the transmission if this is present... depending on how bad it is... mine starting popping out of 4th so I went ahead and replaced the whole unit instead of tearing apart and realizing it was too far gone. Oh and one last thing that I have read about with the turbo models is a banjo bolt that is part of the oil feed to the turbo (iirc) has a screen that gets clogged and causes oil starvation to the turbo. I believe theres a recall but not sure but either way your gonna want to check in to if its been replaced or replace it. Also if there has been a turbo replacement due to this verify that nothing went into the engine. I had just read about people trying to replace the turbo and then shortly after having complete engine failure due to the initial turbo failure and debris. Hope this helps in your decision making and like mentioned above the turbo models of anything are the ones for people with deeper pockets. Good luck and they truly are fun cars just wish they would have offered a h6 versions instead of the turbo. The 2.5 N/A just doesnt do it justice for the weight of the baja. Greg

Thanks for the input but yeah mine amazingly popped right out.... Which now has me thinking it was changed already.... Sooooo now I get to play the waiting game and pray that it was the crank sensor Will keep you updated

General rule of thumb for AWD vehicles is no more the 4/32 tread difference between tires and with michellins you should be golden in just replacing the one unless you have excessive edge wear due to bad alignment

Hah... well I guess Im replacing my Crank Sensor. It died again in the beginning or rush hour traffic after about no more than 3 miles of driving. Came to a stop at a red light and all of a sudden it cut out and just wanted to crank... Few moments later and it fired right up... Oh and to answer earlier questions about short trip or long trip no start (Getting Hot) there is no difference... Completely intermittent at this point. BUT after it started I had a DTC... Stopped by Advance to grab their scan tool and read Crank Shaft Position Circuit Failure... So with all of the other symptoms I think I might go this route... Unless this could be a faulty code set by something else... Oh and I was under the impression the if the ECT was bad it would read -40... Greg

Have not tried ether but from this being a continuing issue which I thought was from the MAF but before I replaced the MAF I did check for spark and it was always present and I'm trying to put as little money as possible into this thing so putting another sensor on with out being 100% sure is out of the question and any no start I've seen with CPS issues has always had a code for it which I have no codes..... Which is a good thing to an extent. I am not going after the coolant temp sensor because it has always read correct temps in correlation to eng temp and live data. And after researching I am down to the fuel pump relay or the PCM which sends the signal to run the fuel pump. I will be pulling my car into my shop shortly.... Hopefully and can check more stuff out

Yeah that's what I figured so is my thinking the fuel pump relay is the culprit???

Are your carpets wet around the floor??? Ive had a few subarus that would have a slight leak around there and potentially leak to the back of the head unit... I personally never had it affect my radio but would notice after raining that the floor would be a little damp and now my 96 legacy had a pretty good leak around the top of the windshield and even drips trough the headliner. If you havent pulled the head unit and checked behind there it could be something to check. Greg

Ok so I have been fighting this car since the day I got it and finally thought I had it all figured out. unfortunately it stil has one lingering issue.... random stalling and then long crank until it eventually fires back up.... Long story short... (long story here) http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/147504-96-legacy-22-codes-and-problems/ Parts replaced for engine light... Fixed Used MAF for reoccurring Fuel Trim bank 1 code BPT valve for EGR code Spark Plugs Wires/ Tune Up for simple maintenance Fuel pump due to random no starts after short trips and rapping on the tank it would start in some instances Few other odd and ends like vacuum hoses and such So after I got the engine light out for good the car ran fine but after a few days I still had this lingering No Start but it has gotten to the point where it stalls while in traffic with no forewarning. It will sit there and crank and eventually start up but it has taken up to 15 min to finally start. After researching a little I read that the crank sensor sends a signal to the PCM to command the fuel pump to run... IIRC. Which then switches a relay under the dash on the drivers side. If the crank sensor were starting to fail I would think there wold be performance issues associated with it and throw a code and not just cause a stall... So thats why Im leaning towards the fuel pump relay.. I think its labeled Main relay 3 Or Main Relay 4... they sit next to one another somewhere in the underside of the drivers dash. I havent had a chance to check it out but hoping to find some time tomorrow but would appreciate any input or advice. Thanks Greg

FIXED!!!!! REPLACE MAF!!! I know its been a bit since I posted but I am confident in saying it is fix. I really kinda quit worrying about it for a little while because other than the light the car seemed to be driving fine.... but then it started randomly cutting out in morning traffic on my way to work... So I went ahead and grabbed one out of the junkyard and so far so good..... I checked my Fuel Trims and LTFT was down to 5.5%!!!!!!!!! Definitely much nicer than 22% Plus now I know what my car should really run like.... For what I thought we just quirks of and old car were in fact driving issues.... Poor throttle response and surges you could say while cruising or light throttle and rough idle at times... It has only been a few days but already I am seeing a great improvement in performance. It took me so long to finally just go do it was simply because with a snap on scan tool looking at live data and going through the Diag. procedure for the MAF it always checked good. But thanks for all of the help guys and anyone fighting this hope it helps Greg

cool thats what I wanted to hear!!!! Thank You. The hardest part of trying to research possible fixes for this code is damn near impossible... The best I found until the other day was I replaced a bunch of parts and now it comes on intermittently or there is never any update to what happened... Hopefully this works and I will keep this updated. Thanks, Greg

JasonDairs you are low on Refrigerant... That click you hear with the idle drop is you A/C compressor cycling on.... While your A/C system is low at points it will cut off the compressor because there simply isnt enough pressure to have the system working properly... I would get a EVAC/Vacuum test, Dye Test after the shop verifies no leaks in the system with the Vacuum test and Recharge to the proper amount... Dont believe what you see on TV about this refrigerant blows colder than the rest and you can be "you own A/C pro".. If your system is working properly it will blow as cold as its going to blow no matter what. Sometimes you can get away with just adding your own can but I have see many cars come in that tried that and ended up blowing out system. Sorry for the off comment... But this is definitely going to be remembered and probably checked out for my 96 legacy... it blows rather well but I have noticed at points it seems like the flow is rather weak... Wont hurt to clean it out. Thanks Greg

Ok so its been a while since I have posted anything about this and unfortunately I dont have any repair news.... but after doing more searching around and reading other forums I am leaning towards my MAF sensor being the culprit. I have done some tests with watching live stream data and comparing RPM's to G/Sec on the MAF... which all checked good. But after messing around yesterday and checking live stream data I did notice that If I snap the throttle to high RPM's sometimes the sensor will show no change in readings but other times it will show the spike of G/Sec for the MAF.... I know the MAF is constantly monitored and should constantly be feeding back readings and information to the ECM... Correct... and there shouldnt be any reason as to why it would be ignored? Please correct me if Im wrong on this. Oh and checking my LTFT it is still high but its at 19% so not as bad as the 22%+ that I was seeing A few other things I have noticed are I do get a slight surge upon light acceleration / cruising but no jump in RPM and no jump in speed. Its almost like a tranny slipping but my speed stays constant and if I put my foot into it I will speed up with proper RPM rise unlike a slipping tranny that will fight to speed up while RPM's rise and it feels like its in the engine... Its hard to explain almost like a very efficient burn for a quick moment. I am also still having the intermittent no start and actually had it die on me one day while in traffic.... Starting from a stop and gave it a bit of gas and then it shut off... No buck or anything just cut out. It would crank but not start... A few minutes later it started right up.... I was chalking that up to the fuel pump but dont think a faulty fuel pump would set this code and after reading one post with a confirmed fix it was the MAF sensor... And I believe they stated intermittent no starts and stalls. So with leaning towards the MAF sensor I checked my local salvage yard and they are available for 15 bucks... but is it even worth it to go with a junkyard one or should I just try to confirm this as the problem and then replace with new.... trying to put as little amount of money as possible in this rig but still need it to be dependable... Greg

Congrats!!! Looks like a clean OBS... Have fun with it. For any info needed on the lift look in the USMB Off Road section. Theres a write up of everything needed... To an extent. Cant wait to see some progress!!! Greg

I was actually just looking up labor rates for that and evaporator on my 96 legacy and it called for 8.6 hrs book time IIRC. It is a rather involved job which does include pulling the whole dash... I have heard of shops charging 800-900 for heater core jobs on other vehicles. Hope this helps

Ok thanks and do I just connect them together or do I hook a scan tool to it... I am gonna do some research on those connectors but any info is greatly appreciated

Ok I will give that a try and what are the connectors called... Or are they just EVAP testing connectors? Do I supply power to them to cycle the valves.

Yes thats exactly where I have been leaning towards... for now. And with looking up the EVAP system it is rather straight forward for operation and I am trying to determine if there might be a sticking valve allowing either excessive pressure or vacuum to build up on the tank... BUT with any other evap system issue I have seen come through my shop there was never any running issues or random no starts... Plus I have smoked tested my entire EVAP system multiple times but unfortunately I am unable to test any individual components to ensure they are working properly.