Stickboy42

hi all, trying to fix the cruise on my 98 obw and have made it to the pump. testing the pump on the bench reveals that the 2 valves sound like they are actuating and the pump kicks on when jumpered with 12vdc. However, there is no or very little (not enough to move the throttle cable on the car) from the pump. I'm imagining that this is not normal and wonder what i should see for vacuum. The pump sounds fine just no vacuum. This is with the small hose removed and direct out of the pump. anyone have a used one they want to sell if this is my problem which i'm guessing it is? thanks again, mike

so the problem appears to be fixed. i checked the u joints as best i could, no play and everything seems to move fine and smoothly... what fixed the problem was apparently changing the diff oil. I checked it once again just to verify that it was fine and thought i'd change it for the heck of it. I put amsoil synthetic 80-90w gear oil in. the old oil was creamy colored and very thick (it had been sitting for 4 hours). i drove it approximately 3-4 miles and could not make the sound come back. Does this make sense, i wouldn't think the rear diff would be that sensitive to oil age... thanks again, mike

no vibrations at all, just noise. i'll get under the car tomorrow and give the driveline a peak and see if anything rears it's ugly head.... thanks again, mike

Hi all, been trying to find a similar post so i don't waste other's time but unable to. here is my problem: growl from what sounds like both rear wheels when in gear and off the accelerator. Really easy to hear when travelling about 40 mph and you take your foot of the gas. If you put the clutch in or take it out of gear the sound goes away immediately. There is no sound when you are accelerating even at a light cruise, only when you come off the gas completely. Nothing is in the wheel wells or wheels like snow. The rear diff looks good and fluid is at a normal level. Sound could be coming from the center of the car but really hard to tell. I think it's from the rear wheel area and so do other passengers. oh, it's a 99 legacy outback manual with 198k on it. new motor though. both front axles are new. rears are not and unknown as to when they were replaced.... thanks so much, mike

well i feel like a potentially big idiot right now. on my list of simple things to check was the green service connector. well, forgot to check it and did all the other stuff only to have the dealer find out it was connected. The CEL is also burned out, hence no flashing CEL to make me wonder if it was connected or not. i sure hope the po didn't remove the cel because they didn't know about the service connector. anyway, we'll see what it does in the morning for cold start and see if any codes are present then if the problem isn't gone away by then.... i'll keep you posted, m

i'll give it a shot tomorrow morning. thanks for all the help. i have an appointment at the dealer in the morning but the car will be warm by then, do you think they'll be able determine anything that we haven't discussed here with their computers? mike

thanks for the responses once again, here's more: went out after an hour and hooked everything back up. Fuel pressure at 0, went up to 42 upon ignition on. Cycled ignition a couple of times. Started like always, 5 sec of cranking, catches a bit then finally idles well. turned off. Started again, less cranking and idles well. turned off. Started again, less cranking...and so forth. Did this 5 times and by the final time the car was starting in a second or so. Starting to make me lean toward fuel pressure issues? While idling if i pull off the vac hose the pressure rises immediately and drops as soon as i hook it up, no delay what so ever. Normal? Plugs were changed about 10,000 miles ago with the motor install and i'm guessing they were the fancy ones since the p.o.'s receipt shows $51.80 for the 4. -mike

so i'm home now and with regards to the fuel pressure it bled to 0 in approximately 2 hours after shutting it off for the morning... i've disconnected the battery and we'll see in about an hour what the scoop is on the ecu reset. thanks, mike

thanks for all the quick replies. i'm at work until tomorrow morning at which point i'll check the pressure after tonights last drive (about a 12 hr sit w/o running). I have the pressure gauge post filter at this point but could easily move it pre filter. There are no signs of filter restriction in the way it drives making me think the filter wouldn't reduce the pressure but who knows how finicky these soobs are.... I'm also going to try the ECU reset tomorrow via pulling the battery leads off and letting it sit for an hour or so. We'll see what that does. I did clear the codes via my scanner but they came back once i started the car again.... thanks again, mike

Hi All, Been lurking for awhile now and thought i'd finally do some posting. I have a small problem that just won't seem to go away.... What I have: 99 Legacy Outback 2.5l jdm swapped motor 950 CCA Battery (Napa Emergency Vehicle Battery) Premium fuel Problem: Hard starting on cold mornings. If it's 40 degF it'll start after about 10 sec of cranking and finally catch then idle just fine and it's never an issue again. It's just the initial start. At 5 degF it cranked for about 25 sec and wasn't sure if it'd catch but it eventually did and then ran fine. Started fine for the rest of the day but it was relatively warm. The car runs fine once it's started. What I know and have thought: 1) Eng Temp Sensor: replaced and didn't change anything 2) Fuel bleeding back into tank somehow. a) fuel pressure is 40-42 psi with ig on Engine running: fuel pressure is 37 psi w/ press reg vac line disconnected (4 less than range in FSM) c) Engine running: fuel pressure is 32 w/ press reg vac line connected (+2 of FSM) d) fuel pressure drops to 20psi after sitting for about 15 min, and further if sits longer Codes: P0130, P0500, P1101, P1121, P1540 Questions: 1) would those out of spec pressures contribute to this problem. I'd hate to sink $200 into a new fuel pump/pressure regulator to find it doesn't do anything. 2) should the pressure be maintained after the car is shut off indicating a faulty check valve or is this normal. if so, could installing an inline check up by the tank solve the problem? Any ideas what might be creating this problem would be really helpful. I hate to take it to the dealer because they'll say it runs just fine and won't actually wait for it to get cold enough to be a problem. Thanks in advance, Mike