Fairtax4me

Heard of it on some of the older engines. Cams starve and lock up, the composite timing sprocket shatters and it bites the dust.

No gasket. Use Anaerobic sealant or ultra grey RTV.

How much power on pin 7? If you mean 12v that's a problem, because it should be only 5v IIRC. It needs two data wires to work. Ill have to look up the specific car to find out what should be where on the DLC. But if it has a wire on pin 7, it should also have a wire on pin 15. These will be the data lines if the ECU is using the ISO 9141 protocol.

This could be caused by one of the wire terminals backing out of the OBD2 connector. I'm not sure how the connector is mounted on that car but usually it's sticking out of a plastic panel under the dash. Pull the panel down so you can get access to the back of the connector and try to push each wire into the connector. Pins 16 and 4 are power and ground (respectively), so if the scanner powers up when you plug it in, power/fuses are not a problem.

Normal thread. They're usually very tight. Factory torque spec is something like 60 ftlbs and they usually have blue locktite on them. The cam sprockets are difficult to hold unless you have the special holder tool. Best thing is to wrap the old timing belt around them and double it over itself, then wrap it around the crankshaft and clamp it to itself with a pair of vice grips. Then you can get a good quick tug on the cam bolt with a breaker bar.

Well in the picture that's a MAF sensor. (mass airflow) MAP (manifold absolute pressure) is a different sensor. How do you know there is a problem with the sensor? Check engine light is on? If so post the code number. I'm not sure of the difference between the 4 pin and 5 pin MAF sensors on these. You would be best to exchange/return it for the proper sensor.

When this happens, you turn the key and you just get a Click from under the hood? Or is the engine cranking but it just won't fire and run?

I think people have used Impreza parts for that. The Impreza had a slightly shorter wheelbase so the mid pipe is shorter, but the axle-back stuff is the same afaik.

You could get an FM transmitter. They're usually fairly cheap and can be hidden elsewhere in the car. Just set the radio to the FM station that matches and you have iPod music with no wires hanging out of the stereo.

Service manual actually says to loosen 180° twice ( 360° total), but there is really no need since the bolts are completely loose after the first 180°.

No 2.2 will bolt into that car. Who diagnosed a cracked head? That's pretty much unheard of on these engines. Have you checked car-part.com?

No that's not correct. The loosening step is correct, but the final torque sequence is not. Put a small amount of engine oil on the end of the threads and on the washer.

Is it a consistent drip when the engine is running? It looks like its coming from the front side of the pump and running down out of the timing cover. Pull the timing over off and clean that whole area thoroughly with brake cleaner then blow it dry with compressed air if you have it. Then start it and watch closely for any oil running down the front of the pump.

Forester Impreza and Legacy of those years were all the same width. There may be minor differences in the crossmembers but should bolt up the same. Big things to pay attention to will be the distance from the top of the crossmember to the holes for the lateral link bolts. Also check distance left-right between lateral link bolts. Measure on yours and compare to cars in the junkyard. Also measure center to center of the bolts that hold the crossmember to the frame. They all use the same diffs (except WRX maybe, but those don't show up in junkyards often) so other than the things above everything else should be good to go. Might be minor differences in the bracket for the exhaust hanger but that's not a deal killer if you need the part.

By crush ring you mean the blue o-ring? Are you sure its coming from between the pump and the block? Not one of the big allen head caps on the bottom? Someone recently had a brand new pump that was leaking from one of those caps.

Lots of rattles come from the license plate. 3m foam tape works well to keep the LP from rattling against the tailgate. The best thing to keep rattles down is sound deadening material like dynamat. But that stuff is expensive. Look on some of the car audio forums because there are cheaper alternatives that can be ordered. I read a long time ago about this stuff people were using from the roofing section at the hardware store. I thought about trying some but never could find it locally. Only thing I could find was stick on flashing kinda stuff and it smelled like tar. I figured the whole car would smell like that after a day in the hot sun so I never bothered. But one roll of the stuff was like $20 and there was probably enough to do the whole car.

Those are for the ATF cooler lines. All the new radiators come with them because its cheaper to make one radiator that fits both MT and AT cars. Also avoids returns when people try to put the MT radiator into the AT car and realize there's nowhere to hook up the ATF cooler lines. If it came with dust covers just put some silicone on them and stick em back on the ends of the nipples to keep dirt out. No coolant will get in there so no need to really seal it off. Just want to keep crud out to prevent corrosion inside.

If its hard crusty stuff like chunks of asphalt, pull the oil pan and make sure the pickup tube screen isn't clogged with the same crud. Have seen lots of clogged pickup tubes cause bearing failure on other cars because of this. The other thing you should do is pull all of the PCV and breather hoses off and make sure they're clear. Make sure the PCV valve is clear (replace it if its old) and make sure the PCV port in the manifold is clear. Make sure to clean the valve covers thoroughly. Might even consider having a machine shop hot tank them to make sure the breather baffles are clear.

If its definitely getting spark and fuel pump is working the injectors may not be pulsing. Usually need a noid light to check that but you can use an LED test light. A regular test light may not actually light up, but you can try it if that's all you have. Check for power getting to the injectors as well. I assume you've checked all the fuses?

That's a pretty fair price. I wouldn't say its great, but its decent because of the mileage on the car. Barring any rust or other problems, sounds like a good buy.

Throttle position sensors rarely fail on these, and are easy to test with a voltmeter. Unplugging the sensor will put the ECU into a default mode where it will ignore most sensor inputs and run on a fixed fuel/spark curve. It's not optimal but it's usually better than running like poo because of one of the sensors being out of whack. TPS codes are usually set because the sensor is not adjusted properly or someone has messed with the throttle stop screw on the throttle body. ECU has to see 0.5v from the sensor at closed throttle or it will set codes and cause idle problems. The sensor is adjustable so this can be achieved by checking voltage on the center pin with a voltmeter and twisting TPS slightly until voltage is correct, then tighten the screws. Check voltage on the TPS center pin with the key On and sweep the throttle slowly all the way to wide open. Should start at about 0.5v and climb smoothly to just over 4v at wide open. If the voltage drops out or goes to 0 at a certain point and can be repeated each time then the TPS could be bad. You can also check the TPS with an ohmmeter with it unplugged. Check center pin to either end pin and watch for smooth increase or decrease (depending on which pin you use) in resistance as you slowly open and close the throttle. If resistance ever goes to 0 or O.L.(infinite) and is repeated in the same spot each time, TPS is bad. MAF sensors on the 96 are known to have problems and will cause random stalling and rough idle. A solder joint in the sensor breaks and causes intermittent low signal to the ECU, which will make it run lean and/or stall. Very common and can usually be fixed if you can solder. Used sensors are cheap, but may have the same issue later. Another common cause for rough idle is a dirty idle air control valve. This is the one with the ~1" dia. hose running from the intake tube. Easy cleaning of this is done with some throttle body cleaner. Pop the hose off of the intake tube, stick the straw for the can into the end of the hose about an inch then pop the hose back onto the intake tube. Now you can start the engine and spray quick shots of TB cleaner into the hose. Work the throttle lever to keep the engine from stalling. Do a couple shots with the RPM up then let it return to idle so the valve will work back and forth. Repeat for about 2 minutes. Should use about 1/4 can of cleaner.

Depends on the exhaust setup. If it has the dragons den exhaust that wraps around the oil filter the front sensor is usually right at the front on the passenger side. If it still has the Y style pipe the front sensor will be in the front cat, on top sticking up towards the passenger front axle. I use a 7/8" box end wrench from above. Kinda tricky to get the box end onto the sensor. Warm up the exhaust first by running the engine for a minute or so. Wear gloves to avoid burns. I usually have to smack the end of the wrench with a hammer to get the sensor to crack loose. Another option is to drop the exhaust to give more room to work, but then you need new gaskets for the head flanges.

This usually means the MAF isn't the problem. With it unplugged you should at least still be able to drive it though it may not run its best. Tried this just recently on a friends 99 forester and got the CEL and blinking AT light but the car actually ran much better with the MAF unplugged. If it runs worse with the MAF unplugged the problem is likely elsewhere, such as the O2 sensor. You could try unplugging the front O2 sensor.

If its a dual headlamp system you can do that and it'll be fine. The bulb filaments on these share a common power, so voltage across the filaments will drop when both are burning. This will also increase the current through the already undersized wiring that these use, which will cause the terminals in the connectors to burn, and probably burn the wiring as well. If you really wanted to try it, it could be done, but the lamps would need to be re-wired to deliver enough current for both filaments to burn at the same time. But this also carries with it a much shorter bulb lifespan since both filaments burning will cause the bulb to overheat and burn out. If you're not happy with the light output, re-wiring the lamps with relays and larger guage wire and better connectors is not hard to do and will increase the light output without decreasing bulb life.

Have you put a scanner on it and checked sensor outputs? Computer thinks its too rich so I would assume front O2 sensor is reading rich and fuel trims are probably going negative. Pull the plugs and see how they look.