Fairtax4me

Good beans! Glad to hear it worked, and you're still in one beautiful piece. Now that airbag will work when you need it most.

Full size Subaru AWD SUV with twin turbo H8 and dual range trans with locking front, rear, and center diffs.

Because it's not misfiring would be my best guess. Sparks can arc out of the wires but still jump the gap in the plug well enough to initiate combustion. A misfire is only detected by the ECU when it notices a difference in crankshaft speed and it can tell exactly when the change occurs, such as the time between two cylinders firing. Plus as I like to say, It's OBD-1. OBD-1 is not exactly sensitive. The thing could be on fire and it wouldn't set a code. Hopefully your fix works longterm.

I have driven the car with the new belt and old idlers installed and it is quieter than it was with the original belt. Had I done this job before, I might have known something wasn't right when installing the belt. It fit the sprockets and idlers just fine, and the tension idler was able to be installed with a little persuasion. The problem arose when the tensioner was slid over the 2-3mm to it's proper position. I backed off the mounting bolts for the tensioner while the engine was running, and the noise subsided. It was still there, but it was much quieter. I tried this after speaking with the Subaru tech. After getting a definite result by relieving some of the tension on the belt, I installed the Subaru OE belt. The Subaru belt went on with no trouble at all. The tension idler slipped right into place, no elbow grease required. With the idlers installed, tensioner in proper position, there was almost no tension on the belt. I could move it all around, probably could have made it jump the crank sprocket if I tugged hard enough. With the tensioner released (pin removed) there was still some wiggle to the belt. It was taught, but I can still grab it and make it move. The other belt was sorta like a guitar string when the tensioner was in place and the pin pulled. I could actually remove the pin from the tensioner, then put it back in while it was still on the engine. I find it kinda hard to believe the belt might have shrunk while it was in the box for 5 or 6 or 8 months sitting on a shelf, between manufacturer, wholesaler, supplier, then my downstairs utility closet. Although, if it is a cheap enough belt, who knows, maybe it did shrink. I can't imagine it has anything to do with the engine. The same belt is supposed to fit 6 years worth of production. So it's either, A. The manufacturer made a whole production run of belts that were too small, (in which case there will be about another 3 or 4 thousand people, maybe more, who will have the same problem as I did) or B. The person that assembled the kit put the wrong belt in the box. Lots of timing belts out there, all of them have teeth. You have square teeth, or you have round teeth. Those are the only two I know of anyway, and for how many hundreds or even thousands of applications? There are bound to be similar belts that will be just ever so slightly different lengths. Maybe I ended up with a belt for a SOHC 2.5 or something, don't know. I just know it caused me a lot of damn headache, but I now know what to expect, and what to look out for, next time around.

Where in WV are you Gary? I think you've said before but I can't remember. I know there is one place about a half hour west of me where the machinist has over 40 years in the business. He has done a few things here and there for the shop, and seems to be a knowledgeable and experienced machinist. Not sure how close the place is for you though.

Sure is!!! Spray it on the instrument cluster and voila no more CEL! Leaks can be barely noticeable. You might not be able to feel/hear them without help. Have someone cram a rag into the tail pipe (engine running) while you listen around the pipes for the leak. Often if the leak is large enough there will be carbon deposits around the source, but not always.

You just have to register the car somewhere south of Culpeper county then you don't need to do those stupid emissions tests. JK Unfortunately you go the most fun emissions code Subaru offers. It can be anything, from a bad sensor, to an exhaust leak, to a bad cat. We're in salt country, so exhaust pipes get nice and rusty around here. Rust eventually leads to leaks. (who knew?) Any leak before the front oxygen sensor (which is mounted to the front catalytic converter) can allow air to enter the exhaust stream and throw off sensor readings. The most common places for leaks are the flange before the cat, and the gaskets on the manifold pipes where they attach to the engine.

That's exactly what I was thinking. They just set it on a belt sander and let it rip. No way I'd put that on a car.

SUHWEET! Whos gonna be the first do do the 12 banger to swap into an old body Legacy? I'll take the 34"s too, re-Donk-ulous! Anybody else catch this?

Trans mount is like $65 if you check the online dealers. Ask about timing belt stuff? Any trouble with the head gaskets? Oil leaks are your worst HG related worry on the SOHC.

I haven't put the car back together yet, but figured I would update this anyway. I have new OE parts on the way, courtesy of The Import Experts. I don't think I can say enough about how well they've treated me with this whole deal. They took the faulty parts back no questions, gave me a full refund including the original shipping cost, that I had within just a few hours of them receiving the parts. They were extremely apologetic, very sincere, and dedicated to keeping me as a satisfied customer. They then put together a kit of OE idlers for me and threw in Priority Mail shipping for one hell of a good deal. I won't say exactly how good, but it's about a third what the same parts would cost at a dealer. I'm hoping to have them by this weekend so I can get it back together and running. I know where I'm going first for timing parts from now on, or for anything else they have that I might need.

Well?!?! Do you need new teeth or did this go nice and smooth for you?

The Subaru FSM specifically says not to place the weight of the vehicle on the wheel bearing until the axle nut has been tightened because the axle nut sets the pre-load on the bearing. I'd replace the bearing as well. If this is not a Subaru shop, take the car to a Subaru shop and have them replace the bearing. Bearing replacement must be done with the correct tools to support the knuckle in the press or the knuckle can deform and cause damage to the new bearing. It will also cause damage to every new bearing that is installed into the same knuckle.

So you have a loss of engine power, not electrical power, correct? I'm still skeptical of the main relay. I shall confer with the FSM to get other ideas.

I don't have a pic but there is another hole with the same bolt and thread size a few inches away from the sensor toward the drivers side of the block that is much more easily accessible. You should see it on top of the block.

Impact will help. Guessing you don't have air tools but an impact driver may get it loose. Just wail on it with a breaker bar, if the bolt breaks, get another bolt and mount the sensor somewhere else close-by on the block. It's not worth removing the intake and trying to drill/easy out a broken bolt.

Any other lights or electronics affected by this? Does anything happen if you load the system with all the lights on, blower fan, rear defogger, wipers running, etc.?

What do the valve covers look like?

I'm on the bad relay bandwagon. The main relay is right under the dash and I read about one of those calling it quits every now and then.

The manual transmission does not have a transfer clutch. I suspect that your SA was just confusing terms, or they are throwing around "transfer clutch" as a general term. I wouldn't worry about the terminology too much, but the tech recommending a fluid change as a fix for this scares me a bit. They should know that the viscous coupler is a sealed unit.

This may be true (i'm no metalurgist), but there is also the problem of galvanic corrosion of the aluminum when stainless and bare aluminum come in contact. This will rather quickly cause the bolts to seize and will deteriorate the threads in the aluminum. Makes it a royal pain to take apart later on. It may only be certain grades of stainless, I'm not sure, but I see it all the time.

Wow. Does that explain the smoke coming from under the hood too Mr. #1 car salesman? The skid plate attaches to the jack plate right? Anything on the front of the engine that might leak will end up running right to the middle of the skid plate. Without seeing it: cam seals, crank seal, wrist pin access cover O ring, oil pump seal, oil pump O ring, Oil filter, oil drain plug, head gasket.

Hmm. Have to keep that in mind. I've had the ends pull out of plug wires before. I just cram the wire back on and put some tape to hold it in place until I can get replacements. Has always worked fine for me. Never done that with a wasted spark ignition though.

You need enough strength in the shaft of the bolt to overcome any rust/corrosion on the threads when trying to remove it. If you use the cheapest hardware you can get, you end up with a broken bolt.

Sounds like your VC is toast. Even high mileage cars don't often have trouble with the VC, so I would suspect a manufacturing defect based on info you've given. I'd say it's worth a try to get in touch with SOA and see if they'll foot part or all of the bill for replacement.