Fairtax4me

There a are a half dozen or so little bushings in the shift linkage that can wear and become loose and possibly rattle. Check the bolt that attaches the shift lever to the linkage. That one rattles a bit every now and then on mine. I put some thick grease in the spacer and all over the bolt and it quit for a while. If that doesn't help yours the other bushings might be worn out and need replacement.

Clock spring. Pretty common. Shouldn't be too hard to fix.

O-ring is fully seated. It stayed in place nicely all on it's own. I had to use an impact driver to get the back plate screws loose on the original pump. There were some minor markings on the housing side of the pump and a very small groove where the edge of the inner rotor was rubbing against the housing, but I don't think it was anything worth worrying over right away, and I doubt it was making any noticeable noise. Wouldn't that be nice. If I thought that were the problem I would test them on my sedan. I don't think it's worth the time to find out though. :-\ The problem with this main bearing theory is that I've never heard of a main making this kind of noise. I'm used to hearing knocking/rattling noises from a bad main. Suppose this is a clogged/partially clogged pickup tube? Might that starve the pump enough to create cavitation or rippling/ruffling of the oil, yet still allow the oil pressure light to stay off? It doesn't act any different than my sedan when started. The light goes out in less than a second after starting, when warm it is out before I even let go of the key. Everything sounds fine as far as oil pressure is concerned. Nothing knocking, rattling, ticking. Maybe I should dig up my oil pressure gauge and see what it says.

No it's a groan/whirr at idle, but above ~1500 rpm it turns into major cat fight screaming whine. No knocking... yet.

I did that with everything on the front end. Came up empty handed. Anyway. Everything on the front end has been swapped with other/original parts and it's still screaming. It's something internal. Main bearing perhaps, I don't know. Right now I'm just

The EJ22 was single port from 96 to 99 (?). I wonder if the single port heads are the interference design? 97 and after the 2.2 is definitely interference, but I haven't tried to find out exactly what the difference is between 96 an 97.

Brand new Subaru thermostat. I can't imagine that's the problem, but I'll try swapping it with the old one. :-\

Just do the whole shebang and replace all of the idlers and the front oil seals while you're in there. There are a few vendors on Ebay that offer complete kits, belt, idlers, WP for around ~$140. I think one has all seals included with the set as well, but I've heard mixed reviews on the after market seals.

Haven't done much with it, but I did grab a used oil pump today. I figure for $7.00, it's worth a try. Just tired of having to re-compress that tensioner.

The sensor you want to investigate has 2 wires. Have you checked for vacuum leaks? Anything with a couple few years of age on it is going to have some rock hard vacuum hoses that can crack or split at the ends. With EGR there are quite a few more than without, so chances of developing a leak are more than double. Be sure to check the hoses for the PCV system, as well as the ones that attach to the bottom of the intake. Those can cause some issues if they get loose. You can clean the IAC fairly easily and it may help. Subaru's IAC system constantly varies airflow though the valve even when off idle. SLOWLY pour half a can of Seafoam down the IAC tube while running. You will have to hold the throttle open slightly to keep the engine from stalling. I find a flat blade screwdriver jammed in the throttle lever works great to keep engine speed up around 1500 - 2000 rpm while keeping your hands free to hold the can. Have you ever had to change the knock sensor on the car?

Goin' with the latter here... Chances are you just need a belt. Pics are too small to tell exactly what has broken away from the intake tube. Probably one of the baffle chambers as they seem to break from time to time. Not really important, but since it is behind the air filter you want to get that hole sealed up to avoid sucking dirt into your engine.

Check to see if the cams actually change position after cranking. Or have a friend crank the engine while you watch for them to spin. If some of the teeth on the belt stripped off you may get compression in two cylinders, but not in the other two. The belt will still be in tact and under tension but will not turn when the crank turns. Have you checked all fuses? Checked for 12V at the coil? The yellow wire at the coil is power. That comes from fuse 16 of the interior fuse panel. edit: No 12V at igniter, it gets power direct from the ECU.

There are vents on both the transmission and rear diff. Auto trans has separate vents for trans and front diff. You can put check valves on the vent hoses to help keep water out. It also helps to lengthen the vent hoses, move the end up high to an area where you don't expect water to be. Or drill holes in the floor and run the ends of the hoses inside the car then seal around them to keep water from rushing in while you're in the drink. Water can get in through any outer seal though, so check all oils after every under-water adventure.

Check timing belt? If it sounds similar to this when cranking you have no compression due to broken belt. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIgMFX8DEs8 It could also jump a few teeth and still have some compression but not enough for proper fire. You can check the timing at TDC by looking at the alignment of the arrows on the cam sprockets.

I'd say it lived a good life. Prime for a rebuild if someone was interested. Ej22's are cheap and plentiful though. I say let it go out in a blaze of glory!

I just can't tell. The sound seems to be centered around the area of the water pump, but it doesn't sound like it's coming from the pump bearings. I can hear a very loud whine from the thermostat area of the pump, but not so much up top. It doesn't sound like it's coming from the oil pump either though. Top, bottom, front, the sound is there, but it seems muffled. I tend to think that if it were the rotors of the pump, it would be most prominent directly on the housing of the pump. On the tensioner bearing is where it's the loudest. It's loud in the bracket, and the tip of the tensioner, then fades out as you move away from the bearing. On the bolts for the bracket there's hardly anything. I'm just at a loss here. Think I'm gonna try swapping the old water pump back on first and see if that changes it. Was too busy with other stuff today to mess with it any.

No noise before the work was done. The old tensioner bearing is on now and the noise is the same. The tensioner itself is a brand new Subaru part. All bolts thread in and out smoothly, nothing crossed, nothing stripped. I can understand how harmonics might cause that part of the bracket to vibrate. The end of the bolt sticks out about 3 inches from the block, so any resonant frequency could be amplified at that area by the lack of surrounding mass.

I might have messed this one up good. This timing belt/engine reseal job is just one problem after the next. <--- I'm almost ready to do that for real Got it back together and running late last night, with a noise like a bad idler bearing. I removed the belts, still there. Removed timing covers, then started poking around with the stethoscope. Found it most prominent at the mounting bolt for the timing belt tensioner idler. You can literally feel it through the bolt if you put your finger on it. Idler is brand new I say, must be defective, will call the place I bought the kit from in the morning. Went to sleep. Today (rested), decide I better confirm before I go blaming parts. Swapped in the old tensioner idler. No change. So now I have to beleive it is the oil pump, or the water pump. Another round of stethoscoping, just leaves me more confused. Placed directly on the housing of the water pump, the noise is minimal (comparatively speaking). Directly on the housing of the oil pump, it is a bit more noticeable, but still not even half as loud as placing the scope on the mounting bolt for the tension idler. So this leaves me thinking it must be the oil pump. Somewhere along the line, I must have done something wrong. I did not completely disassemble the pump, maybe I should have. I did check the backing plate screws, and they were all tight. I did clean the outside surfaces so I would get a good seal (with anaerobic gasket maker). I installed a new crankshaft seal and O ring. Throughly cleaned the block surface before installing. The internals of the pump were never dry though. I changed the oil filter while I had the engine out, and as usual I filled the filter with fresh oil before installing. When I was ready to fire it up for the first time, I unplugged the igniter module and cranked the engine twice, for about 15 seconds each time, so the pump would not be running dry. So I guess my next move is to remove, disassemble, and inspect the pump for damage. Any thoughts? Ideas? Oh, and to top today off, the water pump gasket blew out on my sedan. I'm getting good at tearing down the front end of these engines. :cool:

:-\ Time for a new thread, but the tensioner bearing is not at fault for the noise. This noise just happens to be the most prominent at the mounting bolt for the tensioner bearing. P/S pump is leaking. Not entirely sure where.

It comes on with the defrost settings. That's about the only thing I know of that would literally "click" and instantly make a difference in engine power. Unless your click isn't a click, but a knock instead. Maybe check your knock sensor for cracks.

Gotta love those one piece Radio/HVAC controls. If your climate control panel has the 3 knobs you can get a kit: http://www.amazon.com/Metra-TurboKits-99-8901-Stereo-Installation/dp/B000LU9QD6

AC on? When was the last time it had a tune-up?

Already been covered. The Subaru Bighorn: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showpost.php?p=971786&postcount=763 A few other Subaru/Isuzu co-creations in there too.

Brand new tension idler bearing is screaming like a dieing cat. Gotta call The Import Experts in the morning and tell them they better send me another one. Other than that the engine runs beautifully, and no more leaks!!! Well, except for the power steering, but that's for another project.

Dealer had it in stock. $103. Not as bad as I thought it would be. And it's already compressed! PO stripped the threads out of the block for the upper starter bolt. I spent half the morning looking for a longer bolt that would reach the threads that were still good. Apparently nobody even makes an M10x1.25x140mm bolt. Three different suppliers in this area, and none of them could even order one that length. Nothing longer than 125mm. So I have to improvise, drill out the block, and use a 3/8 x 6" bolt with a nut on the end. Glad I was taking the engine out, rather than doing a starter change in a parking lot, when I found this out.