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I've been getting an intermittent CEL for a few months with the P0325 code. No evidence of knocking that I can hear. In fact, it usually happens as I'm idling after a highway drive. The casing sometimes cracks on these things. After 10 years and 500k km, I will not be surprised if that is what I find. Commuter

I see you are in Ottawa. Do what I did and order it out of the States. Dealer wanted $202 (retail list Cdn) for the part. D'oh! With our $ where it is at these days, it doesn't make sense to pay that sort of difference. Ship it to a friend in the States and drive it across if possible. But even with the cost of brokerage, it will still be cheaper. I have to change mine out yet. I didn't have the right sockets and extensions with me last weekend. grr 12mm socket. 17 ft-lb torque. Angle pigtail at 45 degrees relative to engine axis (or firewall). Just note the position of the existing one. A magnet tool can help so you don't lose the bolt. Commuter

Crank seal as well. Do you mean a complete oil pump, or the O-ring seal? Check the backing plate screws as they sometimes work loose. I've also heard of cases of some Aluminum flash remaining in one of the oil galleys around the oil pump. Something else to check for. I think you are aware of the proper torque for the crank pulley (but thought I'd mention it). Commuter

What brand of plugs did you put in? Have you changed the O2 sensor in recent years? Commuter

This map (manifold / atmospheric pressure) sensor was the problem in my 97 OB auto. It's a little black cube mounted on the passenger strut tower (towards the front of the car). Has some wires and vacuum line. The sensor was failing which was triggering the EGR code. I also noticed that my shifts were a little soft, or delayed at times. Apparently this sensor has some input to the tranny's shift algorithms. Once it was changed, both problems went away. Warning... it's an expensive little sucker. It can be tested, but I'm not up on multimeters and such. If everything else is ok, I bet this is the culprit. I've heard of it happening to a few people. Commuter

Does it hesitate at all when you start off? Especially if you are easy on the gas? I've had that issue caused a couple of times by carbon build up in the engine. You usually need something industrial strength to clean things out of this is the case. Commuter

In looking over the SIA website and their historical timeline, they added an engine facility in 2002. It doesn't say if this is assembly only, or machining and assembly, or casting, machining and assembly (eg, start to finish). I didn't know that about Subaru of America. I don't really care where the engine was made, I just want a good used engine. It's tough to find decent ones now in N.A., given their track record and age. The fact that the engine spent 10 years in a car in Japan (vs somewhere else) is irrelevant to me. Hopefully there is some life yet in the engine I picked up. Fingers crossed. Commuter

What would a "Canadian" engine be? I don't know of any Subaru engine manufacturing facility in Canada. I'm not even sure if there is (or was) one in the States at that time. I know that they have been making the Legacy based vehicles in IN for quite some time, but I'm not sure what the source of the engine is. I'm willing to bet that when that facility first started, they were importing the engines. Again, not sure about today. Sorry, I don't know enough about the different models in different markets to comment from that side. I do believe you that most of the Japanese cars probably are 2.0 liter. 2.5 liter in Japan would be 'big'. Car manufacturing is a very interesting global market. When Honda opened up in OH, they shipped in engines from Japan. Then they added engine manufacturing facilites as the years rolled by. When they opened up their Canadian plant, the engines came up from OH (and some versions from Japan I believe). Today, Honda Canada is expanding again and now adding engine manufacturing capability. It's a common roadmap for many manufacturers. You pose an interesting question. I wish I could answer it. I suspect that the engine was optional or perhaps only on the hi-end / luxury versions of their cars. I'm reminded of the Camry and Accord a couple generations back. You could get the 4 cyl or V6. At that time, less than 10% of those vehicles were sold with the V6. Commuter

Note - Bolding by me. Sure, the wheels will balance, but when rolling along the pavement, the tire will be tracing a slight sine wave instead of a straight line. This causes side to side forces with every revolution of the wheel, which in turn is felt as vibration at the steering wheel. No wheel/tire expert here, but I would consider 1/8" wobble to be quite significant. Commuter

Do you have it connected down to the lapbelt? Or recoiled up into the roof? (I can't recall "exactly" what they look like on the newer models, but I believe it is like most manufacturers where it can be tucked up fairly cleanly into the roof.) There is a section on here for manuals, but I don't know if they have your year. Take a look. Commuter

Early on, it was like a bit of an "air rushing" noise during acceleration (from the driver seat). Didn't hear it with the car idling and the hood up. It got worse this past winter, and was definitely taking on a "bearing" sound. Still, it rarely happened and would disappear quickly after start up. I kept trying to listen to see if it was power steering, or alternator, but it never seemed that localized. I knew it could be a timing belt idler, but... sigh. Of course it doesn't do it at the dealer cause the car is warm and my dealer is an hour away, so it's hard to just "drop off the car". One of the downfalls of not having a neighborhood dealer. As I said, I have to take the blame on this one. Still sucks though. My timing belt was changed just last summer. I had half expected them to tell me I needed an idler or 2, but nothing. I should have stressed a more thorough checking I guess. The dealer tells me they rarely ever change them, but then most poeple probably do one timing belt in the life of the car. There are a few businesses in the Toronto area that import these engines. (I visited one 5 yrs ago after the first engine died.) Certainly one clue that it is JDM is that it does not have an EGR circuit on it, but mine does. The shop is having to drill and tap a hole for the EGR. More $. My dealer told me that they saw one engine several years ago that had variable camshaft timing on it, etc. Obviously not domestic as there was none of that stuff here at the time. Don't mean to be high jacking this thread. Just another owner with the same car and issues and decisions. Commuter

Sigh... Feel like I could be writing this post. The second engine died in my 97 OB. Timing belt idler bearing failed. I have to take most of the blame for this one myself. I was hearing something for a while, but hadn't gotten to it. Tough to demonstrate a noise when it only happens occasionally and disappears a minute or so after start up. I decided to go the Japanese import engine route myself. I would love to put in a CCR engine, but it's a 10 yr old car with 335k miles on it and felt I couldn't justify the expense. Still, I know the used engine route is very risky with these 2.5 liter Phase I's. I have no intention of replacing the head gaskets. If I was going to spend those extra dollars, I would have gone CCR route instead. My debate is the timing belt etc. If it needs it, I will change it. I just might do it regardless, as the shop says I will save labour compared to doing it later. The thing is, I might spend all this extra money, put the engine in and then find out that something else is wrong. Argh... decisions... Cars... some days you just hate them. Commuter

How many miles (km) on the engine? Last time the timing belt was changed? I agree that an accessory (ps, alt) is the first suspect, but heed OB99W comments about a bearing in the timing belt circuit. I just blew up the (2nd) engine in my 97 OB (~175k miles on it) due to an idler bearing failure. Not fun... Commuter

Review the thread links I posted in the following thread... http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=69373&highlight=outback One of these days, I'm going to create a sticky... Commuter

Shims. And as to the labor, it would be additional. Working on the timing belt and working on the valve shims is 2 different things. I've heard it can be done in the car, but not easily. The shim is actually between the 'bucket' and the camshaft in Subaru's set up. There was a lengthy thread on this a few years ago. In general, if you don't have noise, they don't bother. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=10217&highlight=valve+clearance Commuter

jamal has it right. jcleeton is also right on Pressure = Force per unit area. The force (weight of car on the wheel) is for all intensive purposes a constant. (I'm not including dynamic forces here.) Tire pressure also is essentially a constant. (I know, it varies depending upon temperature, due diligence, etc.) Therefore, the area of the contact patch is also a 'constant'. Say there is 750 lbs load on the wheel. Tire pressure is 30 psi. Therefore, the area is 25 square inches. This is necessary for the balance of forces (ground supporting the car thru the contact patch of the tire). Tire profile does not change the total area, but will change the shape of the area (contact patch). Commuter

It was about $1400 total Cdn at the dealer, $600 labour (eg 6 hrs), $800 parts. I didn't skimp. All the (suspect) parts were changed. When I inquired about just parts from one online dealer, they were telling me that there were different parts... depending on some clearances that have to be measured... not sure about this. First I'd heard of it. You could probably find a next-to-new one on a junk yard vehicle, as these tend to go towards the end of the life of the vehicle. It's just the tail piece on the transmission, but what is truly involved in changing one out, I don't really know. Commuter

Nope. I'm beyond tackling anything like that myself. Not sure that I ever would have. Don't have the tools, etc. Commuter

Over 330k miles on my tranny. I had to change the clutch pack a couple years ago (torque bind, the one weak spot), but other than that, just fluid changes. Commuter

Try Canadian Tire Corp. I got aftermarket ones for my 97 OB that were half the price of OEM's from the dealership. The one end uses a simple pin hinge instead of a ball joint, but they are working just fine. No idea if they would have for your year/model. Commuter

I believe the revised Legacy in 2005 was the first to get it. I don't know about the Impreza platform vehicles. I had a courtesy car from the dealer last year (2006 Forester as I recall) that had it. I drove about an hour on the highway and wasn't even aware of it. It felt like an ordinary throttle. I was stopped on my street, ready to turn left into my driveway when I hit the throttle quickly to about half way down in order to make my turn before an oncoming vehicle. Nothing happened for a few tenths of a second (felt a lot longer). Then it went. That fraction of a second closed up the gap between me and the oncoming vehicle obviously. I was in no danger, but it scared me a bit. I then remembered that these cars now have the electronic throttle. During my remaining drive that day, I "played" with the throttle a bit. If you get on - off - on - off quickly in rapid succession, the system gets totally confused. By the second cycle, nothing was happening as I punched the gas, then the engine was reving as I was letting off the pedal. The poor thing didn't know what to do. This sort of throttle play is not something one would be doing in real world driving, but still, the algorithms have to be able to handle whatever is thrown at them. I read a review of the Honda Civic Si where people were also complaining about its electronic throttle. I don't believe I have driven any other cars so equipped. It's new to the automotive world. It's been in airplanes for a long time already (decades?). They have some bugs to work out. I can see that the system allows the manufacturer certain flexibility and safety aspects, but I can't imagine that it is saving them any cost or weight. Seems like a marginal endeavour, but I highly suspect it will become the norm. By safety aspects, I mean reducing shock loads into the drivetrain, that sort of thing. Driver safety is another whole matter! Commuter

I guess you didn't turn up any of my posts. I'd lay 10 to 1 odds that you have a carbon issue with the engine. I've faced this 3 times in total now with my 97 OBW (540,000 km now). It's not common, but I have heard of a few others having the same problem. A Motorvac treatment fixed me up the first time. The second time, the problem was being aggrevated by a weak O2 sensor. The last time (this past winter) it was fairly mild (I know the symptons well now) and a can of Seafoam in the gas cured it about 90%. (I had also tried Marvel Mystery Oil, but it did next to nothing.) Note that most over the counter cleaners will not fix things up as the problem is usually too severe. You need something more industrial in nature. What I have heard is that the fuel maps are on the rich side in these engines, leading to the issue with a few of us. Commuter

2 opposite opinions. What I have noticed is that if I shove the nozzle 100% in, it will sometimes click off, especially if you have a fast pump (more flow). My theory is that the tip of the nozzle is right up against the pipe (lower side it seems) when pushed all the way in. The gas stream is 'deflected' a bit, and this creates a bit of back pressure. With a high flow and/or sensitive pump, it will click off. On the other hand, if I pull the nozzle back out just a bit (eg half an inch or so), the tip is no longer pressed hard against the filler pipe (again, in my car, it seems that the nozzle is now resting against the upper side of the pipe, but gravity is pulling the gas stream down anyway, so there really isn't any (slight) restriction to the flow) and the pump does not click off. What I'm saying is that I think it is a geometry issue. (You have to try to picture a cross sectional view of the nozzle in your fillter pipe.) Whether you need to push a nozzle in more or less will depend on the degree of bend in the nozzle and its length (but they all seem pretty much the same to me) and the shape of your filler pipe. The latter will obviously not be the same on all cars. As was also mentioned, it's possible that you have a restriction in the pipe. I really can't imagine vapors creating enough back pressure to cause the pump to click off. Just my observations. You might try instructing the attendant to push the nozzle all the way in, then pull it back 1". See what happens. Commuter

No problem. My response was for Pooparu. I'm just trying to point out that the single all-in-one units (at least the P123) do not have a clock. No worries. Commuter

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