bstone

Weird problem. Came back to my car today after being away for 2 weeks. It's very snowy and rainy outside. Almost immediately I noticed I had little power and the CEL was flashing. Engine died once or twice but came back up. Read the codes and it has misfire on all 4 cylinders. I drove around a bit, parked, cleared the codes and then it drove just fine. No codes, no low power. This happened about a month ago when it was raining, but was only cylinders 1 and 3. I got new plugs (NGK Laser Platinum) but won't change them until the weather cooperates. Right now it's the middle of winter. Lots of rain and snow knee deep. Any ideas of what else I should do? The plugs are less than a year old, but they were in my old engine when it fatally overheated. The plugs and coil are also from the old engine.

My waterpump failed on the interstate and I lost my engine. Don't knock the waterpump replacement.

I replaced all 4 springs and struts over the summer. There is no complete replacement so you'll need a spring compressor. THIS IS DANGEROUS. If you haven't done this before then PLEASE get a professional. People have been killed compressing springs and putting in struts. KYB makes the best struts. Your springs are probably spent and need replacing as well. Do it all and your car (and stomach) will thank you.

+1 for never using jiffy lube. If you continue to use them you'll need a new transmission in a jiffy.

Check the fluid level and make sure you added enough. Sometimes more drains out than you put in, which will make for delayed and hard shifting.

The transmission holds about 10 qt of fluid. Draining it only gets about 4 quarts out because a lot of the fluid settles in the torque converter and other parts. I suggest you drain and fill it, drive it for a day, drain and fill it again and drive it and then drain and fill again. Three times will get out a majority of the bad fluid and probably save your transmission.

http://car-part.com/ I got my last transmission from a yard listed in the above site. I think it's the best source for used parts. I also have a 97 OBW AT so I know how you feel. My trans burned out at 230k miles. I probably could have opened it to fix it but I was still pretty new to cars then. I found a trans for $300 cause it had a minor cosmetic defect. It came with a parts (not labor) warranty and I installed it. Ended up having to repalce the Duty C Solenoid because that was bad, but now it works like a champ. However, I highly suggest you do 3 fluid drains and refills. It might just save you a lot of money.

I've seen that before. It's usually a technical glitch.

Yeah but you need to drop the pan in order to clean the magnet. I'd say drop it this time to clean the magnet but not during future drains and refills.

John, what about the magnet in the pan? It might be a good idea to take it out and clean it off. What do you think?

What GD says is dead on. Don't flush it. For the love of G-d don't flush it. Just drain it and refill. Will have to do a few drain and refills to get all the fluid changed. GD, my 4EAT with 230k miles on it finally died over the summer. I replaced it with a "low mileage" 90k mile one. Had to replace the Duty C in it while it was in the car. Only took 10 hours.

Guess we'll agree to disagree about dropping the pan, but we agree on draining as much fluid as possible. I've dropped many pans and never had a problem with getting the new gasket on.

Find a shop that either specialized in Subaru or Japanese cars and ask to talk to their subaru guy.

Black fluid is really, really bad. You should start looking around for another transmission. In the meantime you can try the following: drop the trans pan, drain as much fluid as you can (probably 4-5 quarts), clean off the magnet in the pan, replace the pan gasket and put the pan back on and add in fresh fluid. Maybe substitute 1qt of fluid for something like Trans-X or Lucas Tran Oil stop slip.

Is the AT Oil Temp light flashing when you turn on the car? Have you tried to pull the TCU codes? Did you check the trans fluid color and level?

The only settlement I would come to with these folks is completely refunding the labor for their screw up and the cost of the other shops to repair. Tell them you're willing to forgo the parts.

Just be careful to not picket on the garage's property. We had a woman do that this summer. We asked her to leave 10 times and she didn't, so we called the police. They ticked her for trespassing.

Which is why Small Claims Court is ideal.

Having been the customer service liaison for a garage and regularly dealing with the BBB I can say that this avenue is a waste of time. The lawyer, however, is not. The worst that the BBB can do is give the garage a lower rating, but that's all. A lawyer can send a threatening letter and then initiate a lawsuit, but then you have to pay the lawyer. The solution? Small Claims Court. It's meant for this sort of thing (claims under $10,000, usually). They usually have mediation available in Small Claims Court but it's optional and voluntary. We have given money back to customers who had both good and bad claims and always avoided lawyers and small claims court in favor of settling. In your case you'll need a written estimate from a dealer or Subaru specialized shop saying the problems, cause and estimate for repairs. Bring this to the owner/manager of the garage that did the botched repairs and see what they say. If that doesn't work then initiate a small claim lawsuit. Please keep us updated.

There is a garage on the north side of Chicago open 24/7. http://dagostinoautoservice.com/ You can rent a bay there and even pay one of the mechanics to help. I worked at this garage (but in school during the year). It's not too far from SW Wisconsin and you can do the job in one night. I started at 11pm and finished at 6am when replacing my Duty C Solenoid.

Yeah use the coolant conditioner. That might just fix it.

After botching the replacement of my neutral safety switch I also cannot shift out of park without using the manual release. Take off the plastic plate that is around the shifter. Above P there is a small circular hole. I put a 1/4" socket extension in it and now I can shift. At some point I got to climb under the car and fix the NSS issue.

All of those can be causing your problems. Fix them.

Oof. Sorry buddy. That sucks. Do you have AAA? They will tow your car up to 100 miles. You can get it home and then replace the motor once the spring comes along.

I swear I had a dream about this last night. People were asking me about CVTs and I said how I thought the technology wasn't there yet.